How to close a misbehaving pop-up menu of a notification icon?

[Cat]

Normal menus disappear when they lose focus. But as you may know, pop-
up menus from notification icon don't. I know that this behaviour has
been existing since Windows 95, and Microsoft thinks it is a
'feature'.

But this behaviour is very annoying. Many times, that sort of pop-up
menu pops up by some mistake, and it never disappears even if I click
elsewhere, or press ESC. I have to choose one of its items to close
it.

Is there any way to system-widely disable this 'feature' or a way to
close the menu without choosing one of its items?

 

[Jon]

Normal menus disappear when they lose focus. But as you may know, pop-
up menus from notification icon don't. I know that this behaviour has
been existing since Windows 95, and Microsoft thinks it is a
'feature'.

But this behaviour is very annoying. Many times, that sort of pop-up
menu pops up by some mistake, and it never disappears even if I click
elsewhere, or press ESC. I have to choose one of its items to close
it.

Is there any way to system-widely disable this 'feature' or a way to
close the menu without choosing one of its items?

Yes, that can be annoying. What I usually do, if I ever get that, is to
select an item that's already been selected, or to select an option that
will no have effect (eg 'properties' followed by a 'cancel').

 

[Cat]

Yes, that can be annoying. What I usually do, if I ever get that, is to
select an item that's already been selected, or to select an option that
will no have effect (eg 'properties' followed by a 'cancel').

Thanks. But there's no better solution than that? Actually that's what
I'm doing.
First of all, why are those menus designed to act in that way?

 

[Jon]

Thanks. But there's no better solution than that? Actually that's what
I'm doing.
First of all, why are those menus designed to act in that way?

I'm not aware of a complete solution, but then I only see the problem
perhaps once every few weeks or so. Since it takes about 2 seconds to
rectify, I don't consider it to be a major problem.

If you're seeing it more frequently, then there may be more actions you
could take, such as removing the offending icon(s) from the notification
area altogether. [Right-click Start button > Properties > Notification
Area.... ]