Restore monitor detection to one only or restore start menu to bottom

I have a co-worker that is no longer able to see his start menu. He used to have it pinned to the left edge of his screen. I tried to troubleshoot it a bit and discovered if we do Windows + R then "cmd" [enter] the command prompt opens (but we don't see the start menu or run box), meaning the start menu is somewhere, just off screen. Restarting doesn't help. Is there some way to force Windows to think it only has a single monitor? It seems to "think" it has two but there's only one and we can get the Start menu back. Or, is there a way to restore the start menu to the bottom?

Additional info

We are able to right-click the desktop for display settings, etc. We can also get into Windows Explorer (via Ctrl + E) so if we need any of that to restore settings we can do it.

Mark

Posted 2011-01-12T22:09:27.850

Reputation: 810

Answers

The issue ended up being a Mac setting. The physical machine is a Mac and it was using Bootcamp for Windows. There was a setting on the Mac-side that affected the Widnows display. shakes head

Mark

Posted 2011-01-12T22:09:27.850

Reputation: 810

Try a right-click on the desktop and select properties from the pop-up menu that appears. This should bring up the "display properties" window.

adam

Posted 2011-01-12T22:09:27.850

Reputation: 101

He's tagged this as Win7 so it'll be "Screen Resolution" from the pop-up menu. Same deal though, can change the same settings from there (more or less). – Windos – 2011-01-12T22:24:34.997

It sounds like resolution got messed up or maybe windows got confused about a dual monitor setup.

Go to Display properties --> Settings and try and up the resolution to see if you can see the start menu.

I don't have windows 7 in front of me, but on XP dual monitor setting are in the same place as resolution settings.

JamesBarnett

Posted 2011-01-12T22:09:27.850

Reputation: 377

Expanding on the idea of the resolution being out; try changing the settings on your physical monitor.

Quick test, if you maximize a window (explorer maybe) can you see all of the border or does it disappear off the screen?

If it is an LCD you should either have an "auto" button or an automatic configuration option in the monitors menu, selecting/pressing this should match up the resolution with the physical bounds of the screen.

If it is a CRT (or older LCD without auto config) play with the v and h spans and make sure they aren't way off.

Windos

Posted 2011-01-12T22:09:27.850

Reputation: 10 080

Press Win+P and select Computer Only

Martheen Cahya Paulo

Posted 2011-01-12T22:09:27.850

Reputation: 1 347

-1

I had this issue where alls I could see on computer was my background. I hit enter image description here +P, then down (button) 3 times then hit Enter and luckily it changed the settings. Hopefully this will help someone stuck in same situation.

Jjkk

Posted 2011-01-12T22:09:27.850

Reputation: 1