Start bar keeps popping out unwantedly

  • Thread starter Thread starter mijewen
  • Start date Start date
M

mijewen

This is driving me mad!

I use Windows XP, with the legacy desktop - looks like Win95 - I'm a dinosaur.
I keep my Start bar on the left of the screen by preference, and I use
Auto-hide, so that I ngenerally get my whole screen.

Intermittently, the start bar pops out, covering up the left side of
whatever I am working on. After about 20-30 seconds, it retracts again.
Sometimes, it won't happen again for about half an hour, sometimes it is only
a minute, which is a real nuicance when it stays out for 30 seconds.

I have tried clicking all the buttons on the Start bar for stuff that is
open, to see if any of the programs I am running is responsible, but it
doesn't seem that way. I just have to wait till it goes away by itself.

There is no track of the reason in the Events trace.
How can I find out what is causing it, so I can put a stop to it?
BTW, this is my company laptop. It runs a professional virus/adware/spyware
checker, and the disk is entirely scanned once per week, so I don't think
this is the result of unwanted software.

I have an instant messenger that pops out the Start bar as an alert of
somebody messages me, but this problem still happens if the messenger is not
started.

If you can help me out, you may save the state purse the expense of sending
somebody to the asylum!

Thanks,
Mijewen
 
mijewen said:
This is driving me mad!

I use Windows XP, with the legacy desktop - looks like Win95 - I'm a dinosaur.
I keep my Start bar on the left of the screen by preference, and I use
Auto-hide, so that I ngenerally get my whole screen.

Intermittently, the start bar pops out, covering up the left side of
whatever I am working on. After about 20-30 seconds, it retracts again.
Sometimes, it won't happen again for about half an hour, sometimes it is only
a minute, which is a real nuicance when it stays out for 30 seconds.

I have tried clicking all the buttons on the Start bar for stuff that is
open, to see if any of the programs I am running is responsible, but it
doesn't seem that way. I just have to wait till it goes away by itself.

There is no track of the reason in the Events trace.
How can I find out what is causing it, so I can put a stop to it?
BTW, this is my company laptop. It runs a professional virus/adware/spyware
checker, and the disk is entirely scanned once per week, so I don't think
this is the result of unwanted software.

I have an instant messenger that pops out the Start bar as an alert of
somebody messages me, but this problem still happens if the messenger is not
started.

If you can help me out, you may save the state purse the expense of sending
somebody to the asylum!

Thanks,
Mijewen
Click to expand...

Do you have an unusual mouse? (The Intellimouse comes to mind. I hear
that MS finally has finally fixed the driver.)

At any rate, it can't hurt to download and install the latest driver for
any mouse.
 
The date and time was Friday, August 21, 2009 2:26:01 PM , and on a
whim, mijewen pounded out on the keyboard:
This is driving me mad!

I use Windows XP, with the legacy desktop - looks like Win95 - I'm a dinosaur.
I keep my Start bar on the left of the screen by preference, and I use
Auto-hide, so that I ngenerally get my whole screen.

Intermittently, the start bar pops out, covering up the left side of
whatever I am working on. After about 20-30 seconds, it retracts again.
Sometimes, it won't happen again for about half an hour, sometimes it is only
a minute, which is a real nuicance when it stays out for 30 seconds.

I have tried clicking all the buttons on the Start bar for stuff that is
open, to see if any of the programs I am running is responsible, but it
doesn't seem that way. I just have to wait till it goes away by itself.

There is no track of the reason in the Events trace.
How can I find out what is causing it, so I can put a stop to it?
BTW, this is my company laptop. It runs a professional virus/adware/spyware
checker, and the disk is entirely scanned once per week, so I don't think
this is the result of unwanted software.

I have an instant messenger that pops out the Start bar as an alert of
somebody messages me, but this problem still happens if the messenger is not
started.

If you can help me out, you may save the state purse the expense of sending
somebody to the asylum!

Thanks,
Mijewen
Click to expand...

Hi Mijewen,

My guess is that something in the System Tray/Notification Area is
causing it to pop. Messenger may still be loading even if you don't
"start" it. You may be able to do it within the program itself by right
clicking the icon in the tray, or download Autoruns and if you're
knowledgeable enough, temporarily disable some of the items. You could
also use MSCONFIG.

