Taskbar has a personality

[Guest]

Hello,

Last night, my WinXP SP1 Home Edition taskbar showed some unusual behavior
last night and I was wondering if anyone had insights/thoughts, pleas, about
why it was happening and what I can do about it.

1) It would normally show a "ToolTip"-like fuller version of the window name
if I hover over a button, BUT last night they were either invisible or (at
least partly) hidden behind the taskbar.

2) I would click on button A and the window on button B would open, instead,
as if WinXP was somehow fixated on button B.

Is this about memory/resources being low, or is something else at play?

Thanks for your time and thoughts.

Bram

 

[Kelly]

Hi Bram,

No know sure fire fix is available at this time. In most cases, this is
cured by rebooting. More info here:

Explanation given here:

What is the difference between Minimize All and Show Desktop?
http://weblogs.asp.net/oldnewthing/archive/2004/05/27/143042.aspx

Tool Tips Hidden Behind Taskbar (Line 321)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Restore Taskbar and Desktop to Default Functionality (Line 164)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

--
Happy Mardi Gras,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Guest]

Dear Kelly,

Many apologies for not responding sooner. (I wasn't notified of your
response -- thought I would be -- and just plain forgot to check
manually...Many thanks for responding!)

I'll be taking a look at your articles (thanks for the links) but, if I may,
rebooting doesn't "cure" it, it just makes it go away for the session as I
then start another one. What I was hoping was to find out more about why it
happens at all, and what I could do to prevent it from happening in the first
place.

Hopefully, as one idea, your links will help out there.

Thanks again.

Bram

 

[Guest]

An alternative solution that programmatically changes the Z-order
(topmost/notopmost) value of the the taskbar has been crafted by MTec89.
Check it out, it works for me every time. A toolbar shortcut (or hotkey
assignment from a desktop shortcut) that runs his 20k FixXPToolTips.exe
program minimized seems to be a good workaround...

Download it from here:
http://mtec89net.com/?nid=7

Source code available from same link too (nice touch).

 

[Kelly]

Sounds interesting, Bill. Remind me to check this out. )

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Guest]

Dear Bill,

Thanks.

Do you know if this has an uninstall with it as well? Would something like
Spybot have an issue with it?

Please let me (and us) know when you get a chance, and thanks again.