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
    2011-11-19T05:16:51+00:00

    Not a solution, but an easy script to cycle explorer.exe

    1. Open a new notepad document
    2. Copy/paste the following script into the blank document:

    @echo off

    taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe

    explorer.exe

    1. Name the document with a useful name like Cycle_Explorer
    2. "Save as" the document with a .bat extension

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-11-21T01:21:39+00:00

    I may have found the culprit. In consideration of the frequency of the problem, I believed the issue would most likely not be related to any security issues, anti-virus program or registry values. Instead, the issue would be caused by something that most every computer uses.

    I believe that Adobe Flash Installer is the culprit.

    After reading through the posts, I noted that someone recommended ending explorer.exe in the taskbar and making a registry value change. I followed only a portion of these steps.

    After ending explorer.exe under processes of the task manager and re-starting explorer.exe by selecting file-> new task and typing explorer.exe, I noticed that my taskbar reappeared and Adobe Flash Installer immediately appeared with a message that an update was available. I updated Adobe Flash accordingly and my taskbar was suddenly auto-hiding.

    I hope this helps someone.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-11-23T19:15:16+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!

    To nicolaj82

    Yes you are totally right. Does these people still have jobs.

    Your tip was so "hard" to find for an easy task and solved this boring behaviour imediately.

    Thanks to you. And shame on Microsoft Support.

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