The Lemon Fool

no idea why but,,,
.no start bar and other icons in task bar all disappeared

where might they now be?

computer appears to be working OK but now not able to see the windows thing that appears when clicking on the flag link

Have you tried...

nah.

Windows 10 or 11?
Windows key + I should get a settings menu, search for task bar and check which boxes are checked.

Across the top, is there a View option? See what's ticked in the dropdown.
If the View has vanished, you can maybe get that same dropdown with Alt+V.

V8

I think the Taskbar etc is all part of your personal desktop settings. (I've also had it disappear sometimes while doing ambitious stuff with File Explorer.) Do I understand that you've got all the icons on your main desktop screen?

I've had glitches like that happening on my ageing Windows 10 Dell from time to time. Occasionally, the screen goes black immediately after I key in the four digit code from the opening splash screen, with the hard disk still spinning constantly. Then I can either (a) wait for an hour or three in the hope that it might sort itself out (it usually doesn't), or (b) hard-crash my way back to normal by holding the power button down and rebooting.

That doesn't seem to be as drastic as it sounds, actually. The computer doesn't go into a hard disk check, it just fires up normally, and I'm fully back in business within a few minutes. No sulking, then. But in the OP's position I'd do a quick backup of the last month's files, just in case.

BJ

many thanks all the options

situation resolved....not certain exactly how but it suddenly re appeared after about an hour