Windows taskbar disappeared after performing repair install

acgriffin · Apr 16, 2023

I have recently done a repair install for windows 11 to attempt to fix a bug in my menu bar however after performing the repair my task bar completely disappeared and I am unable to open settings or the windows menu whatsoever.

I attempted to restart windows 11 and I currently have a translucent taskbar with apps appearing where is would be, however the windows menu does not open and I am unable to open settings either.

I have tried to follow some tutorials and other forums and I found one linked here that seems to perfectly describe my problem

Redirecting

When I enter the command it gives me this error:
"The system was unable to find the specified registry key or value"

I am genuinely perplexed and I have no idea what to do.

FreeBooter · Apr 16, 2023

Boot your computer into Safe Mode and let us know if taskbar appears.

OAT · Apr 16, 2023

@acgriffin

What other 3rd party programs do you have installed?
ie: Explorer Patcher, StartAllBack, Start11, etc?

acgriffin · Apr 17, 2023

I booted with safe mode and the task bar was still transparent, so it seems like it’s a problem with the base setup

I don’t have too many third party apps besides Mcafee and other stuff like steam and discord but I doubt those would cause a problem

garlin · Apr 17, 2023

Follow this tutorial to re-register your desktop. If you don't have a Start Menu to launch a Terminal window, use Win-R (run command) or CTRL-ALT-DEL (open Task Manager) to run a new command.

Re-register Start Menu in Windows 11

acgriffin · Apr 18, 2023

garlin said:
Follow this tutorial to re-register your desktop. If you don't have a Start Menu to launch a Terminal window, use Win-R (run command) or CTRL-ALT-DEL (open Task Manager) to run a new command.

Re-register Start Menu in Windows 11

I followed the directions for all users, and I got this error back, which is different from the one it suggested on the page.

garlin · Apr 18, 2023

Can you run the exact command from the NOTE: For additional information, "Get-AppPackageLog -ActivityID de526002...."?

acgriffin · Apr 20, 2023

If you are talking about the command that was highlighted on the screenshot, no I was not able to I tried re-running both commands, same thing

garlin · Apr 20, 2023

The error message has a command you're supposed to run to get more diagnostic info.
Right there as "Get-AppPackageLog -ActivityID [unique string of hex digits]"

Copy that Get-AppPackageLog line to the end of the line, and run it in PowerShell. It will pick up the unique log event message corresponding to this error. Otherwise we don't have more details.

acgriffin · Apr 22, 2023

garlin said:
The error message has a command you're supposed to run to get more diagnostic info.
Right there as "Get-AppPackageLog -ActivityID [unique string of hex digits]"

Copy that Get-AppPackageLog line to the end of the line, and run it in PowerShell. It will pick up the unique log event message corresponding to this error. Otherwise we don't have more details.

My mistake here is the response it gave me after I ran that command.

garlin · Apr 22, 2023

Run this command as Administrator:
powershell -nop -ep bypass "Get-AppxPackage *UI.Xaml* | select Name"

If you don't see Microsoft.UI.Xaml.CBS, then you're missing a required UWP library which ShellExperienceHost (desktop) requires.

FreeBooter · Apr 22, 2023

In this video, i will show you various methods to fix the Start Menu not working issue on your Windows 11 PC.

acgriffin · Apr 24, 2023

garlin said:
Run this command as Administrator:
powershell -nop -ep bypass "Get-AppxPackage *UI.Xaml* | select Name"

If you don't see Microsoft.UI.Xaml.CBS, then you're missing a required UWP library which ShellExperienceHost (desktop) requires.

I do see Microsoft.UI.Xaml.CBS

garlin · Apr 24, 2023

That's good to see it's not gone. Let's try resetting your Taskbar and Start Menu to the default state:

Get-AppxPackage *ShellExperienceHost* | Reset-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *StartMenu* | Reset-AppxPackage

Reboot.

acgriffin · Apr 26, 2023

garlin said:
That's good to see it's not gone. Let's try resetting your Taskbar and Start Menu to the default state:

Get-AppxPackage *ShellExperienceHost* | Reset-AppxPackage
Get-AppxPackage *StartMenu* | Reset-AppxPackage

Reboot.

I got these errors when trying to perform these commands

garlin · Apr 26, 2023

Let's try one more experiment:
1. See if you can bring up Settings, run start ms-settings:
2. Accounts -> Other users -> Add account -> I don't have this person's sign-in info -> I don't gave this person's sign-in info
3. Make a new temporary user.
4. Logout and sign in as this new user.

Does this user have the same desktop problems as your normal account? If that's true, your repair install may not have correctly repaired this system. Or if this account works fine, the corruption is limited to your personal profile.

acgriffin · Apr 26, 2023

garlin said:
Let's try one more experiment:
1. See if you can bring up Settings, run start ms-settings:
2. Accounts -> Other users -> Add account -> I don't have this person's sign-in info -> I don't gave this person's sign-in info
3. Make a new temporary user.
4. Logout and sign in as this new user.

Does this user have the same desktop problems as your normal account? If that's true, your repair install may not have correctly repaired this system. Or if this account works fine, the corruption is limited to your personal profile.

I don't believe I can bring up settings at all

Just to clarify just in case I made a mistake,
- I used the shortcut WIN+R
- Then I pasted in "start ms-settings"

Is that how I am supposed to do it or did I do something wrong?

If I did everything correctly it then it says "Windows cannot find 'start' "