The taskbar is a crucial component in Windows; it lets you efficiently navigate in Windows. It houses the Start Menu, your pinned apps, and tray icons that let you control utilities such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Calendar, and much more.

When the taskbar disappears it can be an irksome experience, as it not only hampers your productivity but also impacts the usability of the computer majorly. Fortunately, the typical cause of this issue is software-based, which is easy to resolve.

That being said, the issue can arise due to a number of causes. So, you might need to use multiple fixes mentioned in this guide to completely eradicate it. Nevertheless, once you have gone through this guide, the issue would be resolved on your computer.

Unhide the Taskbar

Windows taskbar has a setting that hides the taskbar when you’re not using it. So, first, go to the bottom of the screen, hover there and wait for the taskbar to appear. If it does appear, there you go. You don’t have an issue that you need to fix.

If you don’t want the taskbar to hide in the future, you can change this behavior from Settings. Right-click on the taskbar and select ‘Taskbar Settings’. Alternatively, you can open Settings using the Windows + I keyboard shortcut and navigate to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar to access the same screen.

Then, expand the ‘Taskbar behaviors’ option.

Now, uncheck the ‘Automatically Hide the Taskbar’ option.

If the taskbar doesn’t appear when you hover there, try the other fixes in this guide.

Restart Explorer

Many a time, a process deadlock or abrupt crash of a system process can make the taskbar disappear and it can be easily resolved by restarting the explorer.exe process using the Task Manager.

First, right-click on the taskbar and click on the ‘Task Manager’ option.

Then, from the Task Manager window, make sure you have selected the ‘Processes’ tab.

Next, search for the ‘Windows Explorer’ process from the list and right-click on it. Finally, click on the ‘Restart’ option.

Note: As you restart the ‘Windows Explorer’, all currently opened windows will close down and your screen might flicker once or may go completely blank for a few seconds. This is all normal behavior and part of the process.

Update Your PC

If you haven’t updated your PC in a while, there is a high possibility that a simple update will fix your problem.

First, open the Settings app by using the Windows + I keyboard shortcut since you can’t access the Start menu. After that, click on the ‘Windows Update’ tile from the left sidebar to proceed.

Then, from the right section of the window, click on the ‘Check for updates’ button. Otherwise, click on the ‘Download & Install’ button to download the updates. Then, click ‘Restart now’ when prompted.

After your computer restarts, check if the issue has been resolved.

Update or Roll Back Graphics Driver

The issue could also surface due to corrupt, improper, or outdated graphics drivers on the system. Hence, if you have not updated the graphics drivers in some time, you can choose to update them. Otherwise, if you are facing the issue just after upgrading it, you can roll back to the previous version.

To update the driver using the Settings app, head to the Start Menu and type Device Manager. Then, click on the ‘Device Manager’ tile to proceed.

After that, double-click on the ‘Display adapters’ option to expand the section. Then, right-click on one of the components (if you have more than one graphics card installed) and click on the ‘Update driver’ option. This will open a separate window on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, click on the ‘Automatically search for drivers’ option to let Windows search for a driver. Otherwise, click on the ‘Browse my computer for drivers’ option to install the drivers manually.

Now, Windows will automatically search for the driver and update it on your computer. If prompted, restart the computer to complete the installation.

To roll back the driver, head to the Start Menu and type Device Manager in the search field to perform a search. Then, from the search results, click on the ‘Device Manager’ tile to continue.

Next, double-click on the ‘Display adapters’ option to expand the section. Then, right-click on the graphics driver and click on the ‘Properties’ option. This will open a new window on the screen.

Then, click on the ‘Driver’ tab and click the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button to proceed. If the button is greyed out, it simply means the previous version of the driver is not available on the system, or the last update was a major one. Check out our dedicated guide to see how to roll back drivers in that case.

Otherwise, the driver package rollback window will open. Select any reason for rolling back the driver and click ‘Yes’.

The driver will be rolled back to an earlier version. Then, check if the issue was resolved.

Run a CHKDSK Scan

CHKDSK scan will check your hard disk for bad physical sectors and logical errors. This will help you to pinpoint problems with your secondary storage device.

First, press the Windows + R keyboard shortcut to bring the Run utility. Then, type cmd and press Enter to open the Command Prompt.

Next, type or copy+paste the below-mentioned command and hit Enter on your keyboard to execute the command.

chkdsk /f

After that, press the Y key to schedule the scan to be initiated when you boot up your PC next time.

The chkdsk tool will automatically start scanning the storage volume before the PC boots up whenever you next restart it and fix any errors if it finds them. See if the issue persists after that. If yes, move on to the next fix.

Run SFC and DISM Scan

The issue with the taskbar disappearing can also happen because of corrupted files. System File Checker and Deployment Image Servicing and Management scans will check and repair the existing operating system files installed on your device along with other system files.

Open the Command Prompt. Then, type or copy+paste the below-mentioned command and hit Enter on your keyboard. This will restore your currently installed OS image on your device.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Once completed, type or copy+pase the following command to check and repair the system files on your PC.

