The task bar on my windows XP machine has become hidden, how do I get it back?

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Summary: The task bar can appear hidden if it's configured to auto-hide, or if the size has been configured to be too small.

The taskbar is very configurable as I discussed in a previous article: My TaskBar is too small to be useful, what can I do?, and the accompanying video out at Lockergnome. You might want to review that to see if perhaps it got configured to auto-hide or have zero size.

CTRL+ESC will always bring up the start menu. On that you might also check Settings, Taskbar and Start Menu, and make sure that Auto-hide is turned off and the taskbar is unlocked.

Then if the size did in fact get set to zero height then you may see a small, thin bar where your task bar used to be. You should be able to click, hold, and drag that up to make it bigger.

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Related:

Ask Leo! - Why don't running programs show in my taskbar?
Ask Leo! - My TaskBar is too small to be useful, what can I do?

Article 236 | Posted June 2, 2004

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Recent Comments

My task bar doesn't show the windows I have open, what should I do??

Posted by: Hiroko at October 14, 2007 09:24 PM

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You want this article:
http://ask-leo.com/why_dont_running_programs_show_in_my_taskbar.html

Leo

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Posted by: Leo A. Notenboom at October 15, 2007 09:14 PM

TASK BAR MISSING FIXED

i tried this and got lucky

1. go to START BAR
2. right click and go to PROPERTIES
3. click the CLASSIC START MENU--- click apply
you have classic start menu now... the start bar shoul be ok now.

then do steps 1 and 2 but this time select START MENU and apply to revert back to your xp start bar menu.

hope this helps.

payaso25us

Posted by: jon at November 24, 2007 11:37 AM

Task bar, start bar all gone. ctrl+esc do not work. task bar/start menu prgm in cntrl panel will not run when clicked on. have gone around edges of desktop with curcor trying to find-not there. Something has happened=even repaired with XP install disk!

Posted by: Steve at January 27, 2008 08:05 AM

HOW DO i GET THE BACK BAR (GREEN ARROW) BACK ON THE TASKBAR?

Posted by: pATRICK FAHERTY at January 30, 2008 05:04 PM

right click taskbar, click show address bar, toolbar will pop backup. then select address again and it will turn it off. Something int the svchost file changed it around and you were no longer ablew to see it....

Posted by: Jason at March 27, 2008 11:43 AM

Read [Steve at January 27, 2008 08:05 AM] who lost his start and task bars and systray. So did I - nothing nowhere nohow - after using a registry cleaning utility on this WinXPsp2 PC. It has nVidia 8500 GT dual display card. Not a problem with duality of display. Cure: Rt-click wallpaper to open "nView Properties"; go to "Tools" tab select "Move (taskbar & icons) to 'Display..' and tell it to go to the already selected display and "Apply". My experience with 3 current nVidia cards/software is that they regularly FORGET configuration settings and have to be reminded. You may need to select the wrong, then the original right parameter to activate the [Apply] button so you can remind it. --G

Posted by: Grumpah at June 11, 2008 12:27 AM

Perhaps the big picture about a missing task bar etc., is that it may not be the operating system at fault: If you have a dual port graphics card - which allows you to send the task bar etc. to either display - it can easily be the video driver controls which are temporarily broken and are sending the items nowhere rather than somewhere. Rebuilding Win XP or just rebooting your system has never fixed my similar problems, you need to either "tell" your video card directly where to send the missing components, or completely remove all your dual-port software and reinstall it. --G

Posted by: Grumpah at June 11, 2008 01:04 AM

I HAVE NO TASK BAR OR...START FEATURES ALL IS MISSING ???? AOL DID IT AGAIN,,OPPSSS,,

Posted by: B4MARRS at September 10, 2008 08:41 PM

hi, i have the problem of my start bar not showing. ive pressed the windows button to see if it pops up, but doesnt, tried the CTRL+ESC, but still nothing. and when i go to control panel, i try to click on taskbar and start menu, but it does not open. please help, i have ran out of ideas.

Posted by: Zyggy at September 15, 2008 02:36 AM

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