No taskbar, no winkey, no settings after not using my pc for a long time

Maciej Wróblewski 0 Reputation points
2024-07-07T16:53:53.9166667+00:00

Hello,

I have updated to Windows 11 in April. Since then I never had bigger problems than those that I could easily work out.

I have been on vacation for nearly a month, leaving my pc in good condition, with 100gb of free space on my C: drive. Today I arrived at my house and when I turned my pc on, the first thing I could notice was that my taskbar strangely disappeared without trace and I couldn't access the start menu by pressing win key. As a matter of fact, win key stopped working for any action, win+r, win+s, win+i does nothing. My pc was off the whole time and I didn't do anything with it, nor someone else did while I was away. I thought that the taskbar will just load after some time but it didn't, restarting didn't help as well. It's like I'm locked out of my own pc but atleast I can access my browser. I tried to open settings to check if there are any updates, but I can't since winkey doesn't work and I have no taskbar. When I clicked screen settings on my desktop all it did was showing an error message about how there is no program linked to what I want to do.

Another strange thing is that as I said, I was leaving my pc with 100gb of free space and now, I have only 40 and the bar turned to red, although there are no new programs installed at all!
I can't even open geforce experience to try to update the drivers.

Here's what I tried:

-sfc scannow in CMD

-DISM restore health in CMD

-trying to repair my drive from the explorer

But none of these things did a thing.

Even if I wanted to reinstall, I can't, because I can't access settings.

Please help.

Windows 11
Windows 11
A Microsoft operating system designed for productivity, creativity, and ease of use.
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  1. Ian Xue 36,751 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor
    2024-07-09T02:30:22.23+00:00

    Hi Maciej Wróblewski,

    Thanks for your post. Based on my research, there is a known issue ofJune 11, 2024—KB5039212 (OS Builds 22621.3737 and 22631.3737) - Microsoft Support has list the taskbar displayed issue. Please try the following methods to see if it persists.

    Start Explorer.exe task via the Task Manager

    If Windows Explorer is not running, starting it manually can bring back the taskbar, start menu, and desktop icons.

    1. Open the Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
    2. Click Run new task.
    3. Type explorer.exe into the text box.
    4. Mark the Create this task with administrative privileges checkbox and click OK.
    5. This action will initiate the explorer.exe process, which should restore the missing UI elements.

    If all of them don’t work, you can drop a feedback to Microsoft about this, using Feedback hub app. Kindly open the Edge and press Ctrl+Alt+I to open the Microsoft Feedback Hub and feedback the issue.  Many features of our current products are designed and upgraded based on customer feedback. We strive to capture any negative reviews in order to ensure that we are continuously improving our products to meet our customers' needs. With your efforts, we are committed to improving our products.

    Best Regards,

    Ian Xue


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