Windows 7 Taskbar disappears overnight

Question

Hello all, I've got this problem that started happening recently.

Overnight, something is happening that makes my taskbar disappear on my laptop. The Start orb is still there, and if I click it, it pops up the start menu, but the whole rest of the taskbar, including the background behind the start orb, is just completely vanished: tray icons, running programs, clock, everything.

I tried killing explorer.exe and restarting it, but it doesn't restart. And after killing it, Task Manager won't let me start ANY programs. It gives no errors, just ... doesn't run them.

Anyone else see this or know what it might be? I'm running Windows 7 RC on an IBM ThinkPad R51 with 2GB ram.

Answer 1

Same problem and same screensaver (fliqlo) : must see if the problem would be solved by choosing another screensaver, In my PC the taskbar is always back after reboot

Answer 2

Quickly going into Control Panel and previewing the screensaver brings back my taskbar. Same problem, same OS, same screensaver, same reluctance to stop using said screensaver.

But, I tried the tweak from this forum: howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/create-shortcut-icon-to-disable-enable-the-screensaver/

and instead of /on, use /start. Has worked wonderfully for me.

Answer 3

Had problems like these way back in my XP days. Update your video driver and see if that solves it.

Answer 4

I had the same issue with a specific screensaver (Fliqlo). Apparently some screensavers are not compatible with the new taskbar.

Try changing to another screensaver (one of those delivered with Windows 7) and see if it happens again.

Answer 5

I solved the disappearing taskbar problem in win 7 by not having any screensaver. As soon as I made my screensaver choice "none" everything was normal again.

Answer 6

I too have this problem, and the awesome fliqlo screen saver, guess i'll have to stick to a built in screensaver :(

Answer 7

I had the same issue after installing Windows 7. When I removed my (very cool) AR-15 screensaver everything worked fine.

Answer 8

It's definitely related to screensaver, but MS should do something with this, as it is their bug. I've investigated that it doesn't depend on videocard model(ATI or nVidia), so updating video drivers(as some people like to advise on the net) won't help. In case, your taskbar has disappeared and you need to restore it quickly: - run Task Manager, go to Processes tab - kill "explorer.exe" process - go File > New Task... and enter "explorer.exe" to restart it.

Answer 9

Yes, it caused definitely screen saver on VAIO. When I turned off, everything is in normal. Many thanx, microsoft support web pages never helps better :-)

Answer 10

there is an updated version 1.2 on the original devolper's website http://www.9031.com/downloads/ it says win7 compatible!