Disappearance of Windows 11 Taskbar Icons after Switching Virtual Desktops

Anonymous
2023-11-24T09:01:51+00:00

Windows 11 22H2
In Windows 11's built-in virtual desktop feature, there is a high probability that icons of active applications on the current desktop may not be displayed when switching between different virtual desktops. The icons only appear when I click on the respective application. I have attempted to resolve the issue through restarts and using Sfc and Dism for repairs, but the problem persists. An essential configuration to note is that the taskbar is set to display windows only from the current desktop.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-12-06T10:13:26+00:00

    Same here, though a workaround is to minimize and maximize the app with missing icon. That makes the icon re-appear. But even that doesn't work if one has switched virtual desktops and uses multiple monitors with one app being shown on the second monitor only. In that case, minimizing and maximizing doesn't restore the icon in the taskbar of the first monitor. Instead, one needs to move the app window to the first monitor, minimize+maximize to restore the icon and move the app-window back to the second monitor.

    I'm pretty often surprised how these very basic things get broken in Windows. Nobody of MS's own users seems to use such basic things, even though virtual desktops were introduced as a main feature of Windows 8 or 10.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-12-06T11:54:58+00:00

    Ditto.

    I noticed if I move the icon a little then it reappears (click/drag), but this is more annoying than helpful.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-07T07:06:32+00:00

    Great finding! :-) Much easier than to minimize+maximize the windows and works for me regardless on which monitor an app window is shown currently.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-12-08T19:33:17+00:00

    Same issue here

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-12-09T10:26:07+00:00

    So because of the constant lag of switching between desktops I disabled Animation Effects and it seems to have resolved the icon issue for me. On a side note, disabling the animations is so much nicer as switching desktops is instant now.

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