Windows Vista Task Bar won't auto hide anymore

Hello again,

I tried restarting the feature in properties but next time it comes out again just won't hide anymore unless I go back to properties tick off apply and tick it back on again.

Anyone had this happen?

 

It has something "jamming" that setting. Do you have any programs that might want to "configure" the Taskbar? One I can think of is a Themes installer.

Check for programs that you have installed that might control or configure the desktop, appearance, etc (look through Control Panel -> Programs and Features).

Matt

 

Hi Mattman,

The only thing I installed was ffdshow (codeks) and OS Selector (which seem to have cause trouble with one of my partitions [different thread]). I did uninstall several other programs and a codek pack, which I replaced with ffdshow. Oh and some updates were also installed... maybe I shouldn't have set it on auto update...

 

There is a wepage which provide some tips about the Taskbar

http://mintywhite.com/vista/vcustomization/customize-the-vista-taskbar-how-to/

Have a look

 

Thanks, but I am quite familiar with all those features.

Odd enough, after I posted I started shutting down, but canceled as I had forgot to save one file. then as I was closing windows the bar the bar dropped itself into hiding. so it seems one of the windows was keeping it open without the usual orange button been on, a small glitch I suppose. Unfortunately I don't remember exactly what window it was, but if it happens again I'll pay attention.

 

It's doing it again. I closed all the windows (3) but it's still there, won't auto hide, only way to hide is to untick "keep on top ".

Anyone had this happen?

I don't have any themes installer I just use windows built in.

 

I think you will need to check for more programs that might be running in the background. I am not sure what "Desktop Managers" do (because I never install them), but that might be a another sort of program that I expect might cause it.

Did it work before? If so, consider doing a System Restore back to a time before it started going wrong.

Matt

 

That's what I used to do, but I sure would like to know what the heck goes wrong, and stop it from happening again; like my other big problems I had before... in other words I got tired of restoring every so often.

Right now I have it hidden and press the win key when I want to use it, it's something I do often anyway. Ounce I get used to not look for it with the mouse, it will be just the same.

Just restarted and it's working fine again... but for how long?

 

How long after a System Restore did it start doing it again? One restart?

It might sound similar to the activity of malware or an unscrupulous or badly written program that reinstalls itself. Windows Updates will be reinstalled after a SR.

Do you know how to turn off startup programs using msconfig? You could try turning off all but the essential (antimalware) programs.

I haven't come across the problem before. Try doing a websearch for "autohide" and "taskbar ". I will try if I can get time.

Matt

 

I have not done a restore since solving my "update" issue (almost a month).

I did find a few posts ( "autohide not working" been the right key word):

*- http://www.computing.net/answers/windows-xp/re-taskbar-autohide-problem/133404.html

*- http://pressf1.co.nz/showthread.php?t=63817

*- http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Miscellaneous/Q_21465496.html

*- http://www.techsupportforum.com/mic...14669-annoying-taskbar-auto-hide-problem.html

*-

*-

*-

I hope one of these will help solve this problem for someone.

JC

 

Good searching, you don't say if anything has worked for you or are you still testing?

 

Has been working fine since, I did however uninstall a bunch of apps and all codec packs I could find (dvix, xvid, divx, and the likes) and installed ffdshow instead; related? could be.

However I did restore this morning to yesterday because it would not load anymore (after reinstalling Ubuntu).

 

Thanks for explaining that, I was unsure whether it was still happening.

 

It just did it for a little while again, so I flip through all the windows (1st thing I do as that worked before) checked the notifications;
Media player had a blue exclamation point about a new recording conflict;
Then I clicked AVG and updated, even if there was no exclamation... (that could have been it, but it didn't hide right away).
Came back from watching Fringe on Media Center and now it's hiding again...

It's like there a loose wire or something!

btw: I tried running Malwarebytes and it froze on zlib.dll

 

You seem to be "accusing" things in the Notification (System) Tray. You are doing "workarounds" to keep it going. See if you can look behind what those are. If you open the programs in the Notification Tray, you might be able to change settings so that it does not "alert" you that way.

I would expect it to be a background program. You mention AVG and "media player ", you should be able to stop them from giving you notifications. Go into their "Options" and see if you can change how they notify you.

I am not an Auto-hide person, mainly/probably because of the things you seem to be experiencing. The Taskbar doesn't bother me.

It seems to be due to notifications happening in the Notification Tray.

Matt

 

From my searches I saw a lot of people post about this issue.
There is nothing wrong with most of the notifications, just trying to isolate the cause of this glitch.
Killing and restarting explorer does fix it.
Also I noticed the task bar isn't transparent anymore, but other windows still are, been wanting to turn that off but I forgot where it is, I'll find it again eventually.