I keep my Taskbar at the top of the screen so everything drops down.
There are the occasional issues with a program hiding behind it. My
guess is that even though the Taskbar is supposed to be movable, it's
not 100% compatible in any other location than the default at the
bottom. Even Windows 7 has the quirk, but I prefer to leave it at the
top regardless.


Terry R.
 
--
Replace the dots with dots


Bob CP said:
Do you have an unusual mouse? (The Intellimouse comes to mind. I hear
that MS finally has finally fixed the driver.)

At any rate, it can't hurt to download and install the latest driver for
any mouse.
Click to expand...

Thanks Bob,

It's a thought. It's a Logitech wireless mouse that I've been using for
about 5 years. I have certainly never noticed any coincidene between the
moment that the start bar pops out, and the activity (ir inactivity) of the
mouse.
There's no point asking for advice if you're not going to follow it, so I'll
do what you say - but to be honest, I'm not holding my breath.
 
--
Replace the dots with dots


Terry R. said:
The date and time was Friday, August 21, 2009 2:26:01 PM , and on a
whim, mijewen pounded out on the keyboard:


Hi Mijewen,

My guess is that something in the System Tray/Notification Area is
causing it to pop. Messenger may still be loading even if you don't
"start" it. You may be able to do it within the program itself by right
clicking the icon in the tray, or download Autoruns and if you're
knowledgeable enough, temporarily disable some of the items. You could
also use MSCONFIG.

I keep my Taskbar at the top of the screen so everything drops down.
There are the occasional issues with a program hiding behind it. My
guess is that even though the Taskbar is supposed to be movable, it's
not 100% compatible in any other location than the default at the
bottom. Even Windows 7 has the quirk, but I prefer to leave it at the
top regardless.


Terry R.
Click to expand...
Thanks Terry,
I do have a stack of stuff in the System Tray - 17 icons at the moment. A
lot of it is essential, but inevitably, some of it isn't, so I'll turn off as
much as I can and see if it changes anything. Some is by Tosiba (the laptop
manufacturer), and I don't know how to stop it (eg I could do without power
monitoring, as I run on mains). Whatever causes the bar to pop out seems to
be asynchronous with anything I'm doing - it just happens at random moments.
 
mijewen said:
This is driving me mad!

I use Windows XP, with the legacy desktop - looks like Win95 - I'm a
dinosaur. I keep my Start bar on the left of the screen by
preference, and I use Auto-hide, so that I ngenerally get my whole
screen.

Intermittently, the start bar pops out, covering up the left side of
whatever I am working on. After about 20-30 seconds, it retracts
again. Sometimes, it won't happen again for about half an hour,
sometimes it is only a minute, which is a real nuicance when it stays
out for 30 seconds.

I have tried clicking all the buttons on the Start bar for stuff that
is open, to see if any of the programs I am running is responsible,
but it doesn't seem that way. I just have to wait till it goes away
by itself.

There is no track of the reason in the Events trace.
How can I find out what is causing it, so I can put a stop to it?
Click to expand...

It will pop out anytime the cursor touches the "hot spot" which - in your
case - is the entire right edge of the taskbar (left edge of your monitor).
You can avoid that by...

a) having the window you are working on less than maximized so you don't
inadvertantly touch the taskbar hot spot

b) set the task bar property to NOT keep on top. It will still pop out
but will do so under the window that has focus.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
 
The date and time was Saturday, August 22, 2009 1:15:01 AM , and on a
whim, mijewen pounded out on the keyboard:

Mijewen,

Please change your signature or stop it altogether, because it is being
inserted at the very top of your reply and it is inserting a delimiter
(the dash dash space "-- ") which tells news clients to remove
everything below that point (except for MS clients which are broken). I
replied to your message and you can see everything has been wiped out.
The proper place for a delimiter is at the bottom of the reply and
should only be used when replying below the quoted material in order to
preserve the prior post.

Thank you,


Terry R.
 
Terry, it's not me that's putting the delimiter in - I don't know where it
comes from.
My e-mail address is mikedotcollins@sundotcom and my signature is "replace
dots with dots in my email address" There are no double-dashes in it.

Mike.

