I'm rolling out the 25H2 update to our endpoints since 23H2 is reaching end-of-life soon and we have some accreditation requirements coming up in November. We deployed the first batch of 150 updates today and noticed that about 6 endpoints are experiencing an issue where the taskbar doesn't show up after users log back in. The event logs are indicating errors with the start menu experience package. I attempted to reinstall the Microsoft.Windows.ShellExperienceHost, which seemed to help some users (or maybe it was just a reboot). However, it didn't work for everyone. I also tried running an SFC scan but that hasn't fixed the issue. Unfortunately, since only 6 devices are having this problem, proper diagnosis has been tricky, especially since they're at remote locations. With another 600 endpoints to deploy across 60 sites plus home workers, I'm concerned about what might happen next. Has anyone else experienced this problem with the 25H2 update?
2 Answers
I’ve been having similar issues since Windows 11 launched. I ended up writing a script that just kills the explorer.exe process. When you restart it, the taskbar usually reappears. Just keep in mind, this is more of a temporary workaround, and it only fixes the current session for the user logged in at that moment.
Yeah, I've dealt with intermittent taskbar issues for ages, even dating back to Windows 10. I created a PowerShell script specifically for this, but honestly, I never managed to find a permanent fix. Just a frustrating cycle!
Thanks for the tip! Just to clarify, though, do you mean to simply end the explorer.exe task? Is this a temporary fix for individual sessions only? I noticed that for one endpoint, the taskbar was missing even for a new local admin account we set up to test.