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.
when i right click at any where on my internet screen i dont get a menu with the option to tick menu bar please help i dont even have the option to open my favourites?
Posted by: Susan at April 29, 2011 1:45 PMthis didn't work. i'm really getting mad please just tell me what to do.
Posted by: jordyn at August 21, 2011 1:08 PMMy laptop has wireless button and when I turn it on it doesn't come any option on toolbar what should I do?
Posted by: amiri at November 28, 2011 5:15 PMThanks worked great, not after hitting f11 as that went to the 'even more full screen' but after rt. clicking on favorites then making certain menu bar was clicked returned it auto..
Posted by: jack at February 19, 2012 3:48 PMThanks
Lee
Yes this got my tool bar, and menu bar both back up for me.
Posted by: Gloria at April 5, 2012 5:01 PMI looked all in my books I have on using a PC, and found nothing that was of any use for me.
Thanks for this information, and I do appreciate you posting this for us who need it. :)