How to Fix missing top action bar in Windows Explorer

Question

I have Windows 7 ultimate installed and i did some tweaking in my windows, after which i am not able to find the top bar, not menu bar its top bar having organise, play, print button. I tried to Google and every blog told me to restore menu bar. i don't need that Menu bar.

Solution 1

Alright, I did some digging:

That is known as the Folder Band in Windows Explorer, and it is typically enabled or disabled by modifying the ShellStyle.dll for the current Windows theme. I think the easiest way to fix it would be to have Windows run a system check and repair its DLLs:

sfc /scannow

This will revert all modified system DLLs back to their original state.

Or, if you (or whatever utility you used to modify the DLL in the first place) created a backup of the DLL, you can try to manually restore it (this might require safemode). The default path to the Aero theme is

%WINDIR%\Resources\Themes\Aero\Shell\NormalColor

And if you're using the Windows Classic theme, that ShellStyle.dll is located in the System32 folder.

Source

Solution 2

I had the same issue today, and solved it using:

open task manager using ctrl + alt + del

switch to process tab

right click on explorer.exe and click end process.

Now again open task manager using ctrl + alt + del, switch to applications tab and click New task button at bottom, now when a new dialog box appear enter this:

C:\Windows\explorer.exe

and then click ok.

Comments

[STTR]

press ALT in View menu select Tool Bar

[Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007]

askvg.com/how-to-make-folder-band-auto-hidden-in-windows-vis‌​ta

[user1984103]

@STTR There is no "Tool Bar" option in the "View" menu in Windows Explorer for me o.O

[user1984103]

@Ramhound Pretty sure it's the only other missing toolbar in the image other than the menu bar, the one with "Organize", "Include in library", "Share With", "Burn", and "New Folder" (and I'm sure there are other folder-specific actions that might show up). It also looks like the user has applied a Windows 8 custom theme to his Windows 7 machine, which I imagine is the cause of this issue.

[Karan]

None of those options are for the missing Folder Band.

[Dheeraj Thedijje]

Thanks Darth! yeah i did some tweak for Windows 8 GUI and it has replaced menu DLLs but everything is fine except this one. is there any way to get this back replacing only one specific file so that i do not need to restore all of them? if yes please tell me how to get that back to default one.

[user1984103]

Yes, as mentioned in my answer you need to replace ShellStyle.dll, though this might undo other customizations. You could also try following the guide in the linked source, except undo the folder band changes instead of making it hidden.