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The problem is when, for some reason, I accidentally Right-Alt Right-clicked an icon in the taskbar. And that causes to freeze the highlighting on any icon that is selected from the taskbar. I managed to solve this by:

1* Right-click an icon on the taskbar. (nothing will happen, except that icon highlight sticks). 2* Press the WIN-Key. (opens the Start menu + the context menu for the previously Right-clicked icon).

This problem is not new to me as it occurs when I was using [Windows 7 + Windows 8.1], and Found a solution that worked with the both OSs: (Shift-Right Click). But in Windows 10 that is no more applicable. I don't know but I think Microsoft is keeping this bug as an evil-eye protection, this is the 4th OS upgrade and the bug still exists.

I can't find any solution for this in the internet pages. Any help is highly appreciate it because this thing is really frustrating.

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5 Answers 5

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Alright, I figured it out. All you need to do is hover over any un-opened application, make sure it's highlighted, and hold shift and right click ONCE. This might also be the problem that caused the error in the first place as well.

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  • What does shift + right click or ctrl + right click do? Does it reset something? Jul 26, 2018 at 6:08
  • 1
    @ReeshabhRanjan Shift + Right Click on a taskbar icon opens the detailed right click. This is the same as what you see in the file explorer, with things like properties, copy, etc. A normal right click gives a simpler display that's just the program's name and an option to pin/unpin.
    – rococo
    Feb 24, 2019 at 5:43
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    @spac3hit Please mark this as the accepted answer. It works like a charm!
    – dgw
    Sep 19, 2019 at 21:14
  • Note: If this does not work, try Alt and Right-Click.
    – Hydra
    Apr 29, 2021 at 4:23
  • Wow! Works well! Wonder how you figured this out!!
    – KetZoomer
    Jul 17, 2021 at 22:12
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In case shift + right click does not work (which it did not for me although it used to on Win 7/8), Ctrl + right click worked for me.

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If you want to keep your activity, but don't restart the computer try to restart Windows Explorer.

Instructions: 1. Right Click on your Taskbar an find Start Task Manager 2. Find Windows Explorer 3. Click Restart or End process 4. If the Taskbar don't show after a minute, go to File -> Run new task and write Explorer. This is worked for me.

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  • This works but creates another annoyance... Some system tray icons vanish after File Explorer is killed and restarted, so you have to close and restart those processes too. Oct 12, 2017 at 19:26
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I managed to solve that problem permanently without needing a restart:

  1. Right-click on an empty space on the task bar
  2. Check or uncheck the option "Lock the task bar"

I'm not sure why that works, but at least it worked for me.

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Okay, so I was playing around with the Start button, and I figured it out: First, right-click any NOT opened program on your task bar, for example, if you don't have Windows Store open, right click on that icon. Then press the Start button. After that, click on an empty space in your task bar, and it should be fixed. I hope that worked for you, because it worked for me.

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