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

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

50 answers

Sort by: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Deleted

    This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

    Comments have been turned off. Learn more

  2. Anonymous
    2024-06-07T14:28:53+00:00

    On my French WIndows 11 family 23H2, I had to uninstall KB5037771 to bring back my address bar.

    This worked perfectly for me on US Windows 11 Pro 22H2, uninstalled KB5037771 and voila, all working, as shown below in my screenshot.

    Image

    Was this answer helpful?

    3 people found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2024-06-11T00:44:19+00:00

    On my French WIndows 11 family 23H2, I had to uninstall KB5037771 to bring back my address bar.

    This worked perfectly for me on US Windows 11 Pro 22H2, uninstalled KB5037771 and voila, all working, as shown below in my screenshot.

    Image

    "uninstalled KB5037771 and voila, all working"

    --- this was 100% the correct solution ---

    kudos to Fred James1

    Merci beaucoup pour cette information!! problème résolu monsieur!

    i have no idea why i needed to read through 4 and a half pages of uselessness. this should be flagged as the solution. why do the experts always default to a fresh install, when the updates are the issues?

    Was this answer helpful?

    1 person found this answer helpful.
    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2024-06-13T04:22:58+00:00

    Well, I just gave Vivetool a try, successfully.

    It is an external tool that, amongst things, can be used to enable certain features in Windows. The tool is available on github. The files from the zip-file need to be extracted to the system32 folder. After that, you can re-enable the bar via the command prompt (with administrative privileges) using the command "vivetool /enable /id:40950262". Reboot and done.

    This is the answer -- or at the very least, provides the solution via a simple and easily workable fix! Thank you, a million times over, for finding this jewel! This fixes what was quite a horrible decision made by some developer or engineer at Micro$oft to remove the File Explorer address bar (or whatever it is officially called) without an easy option to display it, enable it, bring it back, or otherwise restore normalcy to the File Explorer interface. Thank you for posting your finding!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2024-06-15T20:46:00+00:00

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

    Thanks! I didn't realise StartAllBack didn't update automatically/regularly... I just checked for updates, installed the new version, and the issue is resolved!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments