IT:Start menu has disappeared
From Stiki
The problem: Some Windows application froze, so you forced it to terminate. But although the application did indeed close, you also seem to have lost most of your Windows session! Specifically all of the desktop icons have disappeared, and so has the Start menu and task bar!
The explanation: The application that was terminated was an instance of Windows Explorer which is the underlying program that runs the Windows desktop. You may be more used to this as the file interface that appears when you open "My Computer" or "My Documents". Terminating this application has also stopped Explorer from displaying the interactive parts of the desktop.
The solution: You just need to restart Windows Explorer. But how can you do this without any icons to open, or a Start menu to run things from? Actually, it's fairly easy. Just follow these steps...
- Open the Task Manager program. You should be able to do this by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del and, if you are given a choice of further options, selecting the "Task Manager" option.
- On the Task Manager's menu bar, select "File" and "New Task (Run...)". Task Manager allows you to track the currently active applications and processes (including the option to terminate them). However you can also start new applications using it.
- In the text field of the Create New Task dialog box, enter the following text in order to restart Windows Explorer:
explorer
This should magically restore your missing desktop icons, Start menu and task bar.
Note that completing the same procedure when Explorer has not been abnormally terminated will just open a new Windows Explorer application window, usually defaulting to the My Documents folder.
Citrix remote desktop
Note that if you are using Citrix XenApp (formerly known as Citrix Presentation Server), you can access the remote server's Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+F3 instead of Ctrl+Alt+Del.
Complications
You may get the following error message instead:
| Restrictions | |||
 |
This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator. | ||
| |||
This means that you do not have the necessary authority to start a new application using the Run prompt. This is a typical security measure applied to a company PC in order to prevent unauthorised access to certain programs that can bypass security measures.
If you have received this error message, then you can only restart Windows Explorer if you already have a suitable application open. From a file management program or DOS command prompt you can run the executable file for Windows Explorer. This is typically located at:
C:\WINDOWS\explorer.exe
If you have no suitable application already open that can start an instance of Explorer, then there is nothing further that you can do. Save any open documents and restart your computer.
