can no longer switch between windows by clicking taskbar icons

[Bennett Haselton]

A day or two ago, my Windows XP installation suddenly got into a weird
state where I can no longer switch between windows of open
applications -- either by Alt-Tab, or by clicking their icon on the
taskbar. I'll have, say, IE open, and its icon will be selected on
the taskbar. Then I'll click the Eudora icon on the taskbar, and the
icon will depress on the taskbar showing that it's clearly selected,
but the Eudora window will not come to the foreground. Or I'll
Alt-tab and select the Eudora icon, but Eudora still won't come to the
foreground.

The only way to switch to the application I want, is to right-click
the taskbar, pick "Show the Desktop" to minimize all windows, and then
maximize the window that I want.

I can't recall installing anything recently or changing any system
settings that might have caused this. Any idea what's up?

-Bennett

 

[Kelly]

Hi Bennett,

I know exactly what you are speaking of. In the cases that I have seen and
worked this had to do with systems that haven't been reboot in less than a
week. Not sure, if this is the case for you, but good luck and keep us
posted!

 

[Bennett Haselton]

Yeah I had tried rebooting but that didn't make it go away.

But then I tried closing all my open apps and then re-opening them in
a different order, and now for some reason I can switch between them
properly. I have no idea what was going on before, or how to fix it
in a way that will work every time, but it seems that if I mess with
it enough, it gets back into a state where I can switch between apps
properly.

-Bennett

 

[Ramesh [MVP]]

Bennett,

An application running in the background/foreground may be causing this. You could probably run a clean boot to isolate and catch the culprit.

--
Ramesh - Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k


Yeah I had tried rebooting but that didn't make it go away.

But then I tried closing all my open apps and then re-opening them in
a different order, and now for some reason I can switch between them
properly. I have no idea what was going on before, or how to fix it
in a way that will work every time, but it seems that if I mess with
it enough, it gets back into a state where I can switch between apps
properly.

-Bennett