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All of a sudden my taskbar is gone. I can't find it, so I have no Start button to click on, no quick launch start programs from - I can't even see what time it is! How do I get it back? There are a couple of different ways that the task bar can disappear, or appear to disappear. Naturally the solutions are different, as are the workarounds. Press CTRL+ESC. If your taskbar magically reappears, then it's probably simply been resized too small, repositioned somewhere you didn't expect it, or perhaps it's beneath another application that's running full-screen on your computer. The workaround? Press CTRL+ESC to access the taskbar. To fix it, this previous article, "My TaskBar is too small to be useful, what can I do?" includes a short video that shows the settings you can change to make it behave the way you want, and/or the approach to making it "big enough" once again. If CTRL+ESC didn't make it come back, then the program that displays the task bar most likely isn't running. That program is often called the "Windows Shell", but it's really "explorer.exe". It's the program that not only displays the Taskbar, but also responds to the CTRL+ESC sequence. The workaround: press CTRL+ALT+DEL to fire up the task manager. Now on the File menu, select New Task (Run...). Type in "explorer" and press OK. That should restart explorer and re-display your taskbar. In some cases that may not work, so we fall into the various approaches on fixing it. If you don't have the Windows Shell running, you can still run programs as I described above: use Task Manager's File, New Task (Run...) to run the programs we need. I often like to run a command prompt, "cmd", as a quicker way to type in and run other programs from there. My first recommendation is to run an up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware scan. Both viruses and spyware are known to occasionally interfere with the Windows Shell. Then, I would run the system file checker, as outlined in this article: What is the System File Checker, and how do I run it?. That will check for missing or damaged files in Windows, and repair or replace those that it can. Finally, you may be faced with re-installing Windows. You can perform what's called a "repair install" that will preserve your data. This article: "How should I reinstall Windows?" discusses that. Now, naturally, there may be specific cases where a specific cause could result in a specific, simple, solution. In fact I'm sure that readers will comment with various such approaches. (Along the lines of "If you have this virus all you need do it twiddle that setting".) Those approaches may, or may not, resolve the entire problem. But if they make sense to you, then by all means try them out. Microsoft also has a Knowledgebase article on the issue that includes even more steps to try: Taskbar Is Missing When You Log On to Windows. Related:
• Recent Comments
I have a big problem. When I boot my PC, no taskbar appears. When I press Ctrl+Alt+Del and run a new task "explorer", the desktop and all the icons appear for 3-5 seconds and then the explorer process ends and everything disappears. This happens every time I run explorer.exe Without it, I can't do many things... I also noticed a svchost error message appearing sometimes. I have checked my PC with NOD antivirus. A few viruses/trojans were discovered and succesfuly deleted. I have also used SpyBot Search and Destroy to remove spyware. But this hasn't helped at all :( I have read that updating my WinXP is also recommended, but I have no idea how to update without the explorer.exe process running. I have WinXP Pro with SP2 installed. I want to avoid reinstalling it as it takes a lot of work and I do not have the install CD. What should I do? Please, help me Posted by: Viking at May 23, 2008 01:00 PMIMPORTANT: If you encounter this problem, and it still shows after a restart you may have to End Task the explorer.exe, then New Task (Run) Explorer. It seem that sometimes the file is running, but errors. I noticed that some people mentioned trying it, but they did not make sure the old process was stopped before trying to start it again. If you don't end the old process, a new one will not start, or will start with the same error. Posted by: James at May 31, 2008 07:23 PMThank you very much! My kids did something this morning and my task bar disappeared. Your tips worked! Posted by: Linda at June 6, 2008 06:39 AMI did the ctrl+alt+del went to file and there was no New Task in the file, so what do I do now? Posted by: Wanda at June 14, 2008 07:48 AMIf you have lost your taskbar, shut down your computer and restart. There is a good chance it will come back. Posted by: Omar at June 21, 2008 05:06 PMI keep getting a DEP message why does this keep popping up? Every time i click close messag it eats my taskbar and desktop.But then the taskbar comes back. Why does this keep happening. Posted by: zack at June 23, 2008 07:17 PMi had missing taskbar too. I tried everything from all over the web. Problem was: i have objectdock, it has a checkmark fr show taskbar. I don't know how mine got checked, iv'e had ob for years. Posted by: steve at June 25, 2008 07:27 AMI haven't read where anyone has tried system restore on the missing task bar. I can't say that this will work, but it's worth a try. Make sure you oare in safe mode. Otherwise, not all things may be restored. Posted by: Omar at June 27, 2008 08:12 PMTo the person that has lost their printer icon. Have you tried, start, programs, my compouter, printers and fax, view my printer. When the printer icon appears, drag it to the desktop. Posted by: Omar at June 27, 2008 08:15 PMTHANK YOU!!!!!!! Post a comment on "My Taskbar is missing and I have no Start button - what do I do?":
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