WINDOWS 10 TASK BAR -DESKTOP PC

brewerdave

I have a number of apps pinned to the taskbar eg Outlook mail ,Thunderbird client etc.

Lately when I start up , frequently nothing appears on the taskbar . Furthermore if I open something eg browser, email client , and then minimise the app ,it still doesn't appear.

Some time after starting , sometimes hours ,the taskbar suddenly populates .

Occasionally on start up ,however ,everything does appear!

I have tried doing various repairs to Windows over the last few weeks but no good.

The PC is an old one that was upgraded to Win 10 from Win 7 but I'm signed up to MS so it's still getting updates.

Any suggestions ??

Newcad

I have tried doing various repairs to Windows over the last few weeks

It might help if you said what you have already done to avoid getting it suggested again.

Is the taskbar itself still there?
If not then check that you haven't got it set to "Autohide".
Move your cursor to the bottom of the screen and see if the Taskbar pops up.
If it does then right-click the taskbar, go to settings, and turn of the Autohide,

If the taskbar is there but with missing icons then your icon cache may be corrupted.

Basic steps for any such issues:

Run Disk Cleanup as Administrator.
Restart the computer. (Not a "Shutdown" but a "Restart").

If that hasn't worked then:

Run DISM and SFC to fix any corrupted system files.
See: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/experience/backup-recovery/use-the-system-file-checker-tool-to-repair-missing-or-corrupted-system-files

(Note that DISM may appear to 'hang', often at at 62.3%, it isn't hung but just taking a long time on a task, be patient and let it run until it completes, you can keep using your computer while waiting for it to finish).

See also: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5828309/task-bar-doesnt-show-any-icons

Boohoo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6680721/windows-10-task-bar-desktop-pc

You could do a system restore to an earlier date and see if that gets back to where you were before things went missing.

GDB2222

Have you asked Copilot how to fix this? It suggested 3 likely causes and gave fixes for all 3. I won't repeat it verbatim, but the prompt I used was "windows 10. taskbar takes ages to populate" .

mrcrumb

In command prompt:

Sfc /scannow

Then restart.

brewerdave

Thanks for all suggestions. For interest , I had carried out system restore - no change. Also had run Sfc /scannow but didn't find any errors.

Have now carried out procedure as per 2nd part of Newcad's post. Still running on desktop !

EDIT - Finally finished the scans etc - this time it did find corrupted files that were repaired successfully. Restart took quite a long time with "please wait" message. However on bootup the icons appeared instantly with the desktop.

PC seems to operating much quicker - but final proof will be when I boot up tomorrow morning.

Everything crossed - but many thanks for all help 🤞

Newcad

Many people online will just advise running "sfc /scannow" - simply because it doesn't take as long as running dism first.

However - as you found - that is often false time saving and may not give correct results.

As stated in the MS article that I linked "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" should be run first before running sfc to ensure that the image that sfc is using for comparison is correct (and up to date).

That Is why errors were found after the dism that it hadn't found when you ran sfc before a dism.

Hopefully your Taskbar will behave itself now.

mrcrumb

indeed, I forgot about dism.

missile

I had similar issue. I have an SSD and Disc drive. On investigation I found SSD was nearly full. I uninstalled several apps I no longer use, deleted some files and Windows back up files. Runs much better now