This is the "soft reset" for your desktop environment.
If your mouse is frozen or the Taskbar is unresponsive, use this keyboard trick. how to refresh task bar
If you followed Method 1 or 2 and your Taskbar is still missing: This is the "soft reset" for your desktop environment
Unlike a web browser, there is no shortcut to refresh just the Taskbar. Instead, you must restart the process that runs it: Windows Explorer . how to refresh task bar
Your screen will flash black for a second, the Taskbar will disappear and reappear. This is normal. All your open folders will close, but your apps (like Word or Chrome) usually stay open.