Replace the dots with dots in my email address
 
The date and time was Saturday, August 22, 2009 4:14:05 PM , and on a
whim, mijewen pounded out on the keyboard:
Terry, it's not me that's putting the delimiter in - I don't know where it
comes from.
My e-mail address is mikedotcollins@sundotcom and my signature is "replace
dots with dots in my email address" There are no double-dashes in it.

Mike.

Replace the dots with dots in my email address
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

I know it's not you. That's why I suggested to eliminate the signature
altogether if you're going to continue using the web interface or any
other Microsoft news client, because they're broke.

The web interface you are using inserts the delimiter. Microsoft feels
it's okay to insert a delimiter when top posting, which is wrong.
That's because their clients ignore the delimiter on replies, so their
clients are broken. You don't insert a delimiter and then ignore it-
what't the point?


Terry R.
 
Terry R. said:
The date and time was Friday, August 21, 2009 2:26:01 PM , and on a
whim, mijewen pounded out on the keyboard:


Hi Mijewen,

My guess is that something in the System Tray/Notification Area is
causing it to pop. Messenger may still be loading even if you don't
"start" it. You may be able to do it within the program itself by right
clicking the icon in the tray, or download Autoruns and if you're
knowledgeable enough, temporarily disable some of the items. You could
also use MSCONFIG.

I keep my Taskbar at the top of the screen so everything drops down.
There are the occasional issues with a program hiding behind it. My
guess is that even though the Taskbar is supposed to be movable, it's
not 100% compatible in any other location than the default at the
bottom. Even Windows 7 has the quirk, but I prefer to leave it at the
top regardless.


Terry R.
Click to expand...
Thanks Terry,

I have deleted my signature. I see that you have one, and it appears after
a "--" delimiter.

Now - back to my original query.
The start bar must be governed by a software module, so is there any sort of
trace I can use, or a trap of some kind to find out what causes it to pop
out, or is it just down to trying stuff till I find out by elimination what
causes it?

Is there anybody in Microsoft I could write to, to get a method?
I guess rebuilding the system would be one way - but it's pretty drastic.
There may be some mileage in it,though, because some programs don't work any
more - for example, the Search facility in Windows Explorer doesn't search in
the text of files any more - it used to, but now, it searches in the
filenames! :-(

Mike.
 
Terry R. said:
The date and time was Friday, August 21, 2009 2:26:01 PM , and on a
whim, mijewen pounded out on the keyboard:
Click to expand...

I have noticed something : When the Start-bar pops out, it makes a sound.
I went through my configured sounds, and the only one that matched was for
"System Notification"

Does that get me any closer?

Thanks,

Mike.
 
The date and time was Monday, August 24, 2009 4:24:01 AM , and on a
whim, mijewen pounded out on the keyboard:
Thanks Terry,

I have deleted my signature. I see that you have one, and it appears after
a "--" delimiter.
Click to expand...

Hi again Mike. The delimiter is a dash dash space "-- ". And it was
designed to be used when bottom posting, as I'm doing.
Now - back to my original query.
The start bar must be governed by a software module, so is there any sort of
trace I can use, or a trap of some kind to find out what causes it to pop
out, or is it just down to trying stuff till I find out by elimination what
causes it?
Click to expand...

You could Google Autoruns and install it. When you launch it press ESC
to stop scanning, click Options and select Hide Microsoft entries. Then
press F5 to scan. You could systematically uncheck one in the startup
group and test, but the program could be loading in any number of places.

As I suggested earlier, try right clicking the icons and see if there is
a way to disable the service it's offering (if any).

You could try Process Explorer:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653(printer).aspx
to monitor what uses more CPU when the bar pops out.
Is there anybody in Microsoft I could write to, to get a method?
I guess rebuilding the system would be one way - but it's pretty drastic.
There may be some mileage in it,though, because some programs don't work any
more - for example, the Search facility in Windows Explorer doesn't search in
the text of files any more - it used to, but now, it searches in the
filenames! :-(

Mike.
Click to expand...

There are other search options. I just don't recommend Windows Search.
Copernic Search is recommended here often:
http://download.cnet.com/Copernic-Desktop-Search/3000-2379_4-10314159.html?tag=mncol;txt

Terry R.
 
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