If you’re like me, you do not rely on the Favorites Bar in Internet Explorer for navigating to your bookmarked pages. If it is left enabled, you end up dedicating an entire row of your toolbar for the Favorites and Add to Favorites buttons. Follow these steps to hide the Favorites Bar and return the Favorites and Add to Favorites to their IE7 positions.
By default, IE8 has the Favorites Bar enabled:
To hide the Favorites Bar:
1. Right-click on an empty space in the IE toolbar.
2. When the context menu appears, select Favorites Bar to remove the checkmark.
The Favorites Bar will be hidden and the Favorites and Add to Favorites buttons will be moved to the same position they occupied in IE7: