favorites MENU disappeared

Running W7 home 'premium', with IE 9.

Yesterday the favorites entry that led to the LIST of favorites and folders vanished. Also gone is the File menu. The sparse favorites bar with one pinned link is intact and useless.

users\username\favorites is completely intact.

hint(?) - On July 6 W7 booted the original configuration of IE9, with the Bing insanity. The desktop icons for text files did not get placed upon boot. Many program icons were missing. System restore had a restore point labeled Windows Crucial Update, dated July 4. System restore performed normally.

I am not sure if I have the correct drift of your query, but have you tried right clicking the top empty space of IE, and selecting the menu Bar

Originally Posted by davehc

I am not sure if I have the correct drift of your query, but have you tried right clicking the top empty space of IE, and selecting the menu Bar

It shows "favorites" checked, although the favorites and file menus are absent.

I think you possibly misunderstood my post. On the top of IE, there is a dark blue Border. Right click it and a drop down menu appears. The first item is "menu bar". THAT should be ticked.

Originally Posted by davehc

I think you possibly misunderstood my post. On the top of IE, there is a dark blue Border. Right click it and a drop down menu appears. The first item is "menu bar". THAT should be ticked.

That dropdown had favorites clicked on throughout.

The solution turned out to be

Alt
VTM while holding ALT down. Gives the menu bar, which includes favorites menu.

Very user friendly.

I am sorry, I still think you are misreading my post. But if you are happy with your solution, then all is well. I do believe that the ALT key only displays the menu bar whilst holding the key down, however?

Originally Posted by davehc

I am sorry, I still think you are misreading my post. But if you are happy with your solution, then all is well. I do believe that the ALT key only displays the menu bar whilst holding the key down, however?

ALT VT gives the option of pressing M, which toggles the menu bar hidden or displayed. I found no documentation of this intuitively obvious sequence in any of the usual places.