Taskbar does not Auto-hide all the time Windows 7

I agree with premise that Microsoft needs to protect it's own environment. If they allow vendors to create software that reduce core functionality of the OS, then they are ultimately responsible. This is not a new problem with Windows 7 as it has been an issue for way too long. Microsoft is aware of the problem and has done nothing to prevent it. Having said that, this is what I did to solve the problem (at least temporarily and will report back). When this happened to me, I could not even disable the "Auto-Hide." I did not want to use the band-aid approach by using "msconfig" (the problem will resurface with this method), I remembered that I had received an email notification (Mozilla Thunderbird) right before the "Auto-Hide" quit working so I performed the following steps.

1. Right-mouse click on the task-bar and select "Properties".
2. On the Taskbar tab, select "Customize" in the "Notification area".
3. Scroll down to Thunderbird and in the drop-down, select "Hide icon and notifications".
4. Select the <OK> button to save and close.
5. My Taskbar immediately began hiding again.

Conclusion: I believe other applications are causing the same issue because it is unlikely that everyone with this issue is using Thunderbird. I also believe you can troubleshoot which applications are causing the problem by using this same method to check which programs have permission to send notifications to the task bar and disabling them one at a time until you find your specific culprit. Software vendors are going to continue using the taskbar for notifications as long as MS provides the vehicle to do so. It is up to MS to limit the scope of what vendors can do using their APIs (they already do!). I'll even provide them with a simple solution.

MS Solution (if you're listening): Create a time-out parameter on the notification API for the taskbar. Add that parameter to the "Taskbar" properties to give the end-user the ability to set the time-out according their notification needs. Set the default time-out to 2 minutes. If a notification locks the taskbar for more than 2 minutes, kill the notification that locks it. Now wasn't that simple. You would be surprised at how fast vendors would begin preventing their applications from locking the taskbar for an unlimited amout of time if you start killing the process. If I am able to come up with this idea in minutes, shouldn't MS be able to build this feature and provide it in a future "Windows Update" or "Service Pack?"

Assumption: I have made the assumption that this was a problem with a notification based on the solution that worked for me.

Looking Forward: MS needs to provide a solution. Until they do so, I will continue to use the method I used above as long as it works for me. Please let me know if this helps you... Where's the love? Good luck everyone.

Just had the problem again - so I took a look at my 'hidden icons'. There was one there that I did not recognise which when I hovered over it said '100%' - that's it - nothing else! Anyway I did a right-click and it gave me two options 'close' or 'show progress', so I clicked on 'show progress' - it turned out this was an Adobe reader update that had downloaded and was waiting for me to allow it to install - as soon as I opened the window up the task bar slipped away! I didn't even have to start off the install. Crazy!

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Windows 7 Home Premium 32 Bit - Dell XPS420 3GB

That fixed it for me!!

what really bugs me from what i have followed on this post is that they are blaming it on third party apps.  i have had this problem from the start when i upgraded to win 7 before any apps were installed.  i agree..... this is a sw problem   fix it!!!