Loss of Taskbar and Desktop

Question

I am seeing repeated (within 24 hours) issues where the Taskbar and Desktop are lost. Open windows/applications remain visible provided you don't minimize them. I see data and work within those windows/applications but am unable to access any desktop or taskbar icons. The desktop is all black and taskbar is gone. I am able to access folders and drives via the open window/applications (File > Save As) and in some cases I can browse using this method and access executables.

It appears this issue is related to explorer.exe/SearchUI.exe and/or svchost.exe. These processes are showing in Wait Chain.

When I log in as another user I can restart all applications associated with the affected user except explorer.exe. Says I dont have permission. I am performing this as Admin. Further investigation shows the explorer.exe application is not even running but it shows running in Task Manager.

When I attempt to log out ANY user during this event I receive a message 'Please Wait for System Event Notification Service. This will prevent logoff indefinitely until I log in as local Admin and kill the svchost.exe for affected user associated with Wait Chain for winlogon.exe.

A reboot of machine resolves issue for ~1day. It is sometimes possible to access the explore.exe from affected user using above (File > Save As) and starting that to restore desktop and taskbar however the explore.exe previous task still shows as running and cannot be restarted or stopped.

I am using Windows Server 2016. This happens on 3 different machines (2 VMs and one Tower).

Answer 1

Hello,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community forum.

Based on the description, I understand your question is related to Loss of Taskbar and Desktop.

1. Restart explorer.exe in task manager
2. Check the user permission, make sure they have permission to run explorer.exe, try create a new user profile and check the issue.
3. Put the loading machine in safe mode, and then repeat the operation:

Start your PC in Safe Mode in Windows - Microsoft Support

4. Sometimes the problem may not be in the driver, but only in third-party applications and services. Try a clean boot:

How to perform a clean boot on Windows - Microsoft Support

Have a nice day. 

Best Regards,

Molly

Answer 2

Thanks Molly. I will try that and let you know what I find.

Bob

Answer 3

You're welcome!

Answer 4

This has intermittently started on a few of our Windows 2019 machines over the last month. Never seen this behaviour before, so I'd be attributing it to a buggy cumulative update. Let's hope this is fixed in June's CU

Answer 5

I am seeing this on Windows Server 2016