I can no longer switch windows from taskbar.

[Guest]

For some reason in the last 2 weks or so the functionality of left clicking
on an icon in the taskbar does not cause the window to be raised and made
active. This primararly occurs on IE windows. This problem is not consistant
either.... Sometimes I get it to work. Most often though I have to minimize
the windows that are in front of the page I want to work in.
Any Ideas? I'm running a fully patched version of XP home.

 

[Jonah]

For some reason in the last 2 weks or so the functionality of left clicking
on an icon in the taskbar does not cause the window to be raised and made
active. This primararly occurs on IE windows. This problem is not consistant
either.... Sometimes I get it to work. Most often though I have to minimize
the windows that are in front of the page I want to work in.
Any Ideas? I'm running a fully patched version of XP home.

Happens occasionally usually a hung application and is fixed by a
reset or opening the task manager and forcing the process to stop with
"End Task". In your case where IE is involved or any browser I would
be running spyware scans and AV scanners.

Check your task manager to see what is running when the problem occurs
next something will be pulling 100% off the processor and thats a good
indication to where the problem is.

Jonah

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Had this issue long time back. This happened to me everytime when I killed
Explorer.exe to refresh the settings. And, here is the explanation given by
an MSFT employee.

"You have a program that installs a shell hook and is not propagating the
notification"

Isolate the problem by clean-booting the system.

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Shell Extension Manager For Windows:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com

For some reason in the last 2 weks or so the functionality of left clicking
on an icon in the taskbar does not cause the window to be raised and made
active. This primararly occurs on IE windows. This problem is not
consistant
either.... Sometimes I get it to work. Most often though I have to minimize
the windows that are in front of the page I want to work in.
Any Ideas? I'm running a fully patched version of XP home.

Happens occasionally usually a hung application and is fixed by a
reset or opening the task manager and forcing the process to stop with
"End Task". In your case where IE is involved or any browser I would
be running spyware scans and AV scanners.

Check your task manager to see what is running when the problem occurs
next something will be pulling 100% off the processor and thats a good
indication to where the problem is.

Jonah