Windows7 - missing taskbar and desktop icons

Discussion in 'Software' started by mellc, Jan 27, 2010.

  1. mellc

    mellc Private E-2

    In case this helps anyone, here is initial solution I had to a vexing problem a client encountered: Missing taskbar and desktop icons; only wallpaper and mouse pointer available. Right-click provided context pop-up menu, but nothing happened when selecting a menu option. CTRL-ALT-DEL caused screen to go black, but ESC brought back wallpaper.

    Specs: Windows 7 (home premium 64-bit) on a new HP P6310f desktop, connected to single monitor via onboard NVidia DVI.

    Turns out that, somehow, the video driver (and thus Windows) thought there were two monitors. Desktop was extended to monitor #2, which was what was being displayed (desktop wallpaper and mouse pointer only), and the non-existent monitor #1 was main display (hidden to the "left"). I determined this a couple of ways: 1) moving the mouse off-screen to the left and back indicated that the left boundary of the Windows desktop was beyond the left edge of the physical screen; 2) pressing the Windows key on the keyboard, blindly calling up a command prompt (CMD at start/run box, which I assumed was correctly called by the Windows key) and running a shutdown -r, which actually restarted the computer as expected; and then 3) right-clicking desktop, choosing "screen resolution," then pressing Windows-SHIFT-right arrow, which moved the active window into view on "monitor #2."

    Having gotten to the video setting screen by this method, I went into the NVidia driver, a) swapped positions of the monitors, and b) disabled desktop extension (i.e., display only on monitor #2). Ultimately, I'll uninstall and re-install driver, but this was quick fix (after one hour of WTF).

    Other people encountering this issue are encountering a totally different problem where explorer.exe isn't starting, or there's a malware program futzing things up, so YMMV.
     
  2. Imperfect1

    Imperfect1 Private First Class

    I just had a similar problem this morning. I was missing 2 of the System Tray Icons (Network and Sound) in the Notification Area of the Taskbar, and they were both grayed out when I checked Control Panel/Taskbar and Start Menu/Notification Area/System Icons. After researching for several hours, bingo -- found the solution, and it worked perfectly, so here it is, in case anyone also has this frustrating problem - solution is supposed to be good in XP, Vista + 7):

    TO RETURN MISSING ICONS TO VISTA'S SYSTEM TRAY:
    1st, back up the Registry by creating a restore point.
    Press the Windows key, type regedit, and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.
    Navigate to and select: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\TrayNotify.
    Delete both IconStreams and PastIconStream in the right pane.
    Press Ctrl-Alt-Delete and select Start Task Manager.
    Select the Processes tab, choose explorer.exe, and click End Process.
    Choose Applications, File, New Task (Run), + write explorer.exe in the text box, and press Enter.
    Explorer.exe will reload, and the missing icons should now be back in the system-tray where they belong.
    If the missing icons aren’t there, go to Taskbar Properties (where the icons were grayed out) and check the icon box(es).
     
  3. technoshaman

    technoshaman Private E-2

    I was just about to reinstall Windows 7 till I saw this post. The I discovered that I had plugged two cables into my monitor, VGA and HDMI. So all I could see was the desptop picture. Solution above solved everything.
     

MajorGeeks.Com Menu

Downloads All In One Tweaks \ Android \ Anti-Malware \ Anti-Virus \ Appearance \ Backup \ Browsers \ CD\DVD\Blu-Ray \ Covert Ops \ Drive Utilities \ Drivers \ Graphics \ Internet Tools \ Multimedia \ Networking \ Office Tools \ PC Games \ System Tools \ Mac/Apple/Ipad Downloads

Other News: Top Downloads \ News (Tech) \ Off Base (Other Websites News) \ Way Off Base (Offbeat Stories and Pics)

Social: Facebook \ YouTube \ Twitter \ Tumblr \ Pintrest \ RSS Feeds