Lost the Start Menu

[Dave S]

I just replaced my old laptop with a new desktop and now somehow managed to lose the Start button and menu bar at the bottom of the screen. I've been accustomed to having it on either the right or left side and attempted to move it to the right.

I've tried to hit Ctrl+Esc as well as the start button and nothing happens. Even tried to start in safe mode to see if it was set to hide the startup bar and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The startup bar was at the bottom of the screen in safe mode.

I have Windows 7.

Any ideas?

[MN Mike]

Should be a couple different things you can try, when you launched in Safe Mode, there should have been another option in there ( instead of Safe Mode ) it should have been " last known good configuration " you can try that OR I know in Windows XP you could launch the system restore utility from a command prompt but I am unsure if it will work in Windows 7 too but it's worth a shot.

If the previous option above doesn't work, try this, when Windows is up and running, do the ctrl alt del keystroke and start your task manager. Make sure you're on the Applications tab and there should be a button in the lower right corner about NEW TASK, copy and past this in that bar that comes up and click OK and see if you get your restore utility up there:

C:\windows\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

Hope that works for 7, if not I'm sure it's in there somewhere, we will just have to find out exactly where it's at.

Mike

[MN Mike]

OOPs, just did a quick google search and I might have made it more complicated than it needs to be. Instead of putting that all that c:\ stuff in there, simply type: rstrui.exe in that box when you click on the NEW TASK button.

Hopefully that will work and you can go back a day or 2 and get your taskbar back / start button back.

Mike

[LMITOUT]

When you hit the "windows" key on your keyboard, nothing appears? Can you see a thin line on the top, bottom, left, or right hand side of the screen? I'm guessing the start bar was the factory green color so that might be a clue (change your wallpaper/background to something other than green so it shows up). The start bar can be resized so maybe it was shrunk? Thats why I asked if you could see a thin line on any of the edges of your monitor. Also run your mouse to all four edges of the screen and it might flash a tad to show you that the bar is there.

[Dave S]

the only thing that happens when I hit the start button is the red x in the upper right corner of an active window becomes transparent. No lines anywhere on the screen that I can see.

I attempted to move it to the right side of the screen and it up and disappeared. It's a 23" monitor if that makes any difference. It seems the extreme sides of the window is actually off the screen. Still digging to see if I can't resize the view to bring it back to where I can see it.

[Dave S]

I just did a system restore back to this afternoon. It's back now.

Thanks for the help guys.

[BobT]

If this happens again, maybe changing your screen resolution so your window size is smaller than your monitor may expose the task bar if it has been shrunk to the edge of your window. Click and resize the taskbar and then resize your screen resolution to normal.

[pureinsanity]

Not related to the topic really but nice to know. Sometimes if I end a task the windows start bar goes away. Easiest way to get it to come back if it doesn't automatically is. ctrl + alt + delete > File > New Task > Type in "explorer.exe"

[Dave S]

Tried that at first but nothing showed up after I followed that path. It opened up a new explorer window, but no Start button or the Start up bar.