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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.
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.
Can someone on the windows team please work on this issue and fix it. Its extremely annoying and its been here for over TWO YEARS. The lack of attention this gets is not okay. It's something any user using Virtual Desktops see everyday. Ignoring the issue isn't going to make it go away, and it interrupts your workflow using Windows. This makes for a terrible user experience.
I installed ExplorerPatcher, and by default it will change to the windows 10 taskbar, but after changing it back to the Windows 11 taskbar, the icons now keep appearing every time. so it seems that by installing ExplorerPatcher, it fixed my issue that has been bothering me for months now. Even when I have a ton of apps open, they all show up. so it feels like nothing changed, but something has been changed in the background to fix this issue.
Has this issue been followed up by the official staff?
No, they can't be bothered with fixing any issues. They are too busy releasing useless features. Whatever team is handling taskbar on windows is by far the worst team in Microsoft like how can a simple issue be allowed to go on for so long?
Somehow issue is getting worse... On my end I sometimes see icons overlap like this. Only explorer restart fixes it and then it becomes missing icons again, which is better than this one at least, because icons are clickable at that status.
I'm very happy to report that I resolved this issue by installing this open source Explorer patcher: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher?tab=readme-ov-file
The intent of this project is to restore a "Windows 10" appearance to the taskbar, which I actually don't care for, but there is an option to maintain the Windows 11 style. As an added bonus, it will also strip the ads and recommendations from the Start menu.
Once installed, right click the taskbar and choose "Properties." In the resulting window, find the style option and set it to "Windows 11 (default)"
It is incredible how much cognitive load I was wasting every single day hunting through these invisible icons, and it's a major disappointment to me that Microsoft has shown no interest in addressing this issue after many months of continued reports in this thread.
EDIT
Apparently the Windows 11 style also suffers from disappearing icons (though it seemed to happen less frequently). I've returned to the "Windows 10" style. If you set it to combine icons, it looks virtually the same (see below).
Please consider donating to the generous and talented author of this program (it is not me!), they deserve it!
