Lost menu panel when loggin onto VM “Panel Already Running”

Got the following message when trying to remote onto my VM using xStart:
"I've detected a panel already running and I will now exit"

Fix was to right-click the desktop, open a terminal and run the following command:
gnome-system-monitor

This is the same as a windows process explorer. Find the "gnome-panel" processes and kill them. Close your session and restart. All should be good again.