Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
The menu bar and many of the toolbars in Internet Explorer are very easy to hide, often by accident. I'll show you a couple of ways to get them back.
I have lost my internet toolbar which allows me to go to my tools, file, internet options, etc. What do I do about this?
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From your description, I'm going to assume you mean that all this is happening within Internet Explorer.
There turn out to be a couple of things that make it easy to hide things, and as a result make things difficult to find.
I'll examine those, and show you how to get your toolbar, menu or whatever it is that you're missing, back.
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The Big Surprise: F11
A lot of people get bit by this one. Here's Internet Explorer normally (showing the current contents of http://msn.com):
And here it is after pressing F11 - accidentally or otherwise:
F11 instructs Internet Explorer to a) go full-screen, and b) hide all the menu bars, tool bars and window frames.
I believe that pressing the ALT key should make the menu visible again for one-time use, but in reality if you find yourself in this situation unexpectedly, just press F11 again - it should return to normal. (Though if it goes even "more" full screen, then we started with a different problem.)
The Internet Explorer Menu Bar
The by now familiar File, Edit, etc.. menu bar may default to being hidden in IE, as you can see from the "before" image above, but it's easy to get back.
Right click in an empty area next to the tabs, or on the Favorites button:
The popup menu actually has options for several different toolbars that you might want to display, or not. In this case, simply make sure that Menu Bar is checked, and the familiar menu bar should return:
That same right click popup menu that allowed us to turn the menu bar back on is worth exploring - you may find toolbars you'd long forgotten, or you might be able to quickly hide a toolbar that you're tired of.
Article C4626 - November 25, 2010 « »
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
October 13, 2012 11:44 PM
F11 works in Firefox and Chrome and also very likely in most other browsers.
November 8, 2012 9:40 AM
I had a tech work on the computer for me, and he solved the problem!!!
December 11, 2012 4:00 AM
how do i get my internet address bar back
February 13, 2013 2:32 PM
I tried it all. F 11 just made the screen jump around a bit, right click on favorites onny brought uphowing navigation bar size of icons, default office home mobile and customize (the icons offered by msn). Ineed to get to the tool click on to get to internet options to fix a problem. Can I just download a more appropriate task bar that has what I need.
April 12, 2013 2:08 PM
You just saved the day for me...F11 was the culprit!