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Windows 11 File Explorer address and menu bars invisible

Anonymous
2024-01-26T20:39:51+00:00

Suddenly on one of my Windows 11 Pro systems at home the address bar and menu bar became invisible. They were there and responded to mouse clicks and I could type in the address bar. But they are invisible. The problem existed whether signed in to the console session or an RDP session.

Also, in File Explorer and on the desktop when I right clicked, the menu window appeared but was blank. I could move the cursor through it and see a change and get submenus to open but of course they too were blank. I clicked on these menus and they responded with the appropriate response depending on where the cursor was when clicked.

I tried playing with themes, display properties, I've run SFC /scannow and DISM (with the restorehealth option). The first SFC found corruption and said it fixed it. Subsequent runs have found no problems. The last thing I did was do a Reset (keeping files). Nothing I've done has made any difference.

My account has admin rights on the system. I tried signing in with another account which also has admin rights and for this account the bars weren't invisible but simply not there. I then signed out of the other account and signed back in as myself. Much to my surprise the bars are now gone for me as well! This had not happened despite multiple reboots and all else that I had done. Only after signing in with the other account and then back in as myself. I rebooted but no change.

Any ideas how to fix this one system?

Jonathan

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-02-08T16:37:09+00:00

    I am also suddenly (started happening the last 10 days or so) experiencing this problem of Address and Menu bars being invisible. When this happens right click context menu within the Windows Explorer displays a blank box. Sometimes but not always right click context menu on desktop also displays a blank box.

    Because Windows Recovery did not fix the problem, re-installed drivers, chipset etc etc. Finally re-installed Windows 11 (am using Windows Pro). Did not work. Just to be sure formatted the drive and re-installed Windows, again same problem.

    I doubt very much that my system suddenly developed some hardware problem. Not expecting any help at this site!

    Steve, your problem sounds exactly like mine. I was beginning to think it was just a quirk with my particular system but now with yours also having the same problem I'm wondering if others are having it without reporting it or what. Sorry you're experiencing the problem but also glad to hear I'm not alone.

    10 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2024-04-26T07:36:52+00:00

    i lost address bar/search bar/back forth arrow after window updated. it happened april 24, 2024. crazily searching on net for solution but i can't find it.

    please help.

    8 people found this answer helpful.
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  3. Anonymous
    2024-05-20T18:37:19+00:00

    I had this problem. I use StartAllBack. I updated to the latest version and the issue was fixed.

    7 people found this answer helpful.
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  4. Anonymous
    2024-04-27T16:20:06+00:00

    I just did the latest update and am having the same problem as others. No navigation arrows, no address bar, no search bar. I thought it was an issue with caused by the theme I am running but it looks like it's definitely a problem with the update.

    EDIT: The update was KB5036980 (OS Builds 22621.3527 and 22631.3527) Preview. I went into my update history, found that update and uninstalled it. After a reboot my address bar, navigation arrow and search box were all back.

    7 people found this answer helpful.
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  5. Anonymous
    2024-01-26T22:49:14+00:00

    I did that more than once before I did anything else. Didn't make any difference. That's why I then tried rebooting and then moved on to the other troubleshooting steps.

    4 people found this answer helpful.
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