SOLVED Task bar stopped working

[TJBOB]

MY TASK BAR ON BOTTOM OF SCREEN STOP WORKING????

 

[Regedit32]

Hi TJBOB,

Before throwing advice to you can you confirm the following:

• Can you see the taskbar and its icons — yes, no?
• If you can see the taskbar and icons, are all icons not working when clicked or just some?
• Are any icons missing from taskbar that used to be there?
• Finally, have you added any toolbars to the taskbar?

 

[TJBOB]

Hi TJBOB,

Before throwing advice to you can you confirm the following:

• Can you see the taskbar and its icons — yes, no?
• If you can see the taskbar and icons, are all icons not working when clicked or just some?
• Are any icons missing from taskbar that used to be there?
• Finally, have you added any toolbars to the taskbar?

 

[TJBOB]

• Can you see the taskbar and its icons — yes, no? (YES)
• • If you can see the taskbar and icons, are all icons not working when clicked or just some?
  • (JUST SOME)
  • • Are any icons missing from taskbar that used to be there?
    • (no)
    • • Finally, have you added any toolbars to the taskbar?
      • (no)
      • cortana,the window icon, the specker valoum control, internet access
      • are the ones not working
    
    
  • • 
      
    
    

 

[Regedit32]

OK thanks for the update.

The intermittent issues with the Taskbar can be caused by a couple of things, but the most common causes are:

• Windows Update updated drivers but these are either
  • corrupted
  • or not suitable for your device
    
    In that scenario you would want to check via right-clicking Start > selecting Device Manager and verifying no drivers have any yellow triangles or exclamation marks against them which is a warning there is an issue. You can also check for updates to drivers through here.
    
    Given volume control and internet access are issues it'd be worth checking sound drivers and network drivers are not what is potentially giving you these issues.
• Corrupted Profile
  • This can come about through syncing issues between your system and cloud or another networked computer. It can also come about thanks to malware, virus, or simply corrupted system files.
  • Opening a elevated command prompt via right-clicking Start > selecting Command Prompt (Admin) then typing SFC /SCANNOW followed by pressing Enter key to execute may discover and repair damages system files, or failing that alert you to an issue.
  • If a corruption is found that the System File Checker (SFC) cannot repair you can follow up with System File Checker on steroids by using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool. This is a three step process:
    
    Right-click on Start then left-click on Command Prompt (Admin)
    
    At the command prompt type or copy & paste the following:
    
    

    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

    
    Press Enter key to execute. This command will check whether your Windows image has been flagged as corrupt as a result of a corrupted process. If it reports no issue you can stop here. If it finds an issue then move to next step.
    
    
  • So a corruption was flagged and reported. At the elevated command prompt type or copy & paste the following command:
    
    

    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

    
    Press Enter key to execute. This command will scan for store components that are corrupted. It does not repair, it simply reports whether there is a corruption of a component store. If the report says there is no corruption you can stop here. If it does find and report a corruption move to final step.
    
    
  • For this step you will need a know ISO file of Windows 10 you are sure is not corrupted.
    
    You can go here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/techbench to download a Windows 10 ISO. Scroll down page a little and do the three step process to grab the download.
    
    The 3 steps are to choose an version of Windows 10, followed by the language you want to use as main language, and finally whether you want a 32-bit or 64-bit version.
    
    Once downloaded right-click and select Mount. This will mount the image and within File Explorer you will see a drive letter assigned to it. Note that drive letter now.
    
    Armed with the correct drive letter assigned we move to the final command to execute within your elevated command prompt. Type or copy & paste the following command:
    
    

    Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:wim:X:\sources\install.wim:1 /limitaccess

    
    Note: Replace the X with the drive letter assigned to your mounted ISO. The flag /limitaccess will prevent the restore of health making use of Windows Update service. This is optional, so you can remove that flag is you wish.
    
    Press Enter key to execute. This may take a while so be patient and do not turn off machine while its doing its thing. When done it will report whether it was successful or not. If successful, you can relax again. If not successful you may need to consider an in-Place upgrade using that mounted ISO image by opening the drive its mounted to and running the Setup.exe.
    
    For instructions on how to do an in-Place repair of OS go here: https://neosmart.net/wiki/windows-10-repair-installation/ and scroll down a little to the Windows 10 repair installation section.
• Corrupt Windows apps.
  • Not as common but occasionally an app can become corrupt and one sign of this is the symptoms you are describing with your Taskbar If you suspect this is the problem then you can consider using some special commands in elevated permissions status.
  • Note: A side affect of the following — The following commands can de-register built in Windows 10 apps including Windows Store. This can be re-registered later.

• Right-click on Start > left-click on Command Prompt (Admin)
  
  At the command prompt type or copy & paste the following commands then press Enter key to execute:
  
  

  Get-AppxPackage | Remove-AppxPackage
  
  Press Enter key,
  
  Get-AppxProvisionedPackage -Online | Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -online
  
  Press Enter key

  
  Once done close windows and other open applications, the Shut down computer.
  
  After shutting down, wait for a minute then restart computer.
  
  All going well the Taskbar will function properly now.

• To re-register the Store app so it functions again do the following:
  • In your Search/Cortana box type Powershell then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys together
  • In the elevated Powershell window that opens type or copy & paste the following commands:
    
    

    Get-Appxpackage -Allusers

    
    Press Enter key to execute. This will list all app packages.
    
    Scroll down the results and locate Microsoft.WindowsStore then note the InstallLocation and the FamilyPackageName for this app. See image below:
    
    
    
    
    
    With this information you can workout the correct command to enter. Based on this sample image the command to enter now would be:
    
    

    Add-AppxPackage -register "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe\AppxManifest.xml" -DisableDevelopmentMode

    
    Once down, restart computer. With the Store app working again you can install other apps at your leisure.
    
    If the command fails, you may need to take ownership of the WindowsApp folder, which by the way being a System folder is normally hidden.
    
    For assistance with that please request if needed.

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[TJBOB]

++OK thank you for all your work you put into this I know it must have taken a lot of you time, I printed out your info and was getting ready to give it a try, when my wife said to me that our grandkids was here last week and they were on my computer for some time so she looked at downloads and found that some thing was downloaded on 5/19 the day that over grandkids were here it was called (face something or other) I don’t remember the full name? So she deleted it and everything started working again, thank you very much for your attempted help BOB

 

[Regedit32]

Hi,

Thanks for updating with your resolution.

Third party downloads can easily corrupt things and as you discovered removing them often fixes issues.

Glad it's working for you.

Regards,

Regedit32