EdAndersen.com

I frequently use Remote Desktop (RDP/Terminal Services) to access my machines running Vista SP1 RTM. 90% of the time, after connecting, I get this annoying problem with the Start bar:

Only the Start button itself is visible.

• This happens on all my Vista machines, both SP0 and SP1
• This happens no matter what version of Remote Desktop I am using, the XP version or the “new” Vista one
• It only appears to happen when the computer was originally using the Aero DWM composition engine and originally in a different resolution to what I am asking the Remote Desktop session to render
• It happens wether or not the taskbar is at the top or bottom of the screen

So far the only way to get the taskbar back I have found is to click the lonely Start button, click Windows Security, choose Start Task Manager, kill the explorer.exe process and start it again in the Task Manager from File > Run.

Subsequent Remote Desktop connections are then fine, but logging back into the machine from the console then back into Remote Desktop makes it disappear again. A bit frustrating, to say the least.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 18th, 2007 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Microsoft, Windows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.