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The taskbar has disappeared while firefox is open. It is not in full screen mode. How do I get the taskbar to show?

  • 10 replies
  • 39 have this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by Befuddled2

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The taskbar is present when all other programs are running, this only affects Firefox.

The taskbar is present when all other programs are running, this only affects Firefox.

All Replies (10)

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If the menu bar is hidden then press the F10 key or hold down the Alt key, that should make the menu bar appear.

Make sure that toolbars like the "Navigation Toolbar" and the "Bookmarks Toolbar" are visible: "View > Toolbars"

  • If items are missing then open the Customize window via "View > Toolbars > Customize" or via "Firefox > Options > Toolbar Layout"
  • If a missing item is in the toolbar palette then drag it back from the Customize window on the toolbar
  • If you do not see an item on a toolbar and in the toolbar palette then click the "Restore Default Set" button to restore the default toolbar set up.
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Thank you. However, the toolbar is not missing. It is the taskbar with the start button on the bottom of the screen that disappears when Firefox is open. Do you know how I can fix that?

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Is the Firefox window maximized?

Do you get the task bar if you resize the window manually to cover the full screen?

You can check for problems with the localstore.rdf file.

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Yes, the Firefox window is maximized. Yes, I get the toolbar back when I re-size the window manually. How do I get it to stay when I click the maximize button? Thanks for your help.

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cor-el linked to an article about the file that stores window size information. This sometimes becomes corrupted. You can rename the file and customize from scratch. Please note this will also remove your toolbar customizations (inside Firefox).

Open your current Firefox settings (AKA Firefox profile) folder using

Help > Troubleshooting Information > "Show Folder" button

Switch back to Firefox and Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename localstore.rdf to something like localstore.old.

Restart Firefox. Does maximizing work correctly?

(If not, you can go back to the old file to recover your toolbar customizations by replacing the new localstore.rdf with the old one. Exit Firefox while replacing the file.)

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I also have this problem. Oddly enough, I find that if I start the windows task manager, CTRL Shift ESC, the task bar also appears. If I close the windows task manager, or minimize it, the windows task bar disappears. So I can get the task bar, but it is a very inefficient way to do it.

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Hi luvslajolla, could you double-check that Firefox not in full screen mode? The F11 function key switches between normal and full screen modes.

(I can't think of any other way to hide the task bar when using Firefox.)

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I've had this problem before, and am having it again. Each time, the Windows task bar disappears after I used-and closed-the Windows Magnifier (which I have on the task bar). I'm going to make this a very detailed account, because I really need to get the task bar to show all the time while I'm online. I'm using Windows 7. I'm not in Full Screen Mode. I know this because when I press F11, the display changes to show a full screen. When I press F11 again, the display returns to the standard screen (with the Firefox button, tabs, address bar, etc.) and the task bar shows briefly, then disappears. I tried renaming "localstore.rdf" to ".old" and letting Firefox create a new "localstore.rdf" but I still have the same problem. I've figured out that I can press the Windows key to show the task bar (as well as the start menu). But it's an annoying extra step, and I really do need to be able to glance down and make note of the time without having to break my concentration on what I'm reading to find the Windows key. Any help would be deeply appreciated.

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Hi Befuddled2, I had never used this magnifier before. I found an article on it which describes 3 different modes: Make items on the screen appear bigger (Magnifier).

Could you describe the steps you're using? You may have uncovered a new bug, but in order to pinpoint it, we should figure out how to reliably re-create it on different Windows 7 systems.


Because graphic driver incompatibilities can cause display glitches, if you haven't already tried disabling graphics hardware acceleration, please try that.

You usually need to restart Firefox in order for this to take effect, so save all work first (e.g., mail you are composing, online documents you're editing, etc.).

orange Firefox button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the "General" mini-tab, uncheck the box for "Use hardware acceleration when available"

After exiting and restarting Firefox, any change in the taskbar problem?


Could you also try replicating the problem in Firefox's Safe Mode? That's a standard diagnostic tool to bypass interference by extensions (and some custom settings). More info: Diagnose Firefox issues using Troubleshoot Mode.

You can restart Firefox in Safe Mode using

Help > Restart with Add-ons Disabled

In the dialog, click "Start in Safe Mode" (not Reset)

Same issue?

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Hey, jscher2000. Sorry for the late response. The problem resolved itself: the next day, the task bar stayed. So I moved the Magnifier icon to the far left on the task bar, so I'm less likely to hit it by mistake. I'm sorry to be such a coward, but I really don't want to try it in Safe Mode. If it ever happens again, I'll try your suggestions and let you know how it goes. Thanks very much for your prompt response. :)