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

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

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-03-15T23:47:25+00:00

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

    I spent 30 minutes downloading and running the essentials.  It didn't change anything.

    I'm very disappointed in Microsoft and I understand why more and more people are changing to Apple computers.

    Hiding the the taskbar is a basic operation.  According to this post you haven't fixed it in 2-3 years.  That's unacceptable.

    If you were my employee I'd fire you.

    Right now my taskbar continues to take up approximately 5% of my laptop screen.  Microsoft incompetence has reduced my screen size and my productivity.

    I worked on Apple / Macs for several years and never had this problem.

    BTW nicolaj82 describes the problem accurately:

    "Often times Windows will refuse to hide because it mistakenly believes there is still a tooltip balloon open.  Unfortunately the only way to get your taskbar to properly hide again is to restart the machine so that Windows resets the tooltip balloon status. What a pain!" 

    That was 2 years ago.  Microsoft, are you too bloated to care?

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-03-10T15:15:37+00:00

    I had this problem and it mostly happened when the Windows update bubble popped up. Other stuff wouldn't do this when it popped up, but the updater always did. So I disabled taskbar notifications for windows update. Problem solved. If its other programs, give this a try unless you really want the notifications.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-03-06T12:36:40+00:00

    Attention problem solved the way to solve this if it is annoying you that much you open any fullscreen game or program

    e.g. fallout 3 is what i use

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