Windows 10: My taskbar shortcut icons bottom of screen disappeared and I wish to restore them

My shortcut icons disappeared from the bottom of the screen and I wish to have them reappear, mainly my search engine wifi strength battery remaining

:)

 

Taskbar shortcut icons disappeared


After checking and configuring my router I went to the regular desktop view which is plain and looks like Win7
Only the quick access, internet icon, notices, lanquage and clock icons were visible.
I had created a new toolbar which referenced the start menu in Windows Program Data.
It was spread across the taskbar rather than compacted and previously available by clicking on the title Programs tucked in beside Quick Access.
There was no visible line to use with the cursor for dragging this bunch of links across into the right side area.
I removed that toolbar.
The few daily use Taskbar shortcut icons when created cannot be dragged to the taskbar even if I lock it.
(Browser, email, Notepad++,Everywhere search and a link to a Quick Stack popup collection of shortcuts)
Any open application is not displaying on the taskbar
Considered a 'Restore' and checked the list of restore points with a utility System Restore Explorer and it lists Oct.20 as the last restore point. I'm assuming Win10 does not do a daily restore point.
The last system image is Oct.7 so several Windows updates would have to be done over and there are a couple of those.
Is there a registry edit or workaround to restore the taskbar so shortcuts can be pinned there?

 

Windows Explorer Icon in Taskbar

I am using Windows 7 64 bit

I placed an icon in the taskbar years ago. In the past I have been able to drag any folder I wished to that icon giving me a shortcut to frequently used folders. I usually had a list of 6-8 such folders.

Starting several months ago, that list of shortcuts sometimes, for no perceivable reason, disappears on boot up., In the past, it was easy to simply drag those folders to the icon and reconstruct that list. That no longer works.

When I drag a folder to the icon it does Say "Pin To Windows Explorer" but that does not happen. Can anyone suggest some way to restore that function. Perhaps there is some setting somewhere I cannot think of that needs resetting? Or something else.

Thank You

 

Blank shortcut icon GPU-Z

I know I am quite late but as I was scrolling through I saw this post which happened to one of friend too. This sometimes happens with Windows. Usually a reboot will solve the problem. However if this doesn't, try setting the icon for the shortcut(right-click pinned icon, right-click program, left-click properties, select "change icon...") or refreshing it by switching to a different icon, applying it, and then reverting back to the original icon. Remove the shortcut from the taskbar and replace it with the start menu shortcut or simply drag the .exe file to the taskbar.