Windows 11 Taskbar disappears when switching between 1 monitor and 2 monitors, and switching primary monitors

Question

I use both 1 and 2 monitors often, and I switch between the setups frequently. In this post, the larger 1440p monitor will be referred to as the LG, and the smaller 1080p one HP.

The Windows taskbar disappears when switching from "Extended" using both monitors, to "PC Screen Only" on the LG. It doesn't reappear by itself, and I have to go into the Personalization > Taskbar settings and toggle "Show badges over taskbar apps", restart Windows Explorer, or press CTRL-ALT-DEL to get it back. The taskbar doesn't return otherwise, even when extending/unextending the monitors.

Additional Information

• Windows 11 Home 22H2 22621.1992
• Nvidia RTX 3070Ti, GeForce Game Ready Driver 531.79
• The monitors are connected to the PC via DP cables into the GPU

Taskbar settings

Single monitor settings

Dual monitor settings

Advanced Display settings

Taskbar on single monitor

Taskbar on extended

Missing taskbar when switching back to "PC Screen Only"

Answer 1

There have been many reports of this problem in successive Windows versions, but few solutions/workarounds.

Below is a list of some workarounds that worked for some persons.

• Disabling the Search box in the taskbar.
  This is done in Settings > Personalization > Taskbar.
• Restarting Explorer.
  This is done in Task Manager - select explorer.exe and click "Restart task".
• Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del and going back by Esc refreshes the taskbars.
• The post Windows 11 Taskbar DISAPPEAR on switch between Multiple Monitors and/or Monitor Modes (PC Screen Only, Duplicate, Extend, etc.) says:

It seems Windows Tools like "displayswitch.exe" does not properly "refresh" the Taskbar on switching Display Modes!
I've written a small Application by myself which can toggle Display Modes from Single to Extended and then send a WM_SETTINGCHANGE Broadcast Message to workaround this Bug!

The poster above added the C programming command-line that he used:

SendMessageTimeout((IntPtr)HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, IntPtr.Zero, "TraySettings", SMTO_NORMAL | SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG, 5000, out lpdwResult);

I have tried to duplicate it using the free AutoHotkey V1.

The following example script will issue the HWND_BROADCAST Windows message when F9 is pressed:

F9::SendMessage, 0x1A,0,"TraySettings",, ahk_id 0xFFFF  ; 0x1A is WM_SETTINGCHANGE, 0xFFFF is HWND_BROADCAST

Using this script : After installing AutoHotKey, put the above text in a .ahk file and double-click it to test. You may stop the script by right-click on the green H icon in the traybar and choosing Exit. To have it run on login, place it in the Startup group at
C:\Users\USER-NAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup.

Useful AutoHotkey documentation:

• List of Keys
• Hotkeys

Answer 2

I was not able to replicate this issue on my system.

It makes me think that it could be graphics driver related. I would try the following steps, any single one could resolve the issue:

• Physically swap the DP or HDMI ports your monitors are connected to. If your GPU has more than two ports, try all combinations.
• Uninstall all Nvidia software. Make a test before reinstalling graphics driver. Then, clean install your graphics driver. Only after a test, install further Nvidia software, if needed.
• Make a Windows startup repair
• If you had made an in-place upgrade from Windows 10, consider doing a clean install of Windows 11

Possible Workaround : Should you not find a solution, take into consideration to change your habits, and show the full taskbar on all screens.

Answer 3

Yeah, it's broken (again?) like it was in Windows 10 a while ago and it is a Windows Bug that is "known" but no one cares!

Since MS does NOT fix any of their Bugs for Years now but instead added new broken "Features"... So I started to try 3rd Party tools that maybe can fix it.

And the Answer is: Start11

Sadly it is not a portable App and could be more advanced, but it fixes the Problem for now!