SFC /scannow

Uninstall Recent Update(s)

Many a time, a system update can also have a bug that does not let you access all of the elements of the operating system even if you are an admin user. Fortunately, many users were able to fix this issue by simply uninstalling the update from their PC.

First, open the Settings app by using the Windows + I keyboard shortcut. After that, click on the ‘Windows Update’ tab from the left sidebar to proceed.

Then, click on the ‘Update history’ tile from the right section of the window.

Next, click on the ‘Uninstall updates’ tile to proceed.

Then, check the most recent installed update and click on the ‘Uninstall’ button on the tile to proceed with uninstalling it. Then, see if the issue was resolved.

Delete a Registry Key

Sometimes, a corrupt registry can also cause the taskbar to freeze, crash, or just be unresponsive. Hence, simply deleting it would resolve the problem.

First, use the Windows + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run utility and type cmd to open Command Prompt.

After that, type or copy+paste the below-mentioned command and hit Enter on your keyboard to execute it. This will restart your PC immediately; hence, save your work before executing.

reg delete HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\IrisService /f && shutdown -r -t 0

Once your PC restarts, check if you can access the taskbar.

Re-register the Taskbar in the System

This method lets you re-register system services and pre-installed apps on your Windows 11 PC. If the issue was caused due to registration of the services, this will solve it.

First, head to the Start Menu and type Terminal to perform a search. Then, from the search results, right-click on the ‘Terminal’ tile and select the ‘Run as administrator’ option.

Now, a UAC (User Account Control) window will appear on your screen. If you are not logged in with an admin account, enter the credentials for one. Otherwise, click on the ‘Yes’ button to proceed.

After that, type or copy+paste the below-mentioned command and hit Enter on your keyboard to execute it.

Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register"$($_.InstallLocation)AppXManifest.xml"}

Once successfully executed, restart your PC and check if the issue has been resolved.

Use System Restore

If you have a reason to believe that a recent software upgrade or a third-party software installation might be the culprit behind the issue, you can also roll back to a system restore point.

Press the Windows + R shortcut on your keyboard to bring up the ‘Run Command’ utility. Then, type Control and hit Enter on your keyboard.

After that, locate and click on the ‘Recovery’ tile from the grid of icons.

Next, click on the ‘Open System Restore’ option from the list. This will open a separate window on your screen.

From the separately opened window, click on the ‘Next’ button.

You will then see the list of System Restore points you can roll back to. Click to select from the list and click on the ‘Next’ button.

You will now see the drives that will be rolled back using the chosen restore points from the ‘Drives’ section. If you also wish to see the files and programs that will be impacted, click on the ‘Scan for affected programs’ option. This will open a separate window.

On the new window, you can view the programs that will be deleted and the ones that will be restored (no programs will be affected on the test PC and hence, the list in the screenshot below is empty). Click on the ‘Close’ button to close the window.

Finally, click on the ‘Finish’ button to start the System Restore process on your Windows 11 PC.

Reset your PC

In case no method has been able to fix the issue on your PC, the last resort is to reset your PC. Thankfully, you will not lose your personal files and folders. However, resetting your PC will remove all the programs that you have installed and also bring all the settings to their default configurations.

Open the Settings app on your PC. After that, from the Settings window, make sure you have selected the ‘System’ tab present on the left sidebar.

Then, from the right section of the window, scroll down o locate and click on the ‘Recovery’ tile to proceed.

Then, on the ‘Recovery’ settings screen, locate the ‘Reset this PC’ tile and click on the ‘Reset PC’ button present on the far right edge of the tile to proceed. This will open a separate window on your screen.

Now, from the separately opened window, click on the ‘Keep my files’ tile to proceed. In case you wish to remove all your personal files as well when resetting, click on the ‘Remove everything’ option.

On the next screen, you will need to choose a method for reinstalling the operating system on your machine. Since there could be an issue with the copy already present in your system, it is recommended that you click on the ‘Cloud download’ option.

Note: ‘Cloud download’ will require an active internet connection and will consume upwards of 4GB of data.

After that, Windows will list the settings that you have chosen. In case you wish to change any of it, click on the ‘Change settings’ option to continue.

If you chose to change the settings, you can configure the following settings on the next screen, You can choose to not restore the apps and settings by clicking on the toggle switch present under the ‘Restore preinstalled apps?’ option and bringing it to the ‘No’ position. You can even switch from the Cloud download to local installation by click ing on the toggle switch present under the ‘Download Windows?’ option to change the installation method. Once adjusted according to your preference, click on the ‘Confirm’ button to proceed.

After that, from the main window, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

After that, Windows will list out all the impacts resetting your PC will have on your system. Read them carefully and click on the ‘Reset’ to commence the resetting process.


There you go, folks. The above-mentioned methods will definitely help you resolve the disappeared taskbar on your Windows 11 PC.