UKH

Desktop running Windows 10 I think. Image doesn't fit the screen anymore. Big black band at bottom of screen where icons should be. Can't access anything useful. Yes, I have rebooted several times and left it switched off overnight. Any ideas?

As you can guess, I know next to nothing about computers and don't understand most of the technical terms.

Sounds like your computers flux capacitor has gone, don't worry, its not normally terminal and can be sorted by playing around with the settings - hopefully someone along soon to take you through that

Thanks for the bump, if nothing else ☺

By "icons" is assume you mean the taskbar. Are any parts of the taskbar visible? The Windows logo at the bottom left, the clock at the bottom right, etc?

If you right-click on the black band, what (if anything) happens?

If you press the Windows key on your keyboard (to the left of the spacebar) does the start menu appear?

If you move the mouse pointer right down to the very bottom of the screen, does the taskbar appear?

Does CRTL-ALT-DEL bring anything up?

If just the task bar with icons is not showing on the bottom, than probably 'explorer.exe' is not running/crashing after boot up.

Thanks for your reply.

Left side is a left pointing arrow, a search icon and something looking like a movie film labelled task view. On the right icons for peopleinternet accessvolume controlwindows ink workspace  (a new one on me), time and date. Task view brings up big rectangles on my wallpaper showing recently used docs etc

Nothing. Cursor disappears behind black screen about 1cm below the wallpaper leaving about 4 cm of black

The little squares come up with a photo, weather, calendar reminders, play, skype etc. But the usual control buttons are off the edge of the screen. I can just click on the 5 at the bottom which give short cuts to doc, pics, settingx etc.

See above. Pointer disappears behind black screen

Yes. Blue screen with five clickable choices - lock, switch user, sign out, change a password and task manager.  

Thanks for replying.

Given that the start menu appears to be clipped by the left of the screen, it's possible that your display settings are wrong - particularly the resolution (screen size).

Try this: right-click on the screen background to access a popup menu, choose Display Settings. A window will appear. Scroll down. Display Resolution should be the one recommended, and matching your screen's resolution. If its not then change it to the recommended setting. Orientation should be Landscape.

Whats the make and model of the computer and screen?

What is the display resolution currently set to?

and is this full screen without any black band?

It's a desktop with separate keyboard and monitor.

I managed to get into settings for display. It was on recommended setting of IIRC 1440 by 900. I changed it to 1400 x 1050 and that seems to get everything on the screen R to L and has removed the black strip at the bottom. However, still no icons like Chrome and Word on the taskbar and I can't get the desktop screen (?) with all the icons on it either.

What is baffling me is how did it suddenly get in this mess.

Hi, welcome to the thread! And thanks for responding.

Yes. But the black band has gone now anyway - see below or above.

Ok. Progress!

I'm assuming that the application icons are on the start menu though? Is that correct?

Icons appear on the taskbar only if (a) the application is actually running (in which case the icon has a blue underline) or (b) if the application has been "pinned" to the taskbar. Maybe Chrome and Word have been unpinned. To re-pin then, right-click on the icon on the start menu and choose "Pin to Start". Does that achieve what you want?

If you start an application like Chrome, does its icon then appear on the taskbar with an underline?

The absence of icons on the desktop is worrying because some/most of these may have been files rather than shortcuts for programs that reside elsewhere.

Did you have a screen background ("wallpaper") set-up? Is it visible now?

Its possible that your windows settings have become corrupted. If thats the case its hard to know why. Have you installed any new software recently?

No. When I boot up it goes to the screen with all the boxes of mainly useless stuff most of which I hid long ago. I don't seem to get the desktop with all the icons and This PC icon in the top left corner. So basically can't do anything at all.

It's set to pull pictures randomly from the pictures files. Yes and pictures are still changing.

No.

Is it possible to go back to factory settings?

Yes. See below for how to reset it.

NOTE: This process basically wipes the computer. Obviously you should satisfy yourself that everything you might want to keep (documents, pictures, emails, etc) is securely externally backed-up before you reset the windows installation, and this is your responsibility. If you're not sure then you might want to take the PC into a repair shop. I can't be responsible for any data you might lose.

To reset your PC go onto the start menu. Click the cog icon for settings. Click Update & Security. Click Recovery (in the grey column on the left). Then under Reset this PC click Get Started.

Good luck!

Or try system restore to go back to the last windows update without losing files or data.

Settings - find a setting "system restore" - create a restore point.

Start  up in Safe Mode and run system restore. This only loads essential programs. Good luck.

Big thanks to you Andy, and others who have contributed to the thread. I resisted the drastic approach. Debbie has cracked the problem with the help of a Youtube page. As far as I can make out it was to do with some update which failed to install properly and prevented the pooter from working properly. Just in time as I was about to take it to the shop.

Glad you got it fixed.