Today Windows 11 was launched, so I just upgraded my five years old Windows 10 install.

Everything went fine until the taskbar was utterly empty, the start button disappeared, apps buttons were gone, and even the clock was missing.

I tried to go to the personalize config, but the following message showed up:

ms-settings:display – This File does not have a Program Associated with it for performing this action. Please install a program or, if one is already installed, create an association in the Default Programs control panel

It seems something happened during a config or update, and some system apps were deleted or corrupted.

The following steps worked for me to restore the missing elements:

• Press Windows Key + R, type powershell and hit enter
• Enter the following command and hit enter:

Get-AppXPackage|Foreach{Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml"}

• Once the process is complete, restart your PC by introducing the following command in the same PowerShell window and hit enter:

shutdown /r /t 0  

Once I logged in, the start menu and all the elements returned, and the appearance config was fully functional again.

The funny thing is that I never had an issue like this during all the Windows 10 life cycle. Hopefully, this is just an isolated issue and not a warning about the Windows version