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Taskbar disappeares completely while using browsers

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I'm using windows 8.1. I seem to have gotten the taskbar to dissapear while I had some problems with my keyboard. It doesn't just dissapear on Firefox but on other browsers too. The only option I have to remedy this for now is to turn on the title bar setting in the customise... settings page but that also creates the problem of too much of the screen being taken up by the browser toolbar.

I'm using windows 8.1. I seem to have gotten the taskbar to dissapear while I had some problems with my keyboard. It doesn't just dissapear on Firefox but on other browsers too. The only option I have to remedy this for now is to turn on the title bar setting in the ''customise...'' settings page but that also creates the problem of too much of the screen being taken up by the browser toolbar.

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Here's some images of what it looks like with the title bar enabled and disabled, both are just as disruptive. I also noticed while I have other things that are opened in a tab the taskbar stays on.

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For Firefox, sometimes the settings file that stores window dimensions becomes corrupted with nonsensical values. You can rename the file to restore the defaults.

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

  • "3-bar" menu button > "?" Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • (menu bar) Help > Troubleshooting Information
  • type or paste about:support in the address bar and press Enter

In the first table on the page, on the Profile Folder row, click the "Open Folder" button. This should launch a new window listing various files and folders in Windows Explorer.

Leaving that window open, switch back to Firefox and Exit, either:

  • "3-bar" menu button > Exit
  • (menu bar) File > Exit

Pause while Firefox finishes its cleanup, then rename xulstore.json to something like xulstore.old. If you see a file named localstore.rdf, rename that one to localstore.old.

Start Firefox back up again. Do windows display normally again?

That mini-reset will hide the menu bar and bookmarks toolbar, but I see you do not use those anyway. For the benefit of others that might try these steps:

You can use one of these methods to show the toolbar list and select the desired bars there:

  • right-click (on Mac Ctrl+click) a blank spot on the tab bar (or the "+" button)
  • (menu bar) View > Toolbars
    On Windows, tap the Alt key to activate the menu bar temporarily.
  • in Customize mode > Show/Hide Toolbars (see: Customize Firefox controls, buttons and toolbars)

To turn on the Bookmarks Toolbar, Menu Bar, or other bars, click it on the list.