OT: Windows 7 taskbar problem

Laurence wrote on 7/1/2010, 9:48 AM
This is a Windows problem rather than a Vegas problem, but you guys here are some of the smartest people I know, so here it goes:

I can no longer select minimized programs from the taskbar at the bottom of the screen on my Windows 7 computer. I can't alt tab through open applications either. Let's say that right now I minimized this Firefox window that I am typing on to work in Vegas, but then wanted to get back to where I was in this open window. I can't do it. When I put the mouse over the icon at the bottom of the screen, it will just flash the program briefly then disappear. The same thing if I try to alt-tab through open programs. I've done Google searches for this problem and I see that other people are suffering from it as well, but I can't find any solutions. Anyone have any ideas of how I might fix this?

It's just most of the time that I have this problem, not always. Once in a while it works fine. Other times the program windows will open up when I click on them in the taskbar, but I can't actually switch to the programs. This is really driving me nuts.

Comments

xberk wrote on 7/1/2010, 10:31 AM
>>It's just most of the time that I have this problem, not always.

I assume you've tried to reboot and that after a fresh boot all is well? ..
Did you try to roll back to a previous restore point prior to any recent updates or software changes? .. Add any drivers lately? It seems like something changed.
Is you Win7 from a fresh install or an upgrade install?

When I've had similar problems in the past, I've lived with it until I had time to redo the whole system. Yep. A clean install of Win7. - Paul

Paul B .. PCI Express Video Card: EVGA VCX 10G-P5-3885-KL GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 ULTRA ,,  Intel Core i9-11900K Desktop Processor ,,  MSI Z590-A PRO Desktop Motherboard LGA-1200 ,, 64GB (2X32GB) XPG GAMMIX D45 DDR4 3200MHz 288-Pin SDRAM PC4-25600 Memory .. Seasonic Power Supply SSR-1000FX Focus Plus 1000W ,, Arctic Liquid Freezer II – 360MM .. Fractal Design case ,, Samsung Solid State Drive MZ-V8P1T0B/AM 980 PRO 1TB PCI Express 4 NVMe M.2 ,, Wundiws 10 .. Vegas Pro 19 Edit

Laurence wrote on 7/1/2010, 10:36 AM
It has been going on for a few weeks now. A fresh reboot doesn't help. I am pretty sure my restore points don't go back to before this started. When I moved from Vista Ultimate 64 to Windows 7 I did a complete reformat and clean install, and it worked fine for several months after the install.
Kevin R wrote on 7/1/2010, 3:16 PM
Laurence,

Try to isolate it to one application. For instance, does it occur if you haven't opened Firefox yet? Does it happen right from boot-up, or only after a certain application has been opened?

If it's just Firefox, try opening Firefox in Safe Mode (from your Programs menu). This will disable all plug-ins.

If you have any programs running in the system tray that you can do without, close them.

Any program that deals with keyboard/mouse input might be suspicious. Have you updated keyboard/mouse or drivers recently? Do you have any speech recognition programs installed (Dragon NaturallySpeaking), etc., etc...?

Are you perchance using Google Chrome? There was a similar bug recently.

If all else fails, you need to start uninstalling anything that loads upon boot and hoping the problem disappears at some point. No guarantees.

Sounds like you installed something after you moved to Windows 7. Did Vista have the problem?

Computers are fun!
Laurence wrote on 7/1/2010, 7:21 PM
I uninstalled and reinstalled Firefox and it seems to have fixed the problem (so far at least).