Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 37 down vote favorite
19

After running Win 7 for some unknown period of time, the taskbar icon highlight starts to stick (video demo here: http://screencast.com/t/l5LhJ2uM). If I restart or kill explorer.exe and relaunch, it goes away.

Any idea what might be causing this?

share|improve this question
Alright, so clearly Microsoft never got around to fixing this in Windows 7... Anyone know if it's fixed in Win8? I haven't installed it yet. – Ricket Oct 9 '12 at 4:03

5 Answers

up vote 38 down vote accepted

I found that Shift-Right Clicking on any taskbar item brings up the pre-7 context menu and after it's dismissed, the highlight is not stuck any more.

No idea what's causing this though, but I hope it's a monthly-update-fixable type of bug.

share|improve this answer
2  
I love it when someone finds hacky workarounds like this :) – Urda Jun 15 '11 at 19:52
I currently have this problem in Windows 7, as VirtualBox guest. Shift-Right clicking does not help... – Pisu Jan 19 '12 at 11:10
5  
It's 2013, Windows 8 was released and Microsoft never fixed this annoying bug. – Zequez Jan 16 at 4:20
up vote 1 down vote

This has been a problem since pre-RC days of Windows 7; I've experienced the same bug in RTM. Microsoft hasn't released any sort of fix for it (as far as I'm aware) so you might just have to deal with it. It's a low-priority bug for them, so don't expect any action on it any time soon...

share|improve this answer
I have the feeling microsoft never fixes minor bugs before the next major release (i.e. next windows version)... – ThiefMaster Dec 30 '11 at 16:09
up vote 1 down vote

This happened to me until I upgraded my laptop's graphics driver to the real nVidia driver, not the default one Windows used.

share|improve this answer
up vote 1 down vote

I am glad I am not the only one, but hey low priority sure it wont block or break anything, just one of the main new features of Windows 7: the taskbar aero preview, which can be very useful sometimes for some application that use this feature. :-(

Another workaround is to move one of the taskbar icon (left clic) slightly and then hover another icon to restore the aero preview but it doesnt stick and the bug unfortunately comes back.

share|improve this answer
up vote 0 down vote

I have been having the same problem but I may have inadvertently fixed it. I believe it is connected to windows live. So if you use hot mail you will be having this problem. I have solved it by making sure I sign into windows live then signing into my mail. If I take a short cut the bar sticks. The other way is when it is stuck remove it and set it to come up on the left or right and side. Then when it is doing that remove it back to the bottom and click auto hide and save and it should stay hidden. I have been following this routine for the last two weeks and it this has been working fine.

share|improve this answer
4  
It is not connected to Windows Live. I don't own a machine with Windows Live installed, yet I experience this problem daily on all of my computers running Windows 7. – Cody Gray Apr 27 '11 at 5:59

protected by nhinkle♦ Apr 27 '11 at 6:17

This question is protected to prevent "thanks!", "me too!", or spam answers by new users. To answer it, you must have earned at least 10 reputation on this site.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.