Missing Icons and Taskbar. Only have background, nothing else works

[Rich-CTR-USN]

My wife was working on her laptop when it asked her something about Options and System. Not sure what she hit, but she lost her Taskbar and all her Icons. The desktop background is there along with the Date and Time. In the lower right is a Network Icon with a Red X and the Power Button. Ctrl-Alt-Del does nothing, not able to get to any commands, or boot in Safe mode. Rebooting does nothing. Pressing the Windows Key or any of the F keys, does nothing. We are new to Windows 10 and everything i know about Windows 7 does not work here.

Thanks for any help or advice.

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Rich-CTR-USN,

Welcome to the Forum.

Do you see the Notification icon in far right side of taskbar. Click that and then look whether Tablet mode is on. If it is click it to turn it off.

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[Rich-CTR-USN]

That's the problem, there is no Taskbar, start button or anything. Only the desktop background, very large Date and Time. Nothing else.

 

[Regedit32]

Ahh ok,

Sorry I misunderstood you original post.

Have you tried pressing the Windows key + X key together then selecting Task Manager.

In the Task Manager scroll down to Windows Explorer and right-click on Windows Explorer and select Restart

 

[Rich-CTR-USN]

Tried it, nothing. The Windows key will not do anything with any key. Can't get any key combination to do anything. No even Ctrl-Alt-Del, does nothing.

 

[Trouble]

or boot in Safe mode

Prior to arriving at the unusable desktop, are you presented with a login screen?
IF so use the power icon on that screen while holding the Shift Key on your keyboard to restart the computer (choose restart), and then the Troubleshooting -> Advanced Options and attempt Safe Mode from there by selecting Startup Settings, and subsequently #4 for plain safe mode or #5 for safe mode with networking.

 

[Rich-CTR-USN]

Prior to arriving at the unusable desktop, are you presented with a login screen?
IF so use the power icon on that screen while holding the Shift Key on your keyboard to restart the computer (choose restart), and then the Troubleshooting -> Advanced Options and attempt Safe Mode from there by selecting Startup Settings, and subsequently #4 for plain safe mode or #5 for safe mode with networking.

Not able to logon, no option. Holding the Shift down and restarting does nothing but restart. Takes a minute or 2 to restart, but never given the option to go into Safe mode. Back to the Background screen and now an internet icon up from where to task bar would be, but without the Red X now. Clicking it makes the Date and Time disappear. Then I have The Network Button, What looks like an Analog Clock (Narrator?) and a power button. Clicking the Internet button does bring up a blue window and states no network available. After awhile the Date and Time come back with the Network button and the battery button, which now has a Red X on it.

 

[Trouble]

Download the installation media and create a bootable DVD or USB ThumbDrive.
Boot from that and on the second page following the choose your language and keyboard layout page select the "Repair Your PC" link and then Troubleshooting -> Advance Options and try
Startup Settings to see if Safe Mode works from there
OR
System Restore from there to see if you have a suitable restore point to resort to.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[Rich-CTR-USN]

Would not work. I tried every option except to completely reinstall Windows 10. Not able to restore from either of the 3 restore points. Not able to save personal files and put back to originial state. Tried Repair as well. Everything failed.

 

[Data]

mmm I guess the taskbar maybe hidden, try this.

Press windows key on keyboard and bring up Settings, then navigate to Personalization > TaskBar

Uncheck the Automatically hide Taskbar in Desktop mode.

 

[Rich-CTR-USN]

That's not an option for me either. Pressing the Windows key does not bring up anything. I've tried it in combination with almost every other key, and nothing. I do get a soft button on the screen that looks about like an analog clock. By clicking on it I get Narrator and some other options to turn stuff off. Tried them all. Can get a keyboard on screen via one of the options, but thats it.

 

[Rich-CTR-USN]

At this point, I took the HD out and ran Chkdsk on it and scanned for viruses. No issues there.
The only option I can do is reinstall windows from scratch. I did the free upgrade from Windows 7 Pro. Now it's asking for a Windows 10 key.

 

[Data]

Do this...

1. Press Win Key + R to open a run box
2. On run box, type SLUI 3 and press Enter
3. Then enter your Windows 7 pro key and continue to completion and activation