Learn to the Right Way to Display the Menu Bar in Internet Explorer 7

The IE7 menu bar doesn't display by default

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by Scott Orgera
Scott Orgera has been a tech journalist since 2007. He has 25+ years' experience as a programmer and QA leader and several Microsoft certifications.
Updated October 02, 2018

When you first launch Internet Explorer 7, which is the default browser in Windows Vista and an upgrade option in Windows XP,  you may notice one key component missing from your browser window—the familiar menu bar that contains choices such as File, Edit, Bookmarks and Help. In older versions of the browser, the menu bar was displayed by default. You can set IE7 to display the menu bar in just a few easy steps.

How to Set IE7 to Display the Menu Bar

Open the Internet Explorer browser and follow these steps to set the menu bar to display whenever you use IE7:

  1. Click on the Tools menu, located in the upper right corner of the browser window.

  2. When the drop-down menu appears, select Menu Bar. You should now see the menu bar displayed in the toolbar section of the browser window.

  3. To hide the menu bar, simply repeat these steps.

You can also click in any blank area of a webpage to bring up the contextual menu. Click Menu Bar in the menu to display the familiar menu bar.

Running IE7 in Full-Screen Mode

If you run Internet Explorer in full-screen mode, the menu bar is not visible even if it is enabled. The address bar is also not visible in full-screen mode unless you move your cursor the top of the screen to view it. To toggle from full-screen to normal mode, just press ​F11.