A friend asked me to look at her Win XP Home laptop because she cannot download anything from the Internet. I noticed that there is no Menu Bar (File, Edit, etc.), and I cannot get it to show up. It's true that it is unable to do normal downloads, although I was able to get SP3 on it (which I also removed so that I could try to remove IE8). I'm puzzled, unless the problem is spyware- or virus-related. She said something happened while her son was using it (whatever that was, I don't know). I had read somewhere that possibly removing the data.dat file would fix the downloading problem. I may do that, but I think there are other issues at hand. Anyone else ever have a problem with a missing Menu Bar? (Also, I have been unable to delete IE8, even before & after SP3. I kept getting messages about missing files ... thinking about trying to get rid of it using the MS Cleanup utility, but not sure if that will work.) 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

najitech , possible it's something as simple as an unchecked toolbar on the 'view' menu? BTDT. HTH. Ed in Texas.

Actually, that is part of the problem ... there is no menu at all. I wanted to see if the Menu Bar had a checkmark, but the right-click menu isn't there. I suspect a spyware or virus problem, so may end up telling them that they will have to format & reinstall OS (unless I can pull the HD and run a separate virus scan on it). 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

ALT+F doesn't bring it up? BTW, friends don't let friends use internet explorer

najitech, Check out the link below. The menu bar and the toolbar are missing in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista or Windows XP or in Windows Explorer on Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/kb/962963 Tufenuf

Thanks, Fist and Tufenuf ... I'll try these when I get home from work. (BTW, Fist, I tried to d/l Firefox, but that was a catch-22: the laptop can't download anything!). In the meantime, I have ordered a 2.5" external enclosure, and if I have to, will pull the hard drive and run a virus/spyware scan at my PC. I installed Malwarebytes on the laptop from a USB drive, but got error messages when trying to run it. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4