Windows TaskBar Gone. help please!
 

So I come home last night turn on my pc and all is normal. Windows XP did it's usual update and I rebooted after as usual. When it rebooted where the taskbar normally was is now gone. It's still there but you can't see it nor can I click on anything like the start menu and stuff even if I have my mouse over it. As well if I have a folder, web browser or whatever open and maximize it can't maximize past the task bar so it does recognize that it is there. Even if I put my mouse pointer rite on the edge it does not recognize it and I can't drag it. If I hit my windows key the start menu does in fact open.

Now I have tried the following:

1: made sure that the task bar was not on auto hide
2: opened task manager and ended the task for "explorer.exe" and then start a new task of "explorer.exe"
3: Tried system restore

Now when I do #2 and restart the task the task bar appears for just a second then disappears again. Anyone have any other options?

Sure it didn't just get nudged off the bottom of the screen? If you move the mouse to or near the bottom of the screen, does it turn into the arrows like you'd use to resize a window? If so, click and drag upward...

Yup positive. I'm not the craziest techy but i'm not that noobie haha

try doing a repair install. it sounds like something that happened to a friend of mine where her you can see just abit of the taskbar but not able to move or click on it. the desktop still functions but you cant use the task bar. try the repair install and see if that fixes it.

This was my next option but was hoping there was another way but oh wells ill give it a try. Thanks yo

Could be that it got shrunk down and is also "locked" so you cannot change it.

are you sure its not moved to the top or side of the screen? i've seen it happen.

There was a problem with Kaspersky a couple years back where, if you set Kaspersky to handle potential risks without user input, it would corrupt explorer.exe after a Windows Update.

If you're still running Kaspersky 6, I guess it's still possible (although, I'm pretty sure they fixed it).

Yes I'm positive it isn't moved but I'll try some of the suggestions. Thanks everyone