Taskbar does not Auto-hide all the time Windows 7

Anonymous
2009-11-21T17:32:06+00:00

**Original Title**Windows 7 taskbar won't consistantly autohide. After changing the properties to Autohide and clicking 'OK', it hides for a brief second then reappears. Other times it autohides as desired.

My taskbar autohide behaves in an erratic pattern.  When I have an alert, it autohides after resolving the alert, but other times it refuses to go away, even if I, once again, open the properties, uncheck autohide, recheck autohide, then click 'apply' and/or 'OK'. As I type this, the taskbar stubbornly remains!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2010-03-29T18:26:16+00:00

In the "good old days" applicaitons would often un-hide the Taskbar so their notification icons could show an updated status and they could ensure it would be seen.  I think this method has fallen out of favor, but older applications that haven't been updated could still be sending the commands to the system to show the Taskbar.  Is it possible that you have an older app in the notification area that's affecting the Taskbar as described?

What notification area icons do you have (and what versions)?

For what it's worth, I just tried disabling Avast Pro 5.0 and it still allowed the Taskbar to auto-hide.

-Noel

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Anonymous
2009-11-22T15:00:10+00:00

Hi Lamargene,

Welcome to Microsoft Answers.

See that “Lock the Taskbar” is not enabled. If it is, you may disable it by right-clicking on taskbar and unchecking it.

Still the same behavior?

If such is the case, I’d recommend you to download Microsoft Security Essentials on your computer. This will make sure that any virus, spyware or other malicious software on the computer is wiped out completely. Also if the weird behavior is due to any one of those, running the essentials will fix it.

Download it from

http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/

Do you see any changes after running the essentials? Post back and let us know.

Regards,

Shinmila H - Microsoft Support

Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forumand let us know what you think

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-05-03T23:04:44+00:00

    you rock, man! it helps me out! i have to say windows7's hidden icon functionality has to be improved for this little "bug".

    thank you ZackRy.

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-05-05T18:07:19+00:00

    Often times Windows will refuse to hide because it mistakenly believes there is still a tooltip balloon open. (I see this a lot myself with APC's Powerchute Personal Edition.) Unfortunately the only way to get your taskbar to properly hide again (and I don't mean uncheck the "Keep the taskbar ontop of other widows" option for a quick fix) is to restart the machine so that Windows resets the tooltip balloon status. What a pain!

    Thankfully through my inability to let it go and hatred for this problem I have written a file that will fix this! (Works great on my Vista machine!) All the program does is overwrite the phantom tooltip balloon and then clear the tooltip balloon and Tahdah!

    The tooltip will stay up for 10 seconds so that you can read the info on it (just telling you what it does and how you can contact me if you have any problems). You can close this tooltip balloon like any other by clicking on it, or if you mouse over the program tray icon it will close itself instantly.

    http://www.multiupload.com/94SQZ50YK0

    And here is a pic of how it looks in action.

    http://i44.tinypic.com/1hzzn.jpg

    I really hope this helped.

    I'm going to start a church. The church of Taskbar Slapper.

    Microsoft representatives / MVPs / moderators / developers will not be welcomed. In fact, they shall be cast away as heretics, who dare to be so #$&(&*($#&($*¨# stubborn to the point of actually, without shame, suggesting that every user that suffers with this now long gone problem - thanks Taskbar Slapper Almighty - is incapable of rational thinking.

    "Download our anti-virus and stop using ugly non-Microsoft software and all your woes will be gone! Restart your computer many many times in the process, for it is a healthy practice! If all else fails, go#&*$¨# yourselves while I vanish from the forums and leave you all cursing the day you decided to shed 200 bucks on the only OS you can trust anyway! Have a nice day!".

    Seriously, gimme a break. Sometimes they can be very helpful. But sometimes they are just full of #$#($&#*$(#&$ , and pretend it's our fault their software is not perfect. I love me some Windows... but Microsoft sure hires some pricks to deal with the customers.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-05-06T15:36:07+00:00

    This has to be the one thing about Windows 7 that actually annoys me.  I consider myself a relatively sophisticated user, and this is a problem with the OS and not operator error.

    The moderator's solution is completely ineffective.  This is a bug.  I get this problem all the time when there's some sort of notification (it happens with quite a few different programs), and for some reason Windows thinks that it's still an active notification and unhides the taskbar.  There's nothing you can do, and I can assure you it has nothing to do with security problems.

    Please fix this.

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