What should I see on login? (Missing stuff, I think)

[HayseedGeek]

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There is a way around all of this mess, with your monitor.  Use VNC locally.

Brilliant! It never occurred to me that you could run a viewer locally, but it works like a charm. I usually VNC in from my laptop, but when I have a need to physically be in front of the system, this helps so much. Like the OP, currently my best HDMI option is a tv monitor with no overscan adjustment. 
Before, I ended up right clicking off the the top of the screen, selecting panel properties on the context menu that popped up, and setting the height to about 71, which at least allowed me to see the panel menus, but was less than ideal. Good stuff!