Steve's laptop will boot up but the only thing showing is the desktop piture. There is no toolbar at the bottom of the screen !
Any suggestions apart from throwing it into the bid...lol

Many thanks for any help !

Well, I'm not very techy-minded, but when I lost the taskbar, I restored to a previous date and it reappeared.

There is probably a simple fix with a key, but that worked for me.

Well one of two things do as Lilyali suggests is best one. Or alternate if he has a mouse attached go to start, then scroll down to settings then to task bar if autohide tool bar is checked and un check it.

Then if like i do occasionaly i have accidently moved toolbar below visible screen area you can drag it back up.

Thanks guys, but there is nothing at all but the desktop piccie on the screen, nothing to click, no start bar ...nowt...grrrr!

Sherry, the taskbar may be hidden as Gary said. Tell Steve to try pointing to the bottom of the screen first, and then to the side or top of the screen, if necessary. He might need to move the pointer almost off the screen to find the taskbar.

Also, a right click with the mouse may pull up a taskbar and start option, depends on what system he has. With the right click, he should also be able to refresh the screen, which may get things to reappear.

Nope, nothing at all, there is no reaction to mouse clicks. Have tried to start from bios but no change. Am now stumped... (looking for a new laptop)...Steve

A few suggestions here.

If those don't work, try starting up in Windows Safe Mode. If your taskbar appears, you could then access the restore points and use one.

To start in Safe Mode, press F8 repeatedly while the computer is booting up. A screen will appear with a few start-up options. Choose the 'Safe Mode' one.

I shouldn't be the one to give advise, as I am technically impaired, but it seems to me if you hit the key with the flag on it (it probably has a better name than that, lol) it will bring up your start menu, then you can go to restore. (Restore is my best friend when things go wrong on my computer. )

Sorry to hear that. "no reaction to mouse clicks" - are you sure it is working? You might want to try it on your other computer because if it's shot, no response will be seen. You may have a fried motherboard, which is fairly easy to replace. Option 2 - give yourself an early Christmas 'pressie'(as you say ) and call it a day.

Thanks guys - Steve will try these once he has finished putting up my new curtain pole!

Think it is going to be an Option 2 moment!

Now got a water leak outside and the central heating boiler is crocked! Talk about coming in threes...!

And I will bet all your troubles were started by that menacing piece of new-age technology, the fluky computer! Yep, it always comes back to *them*...

OK now give up...! Have tried all I know and your help, think I have a bios trojan, but who knows? Two choices...give up on pc and never darken the Net again...OR... buy a new laptop and start again.. my life is on the hard drive of this pc...grrr.

Hope to see you all soon....

Hugs... Steve !