Oops.. Start Menu disappeared..

This is a common problem. one day you turn on your computer and the Start Menu and Taskbar are gone. It can also happen in the middle of a session for no explainable reason. At least half the time it's not due to a virus, but because you accidentally pushed the F11 key, configured the Taskbar to autohide or Explorer crashed...

Instructions

1. Auto-hide checked off in Vista's Taskbar configuration window.

**Auto-hide** If you right click on empty part of your Taskbar -> Choose "Properties" -> Check off the Auto-hide check-box, your Taskbar will disappear unless you move your mouse to the bottom edge of the screen. on rare occasions people who have knowingly configured their Taskbar this way will accidentally move it to the right, left or top of the screen. In this case moving down to the bottom of the screen no longer works. Try the right left or top edges of your screen instead. If you find it there, just drag the Taskbar back to the bottom. This is easier said then done...

2. Accidnetly pushing the F11 key can lead to an unfamiliar looking full screen version of Internet Explorer or Firefox.

**Accidentally Pushing the F11 Key** This can cause a hair raising experience. It occurs when you are surfing the Internet with Internet Explorer or Firefox. Suddenly your Internet Window seems to have taken up the whole screen, and you have no idea how to restore your controls you had before like your Taskbar, Start Button and browser menus. Well, you accidentally hit the F11 key. Hit it again and things go back to normal.

3. Restarting explorer.exe from the File New Task (Run...) menu choice of Task Manager.

**Explorer Crashed** Explorer is not just the program that let's you see your files in trees and folders, and browse through them, the first instance of it, produces the Start Button, the Taskbar and the System Tray where the clock and all those little icons are. This can crash for many reasons. The worst possible reason is Windows is becoming unstable and corrupted or you have a virus infection. More likely it's caused by an overloading of Explorer by say copying a 2 GB file and changing your mind half way through. At any rate, if you hit the Ctl-Alt-Delete keys -> Choose Task Manager (Vista) or your now in Task Manager with that key combination (XP) -> Choose Task Manager's File Menu -> Choose "New Task (Run...)" on the File Menu -> Type in "Explorer.exe" without the quotes -> Hit the OK button, you can restart the first instance of explorer and get all your stuff back. You can also try restarting your computer to restore explorer.

4. The System File Checker progress window during scanning.

**Windows is Becoming Corrupt and Unstable** If your Start Menu is chronically crashing and disappearing, your Windows installation may be corrupt. Before you give up and do a "Repair" or "In Place" install, consider doing a scan of the Windows important files with the Windows System Files Integrity Scanner. This only works with XP. Microsoft's article on the subject is listed in the resources section below. To kick off the scan, type "sfc /scannow" in the Run box on your Start Menu, but without the quotes. This can take 20-30 minutes sometimes and Windows will probably find files it wants to replace. The bad news is it will ask you for a disk you probably don't have and few do, the XP SP3 disk. The good news is that the files it is looking for probably have good backup copies already stored on your computer. Open up Explorer by right clicking on the Start Button and choosing "Explore" -> Choose the Tools Menu of Explorer -> Move the radio button to "Show hidden files and folders"; uncheck "Hide extensions for known files types"; uncheck "Hide protected operating system files." -> look for the files in any of these folders "C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\", "C:\Windows\system32\dllcache\" or ""C:\Windows\system32\DRVSTORE\". Just change where Windows is looking from you CD/DVD player to these folders and if necessary their subfolders, looking for the file in question. If this doesn't work, or it seems like too much of it, you can do a Windows repair install which replaces your Windows files but leaves your documents, pictures, spreadsheets etc. You will have to reinstall your software too, but maybe that's not too bad. See the resource section for a set of instruction on how to do a Repair Install.

5. SuperAntiSpyware scanning a computer.

**Virus or Spyware Infection** Most people know how to set off a manual scan of their Virus scanner or Internet Security system. If you suspect an infection of this kind, by all means do this. First make sure your antivirus is up to date. You can also try scanning with a secondary spyware scanner such as SuperAntispyware. This is also a good idea. A third possibility is to go to the different vendors of security software and do an online free infection check. Probably all three would be a good idea. If you think your machine is hopelessly infected and just want to reinstall Windows, before you do that, try buying Norton 360 or some other security software at Best Buy, Micro Center or Staples and installing new security software from a disk. This is preferable to downloading it, as the disk install can't better protect itself from blocking action by viruses, worms and spyware and such.

6. Kelly Theriot's Taskbar Plus may be the easiest way to get back a disappeared Start Menu and Taskbar.

**Before You Give Up** There are some quick freeware tools to try to restore your Taskbar and Start Menu. They are listed in the additional resources section at the end of this article. Kelly Theriot's Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!, which has a free and paid version. This gem is $5 for the paid version, but the free one let's your get back a disappeared Taskbar and Start Menu.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4915809_start-menu-start-button-taskbar.html