Lost your Windows XP taskbar and desktop icons?
May 1, 2008A program called explorer.exe controls the display of your taskbar and desktop icons. If for some reason it goes missing (you may have killed it using Task Manager, for example, or something more sinister like a virus has deleted it from your processes), then try this first:
- Open Task Manager (press Ctrl+Alt+Del, then click Task Manager).
- On the Applications tab, click New Task at the bottom right of the window.
- Type explorer.exe, then click OK.
If nothing sinister caused it to disappear, it should all come back as it was and you can stop panicking, breathe a sigh of relief, and continue working.
If that doesn’t work, then try this:
- Open Task Manager (press Ctrl+Alt+Del, then click Task Manager).
- Go to the Processes tab.
- Click on the Image Name column header to sort the list alphabetically.
- Find all explorer.exe processes — select each, then click End Process for each one.
- On the Applications tab, click New Task at the bottom right of the window.
- Type explorer.exe, then click OK.
Update: 11 June 2008: I’ve found that sometimes SnagIt causes my taskbar to disappear. I’ve noticed it when I have a lot of Windows open and am trying to do a capture and SnagIt gets ‘hung’. Using Task Manager to shut down SnagIt and restart it often brings my taskbar back. Of course, if you don’t have SnagIt installed then that won’t solve your problem!
Update: 8 August 2008: This still occurs with SnagIt 9… I had thought that maybe they might have fixed it.
Update: 18 August 2008: I contacted SnagIt’s Technical Support a week or so ago, and got this suggested solution back from them. I haven’t tried it yet.
Disable the SnagIt shell extension to see if this helps:
- Close all open programs.
- Go to Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs.
- Locate SnagIt in the list and click the Change button.
- Choose Modify and click Next.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to Windows Explorer Menu Extension, then select Entire feature will be unavailable.
- Click Next, then complete the wizard.
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[...] computer. After logging in, I had lost my Vista taskbar and icons! The trick for restoring it is similar to that for Windows XP, but with an extra step [...]
Having exactly that problem but explorer does not work.
The virus checker reports that there is nothing untoward currently on the system.
As unable to get to control panel the normal way is it possible to get there another way? and would going to a restore point from before the proble occured be worth trying?
Hi Richard
Try this step before #2: Kill all Explorer.exe processes before restarting a new one. I found that this worked for Vista, and seem to recall I had to use it once for XP too. Worth a try. Let me know if that works — if it does, I’ll add that step to the list too.
Hi again Richard
If you do need to go back to a restore point, you should be able to get to the Control Panel by pressing the Windows key (equivalent to the START button).
As an aside, if you need to open the System dialog from the Run box, you would type ’sysdm.cpl’ (without the quotes).
Hi All
HELP!
Have same problem – no Desktop/taskbar. Task manager says explore(r).exe not found, also not one of processes running; windows button (with flag) non-operational, so no control panel; have run a/v – nothing. How do I find explorer, or what others have suggested, the viral win.exe.
In other words, please, WHAT DO I DO NOW?
Update: I found the application ‘explorer.exe’ in the Windows folder, but TM can’t open it, says it can’t find it. But it IS there!
BTW, the capitals before are not a shout but a scream of desperation!
to clarify previous post – all processes are running in TM except explorer.
Hi Leo
Did you try the steps I left in the Comments for Richard?
Also, have you tried shutting down and restarting the computer? This often gets things running again especially if you cannot identify what the cause was.
BTW, I’m not a system administrator or a computer geek, so I only shared these suggestions as they worked for me when I had this problem.
Hello all,
I recently ran into this problem with the start menu, Taskbar and desktop icons disappearing. Although it was only occuring when I would shut down the Skype application in my tool bar. This is something I normally do if I don’t plan on using the application. This seemed to start happening after the installation of SP3 but I am not 100% on that. Anyhow this was only happening when I would exit Skype and close it down.
I have unistalled the Skype application V 3.8 I believe and am now in the discovery process to see if this has resolved this problem or not. I will update a response to this if indeed this was the cause. I could have tried an update but I have been doing alot of that lately and need to isolate the problem first.
if no icons, no start bar on any user
and applications work fine from run window
then
Check on regedit
HKLM\Software\microsoft\windows nt\currentversion
the Shell value must be Reg_SZ and have value=”explorer.exe”
if not, doble clic on it and change value
I am having the same problem. just ran virus scan found 278 trojan viruses. removed them now all I see is cute little picture of 3 kittens (NOT). I tried crl,alt,del but a message comes up that admin has turned access to task manager.
Any help would be great
Your 2nd part recommendation worked 100% Thanks!
If that doesn’t work, then try this:
1. Open Task Manager (press Ctrl+Alt+Del, then click Task Manager).
2. Go to the Processes tab.
3. Click on the Image Name column header to sort the list alphabetically.
4. Find all explorer.exe processes — select each, then click End Process for each one.
5. On the Applications tab, click New Task at the bottom right of the window.
6. Type explorer.exe, then click OK.