Solved Resetting the taskbar

Hello and thanks in advance for any help offered.

I updated to Windows 11 (preview) about 3 months ago on my new build, and everything was hunky-dory, but about a month ago I ran a "driver search and update" type program (don't judge) and since that point my taskbar has been corrupt. I rolled back windows to an earlier point, but it didn't effect the issue, I've been on and off troubleshooting it ever since, but haven't managed to fix it, so I'm seeking greater knowledge.

My bar currently:
- Runs vertically up the left side of my primary screen
- Does not display start button or pinned apps (which should be centred)
- Windows float behind it
- The network and audio tray sits on top of the notification tray, preventing me accessing the apps and overflow section

I'm pretty sure the driver search and deploy app I ran has just set a key wrongly in the registry but sadly I didn't backup registry before running the app. I've spent the last 3 months installing software on this machine and configuring it so I'd rather not take the nuclear option.
So I'm searching for suggestions on keys to reset or remove to try to reset the task bar back to scratch.

I know a picture speaks a thousand words so I've included one, though mostly it just shows an absence of the useful stuff

Thank you kindly,

Hi and welcome to Eleven Forums

Regarding your issue, you could try and create a new user profile, and see if the problem persists. If it works, then you could then delete the corrupted profile. That would be the easiest, and would not affect your programs.

You should also try a "repair" install from an ISO that is equivalent to what you have installed. This process will preserve all your apps and data.

Thanks for the replies,
I've already tried a new user profile, oddly the issue changes but isn't much better, the task bar appears at the top of the primary screen and although the pinned apps are displayed, the start menu doesn't display when you click on the start icon and if you hit the windows key, you can browse apps manually, but as soon as you try to search, the start menu disappears.

I'll get the iso downloaded and see if the repair works, I saw that on another thread and wondered.

Thanks again,
I'll let you know if I get it fixed from the repair

Then I would try Systems Restore next, if you have a restore point to go to.

My experience of Repair Install is that it does not affect User Mode part of the registry, it only affects Kernel Mode part of registry - could be improved on Windows 11, give it a try.

I'm hitting some walls here guys, seems there are no longer any restore points on my system (I used one earlier in troubleshooting and enabled the most aggressive restore point creation option so not really sure what's happened there) which means most of my options are greyed out on all the Windows repairs which leave apps intact.
I rolled back a feature update, but that didn't do anything as I expected.

I'm thinking about taking a system image with Norton Ghost, reinstalling the OS and then pulling apps from the image, does that work? I've not used Ghost in 10 years or so, so am a bit rusty

I'm really tempted to just "live with it" as it took me a horribly long time setup all the apps, and it's using a software raid/cache and I'm worried I'll not be able to rebuild it without wiping the drives. It has everything I've ever saved or worked on or downloaded, on it, all carefully categorised

Back to the question about registry keys that control the task bar? Any pointers?
Or explorer.exe? Can I force Windows Update to download a fresh explorer by renaming or moving it out of the Windows directory?

Is this any help:

Reset Taskbar Corner Notification Icons in Windows 11

?

No joys, I tried that.
It is only purporting to reset the notification tray, but I thought I'd give it a try. Just had to reenable the overspill apps after
I think I'll try porting explorer over from 10 next, I'm not liking what Ghost looks like these days.

Well, there you go, grabbed explorer.exe from a Windows 10 machine, booted to DOS, a little rename here and a little copy there and bosh, I have Windows 10 task bars, which function and I can move.
Job's a good'un
Thanks for the help, and to this thread about tinkering with the bar which made me remember that was a thing (from when you had to get rid of that metro guff)

Hopefully Windows Update will now update my task bar to Windows 11 at some point

Raucous said:

Well, there you go, grabbed explorer.exe from a Windows 10 machine, booted to DOS, a little rename here and a little copy there and bosh, I have Windows 10 task bars, which function and I can move.
Job's a good'un
Thanks for the help, and to this thread about tinkering with the bar which made me remember that was a thing (from when you had to get rid of that metro guff)

Hopefully Windows Update will now update my task bar to Windows 11 at some point

Click to expand...

Good to hear.