Windows 7 Start Button Invisible - but still works

[mutantninja]

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Fairly often while using this OS on my new laptop, I notice that the Start button
has become invisible. The taskbar is fine otherwise, and the button still works
if you click the blank space where it used to be--it's just invisible.

(I have the taskbar on the top of the screen with auto-hide enabled,
if that's important.)

Anyone else seen this? Is this a known issue?

 

[pcs36520]

Hi

mutantninja


1) Make sure that the auto-hide option is not enabled for Taskbar and Start Menu Properties
Right click on a empty space on the taskbar and click on Properties or Right click on the Start button and click on Properties.
Uncheck the Auto-hide the taskbar box. Click on Apply and then OK

2) After this push the Windows key (from keyboard) and click restart the computer. As your computer begins to reboot, continuously press the F8 key. Click "Safe Mode" and press Enter. If you receive a warning message, click OK. Then click the Start button, click Shut Down, click restart the computer and click OK. When Windows restarts, the taskbar will be at the bottom of the screen.

3) Log off as the current user, and try to log on to the computer as a different user. If logging on as different user resolves this problem, create a new user account, and try to copy the settings from the old user account to the newly created user account.

4) If you have a virus scan utility on your computer, run a full scan of your computer.
Run Microsoft Update or Windows Update, and apply all the updates.
Restart your computer to see whether the problem goes away.


Please let me the status..

Regards

Atith

 

[mutantninja]

A simple reboot is sufficient to bring back the start button. I don't need to go through
the procedure you outline about going into safe mode, etc. I want the auto-hide on,
so if avoiding this bug requires it off, then that won't work.

After a reboot, I generally see the problem after a few hours of working.

It's more annoying than anything else. I was running w2k for 10 years, and thought
Microsoft should be pretty polished by now so I upgraded to Windows 7, so it's
upsetting to see the start button go invisible.

Maybe I should file a bug report with Microsoft? I mean, it's not like I'm running any
other software that tries to override the start menu--how would a 3rd party app do that?