Windows 10 Taskbar bug presented in 1709, worst on 1803 upgrade

For me they will solve it in late summer, it is not complex as a process but enso that they need a video to better understand, that is someone who flies as it does to happen this bug

1. No they are not the same icons that disappear, but it does appear to be dependant on the order the icons were displayed in.  Note: I'm still not sure but I think the zorder issue and missing icons issue may be the same and icons that are "missing" are just outside the avalible zbox. In other words the box is too small and cuts off icons. I belive this since the apps are still running and upon scaling and resolution changes they sometimes come back leading me to believe they were never really gone just obscured from view. 
2. My current work around is to use always show icons. Using always show icons fixes problems 1, 2, and  3. But not 4 which is blurry icons. 
3. I can easily recreate the problem on any machine now. While using scaling, change resolutions trying multiple different scaling and resolution settings. Various different combinations will generate each of the different issues seen in people's screen shots or combinations there of depending on your original settings.
4. Blurry icons seem to be a separate issue from the other three but I have not yet conformed.  I haven't done as much testing on the blurry icons. 

I hope the above helps and while for you changing scaling  from 150 to 175 and back works for you it will not work for everyone as the native resolution and scaling and the variation of the scaling and resolution changes seem to all contribute to various combinations of the problem.

If I had to narrow the issues above down into one I would say it is a notification box size issue as windows seems to try and format the icon spacing and location based on the size of the notification box. Some times the box is too small (missing icons) or too big (padding) or off center (below start bar).  I think of they fix the box size then items 1-3 all get fixed. 

I hope my testing notes above help.

Regards,

Bryan

3 month...

Like I said. No one from Microsoft looks into this forum. It is a moron community forum, and has nothing to do with Microsoft.

I can see why you would think that, but Microsoft people are looking at this thread. Part of the problem is this thread is now long, and a bit convoluted. If you read it from the beginning, it is not exactly clear and concise (such is the nature of these things).

On Tuesday July 10th, I received a call from a "Sr. Escalation Engineer" at Microsoft named Jason, who has taken ownership of the support case that I submitted. I spoke with Jason over the phone for about 30 minutes about this, clarifying some things, and zeroing in on the precise items that need attention. Part of that conversation involved looking at portions of this thread.

Here is the [edited] message he sent me after our conversation:

Jim,

Thanks for taking the time to talk through this issue today. Turns out the area I was calling the “penalty box” is called the “notification area overflow”, which is a mouth full, so I am going to call it the “overflow” window.

Reference:

Notification Area

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/uxguide/winenv-notification

Here are the issues I am looking into that occur during resolution and/or scaling changes:

1. Missing app icons
2. Z-order of overflow window
3. Spacing between icons (padding) in the overflow window
4. Blurry icons

Due to the nature of this case, primarily a debug issue, I am going to take over as the main case owner. If you need anything please reach out to me directly.

Thanks,

Jason <last name removed>

Sr. Escalation Engineer | Microsoft Support

<phone number removed>

Those four issues are in "order of severity" of the problem. In case you are wondering what "Z-order" means, that refers to when the notification icons are partially/fully obstructed behind the taskbar, which should never happen. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/winmsg/window-features#z-order

I also pointed out to Jason, that the first three issues were introduced in Windows 10 version 1803. The fourth issue (blurry icons) has been present since 1709, and likely before.

Jason also had some questions for me, and if any of you can help me with these, that would be appreciated:

1. Are the icons that disappear, always the same ones?
2. When "Always show all icons in the notification area" is turned on, do any icons disappear after resolution/scaling changes?
3. Are there any repeatable steps that can be taken to reproduce the Z-order problem?

Basically, Jason needs to be able to articulate this issue with the pertinent product groups at Microsoft, and there are two different groups that are potentially involved for the items we're seeing. Additionally, the blurriness issue might also be partially attributable to the app vendor (notice that some, not all, of the icons have the blurriness problem over time).

I'm frustrated by these issues the same as the rest of you. Thankfully, the workaround of changing my scaling to 175% and then to 150% restores things for me on the PC that I most care about. One of the other workarounds mentioned in this thread may work better for you.

This is a complex problem that is going to take them time to resolve....that's the reality. Being able to provide repeatable steps that reproduce some or all of the items listed, will help.

I would say to wait until the end of this summer

I hope so because this is ridiculous. such an obvious bug and more and more people are going to experience it as higher resolution screens become more an more popular and display scaling is inevitable! seriously Microsoft please fix this issue! it's been quite a long time by now!