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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.

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  • I've had similar errors in Windows Vista, but the rest of the taskbar always came back after a second. Does the problem persist after rebooting?
    – Daniel H
    Commented Sep 9, 2009 at 15:16
  • No, it doesn't persist; rebooting brings everything back.
    – eidylon
    Commented Sep 9, 2009 at 20:03
  • 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 :-)
    – user37102
    Commented May 13, 2010 at 19:45
  • Everythime Fliqlo kicks in on my windows 7, it disconnects my msn messenger. Very strange.
    – user48772
    Commented Sep 8, 2010 at 11:42

8 Answers 8

Reset to default
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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

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  • Interesting. I DID just start using a new screensaver... one based on HAL9000; so that could definitely be a possibility. I just changed it, I'll have to see what happens now.
    – eidylon
    Commented Sep 9, 2009 at 16:57
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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.

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

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  • Unfortunately, my video card (love those laptop integrated components!) is too old, and there are no Win7 drivers. LOL ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 --- oooolllldddd.
    – eidylon
    Commented Sep 9, 2009 at 16:56
  • Have you tried disabling Aero?
    – Traveling Tech Guy
    Commented Sep 9, 2009 at 17:59
  • Ah, my poor 5-year old laptop can't even run Aero! lol
    – eidylon
    Commented Sep 9, 2009 at 18:14
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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.

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

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

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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.

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there is an updated version 1.2 on the original developer's website:

http://www.9031.com/downloads/

it says Windows 7 compatible!

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