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

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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

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-01-17T19:45:25+00:00

    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!

    Windows 7 Home Premium 32 Bit - Dell XPS420 3GB

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  2. Anonymous
    2010-01-20T19:22:17+00:00

    Sign me up for the same problem, and it's actually quite annoying, but i did find solutions on another forum posting the same issue, and a guy came up with this.

    Most of the solution are really dumb. Do these people have jobs?

    No wonder the US is #9.

    Open Task Manager and Regedit.

    ++ on the Start Menu & select 'Exit Explorer'

    In Regedit, navigate to:

    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop]

    delete the value named 'Toolbars'.

    In Task Manager, select 'File' -> 'New Task' -> type 'explorer' to restart

    the shell.

    If that doesn't do the trick, repeat deleting 'TaskbarWinXP' as well. (I

    can't test right now).

    And it's reported by other users to have worked as intended, but i will say that i have not tried this solution.

    I also found this which seems to explain what Shinmila H couldn't, why this happens.

    And yes, i tried this solution, and it worked like i charm.

    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.

    *** Edited to remove third-party links ***

    I really hope this helped.

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  3. Anonymous
    2010-01-28T10:12:43+00:00

    I've had this stupid problem for so long... its really annoying. That little program does exactly what it's supposed to do. Taskbar goes back down right away (well, I mean 10 seconds after). I pinned it to my taskbar to make sure it won't bother me anymore.

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