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
    2024-01-26T23:07:02+00:00

    Right. A complete clean format and install of the operating system is what I would recommend for you in this case, as what I am getting from all of this is incredible corruption of system files. There are third-party softwares out there that could be helpful, but at the same time they can also do more harm then good, so I do not recommend them.

    If you click the link here, https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/cre... it will take you to where you can download the most up to date Windows image and burn it either to a CD or Flash Drive. Then all you have to do is boot to it and follow the prompts.

    Let me know if I can be of any more help to you my friend...

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-29T18:23:52+00:00

    I did the nuke and pave but unfortunately it didn't help. But now I'm noticing something else. It may have been this way before and I just didn't notice it or it may be new.

    If I sign into the console there is no right click response on the desktop or in a FE window, and the FE address and menu bars are not there or active.

    But if I sign in via RDP, I can right click on the Desktop or in FE and get a response. Also the FE bars are present although invisible. But even this is odd in that when I right click on the Desktop or in FE, I get a blank context menu window. If I then click on the bottom area of it where the Properties option would be, I then get the actual right-click menu appearing which is fully functional. Clicking on the FE menu bar doesn't do that but where you click causes the appropriate action just like when things are normal.

    I'm starting to lean towards a hardware issue rather than software since there's a difference between the console and RDP sessions. I'll see if I have another video card on hand which will fit this system and see if that changes anything. I'm not very concerned about this problem though as the PC gets light use and fortunately isn't anyone's main PC.

    BTW Windows 10 works great on it with no problems so there's some sort of issue with this PC and Windows 11 which has just cropped up as it's had Win11 on it for at least a year with no problems at all until this.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-02-08T05:11:38+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!

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  4. 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.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-02-10T02:40:34+00:00

    I too was beginning to think that I was the only one experiencing this problem, until I found your writeup here.

    I noticed that if I hold down the Shift key and right click on the desktop, "Show more options" 'page' of the context menu is visible. So added "Restart Windows Explorer" in my context menu. Slightly less inconvenient than restarting it from task manager?

    Stevie Rhys

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