Vista yoyo taskbar

[Fidcal]

Windows taskbar has always been crap but although it doesn't get stuck so often in Vista I see a new bug. It pops up regularly and randomly when not wanted, mostly with the start menu.

 

So, in these forums I just typed something hit 'post reply' and focus is seized by the taskbar and up pops the start menu. Lucky I didn't turn away thinking I'd posted. Click back on Opera and hit 'post reply' again and it works.

 

It most regularly happens (and I mean dozens of times a day) with buttons and selectors of different types. It seems that Vista regards program focus to have ended. What puzzles me is the randomness. I can hit the same item in Dark Radiant a dozen times then the 13th time up pops the taskbar. wtf? Anyone else see this or is it a bug with my mouse driver or something?

 

I hate smart software. Why can't they just have a simple rule:

 

ONLY ever raise the taskbar when the mouse is at the bottom of the screen and in window mode.

 

That means for me, no start menu ever pops up unless I select it. The taskbar NEVER pops up unless I move the mouse to the very bottom of the screen and I'm not in game mode. Is this rocket science?

[jaxa]

You're saying you have it set to hide the taskbar until you mouseover the bottom?

[Fidcal]

Yes. Otherwise you waste part of the screen. It's of no use at all if you're not using it. It's the default.

[Baddcog]

I hate Vista.

 

Having said that the task bar in seven still sucks like that too. There's one button in Max I use all the time, the toggle windows (full screen for the selected window of the 4 window config). It's in the bottom right hand corner and everytime I go to hit that button the taskbar pops up in the way.

 

A 'only in windowed mode' would be a great addition.

[Fidcal]

yeah, programs should avoid as far as possible placing buttons etc very low down. Alternatively M$oft should provide other options for the taskbar. For Instance I wrote my own favourites program launcher long ago because the desktop is mostly covered so is fairly useless as a quick access to anything. My own tasklauncher pops up just above the taskbar. I set it so I have to move the mouse to extreme bottom left only. This works fine in practice with one sweep of the hand to bottom left you are funnelled to that spot. And of course, far less chance of bringing it up accidentally than only clipping anywhere on the bottom of the screen.

 

The whole concept of shortcuts on the desktop only really works if you have a huge monitor, huge resolution and are happy with small windows on it - maybe two monitors with one of them always just showing clear desktop on the left.

[Fidcal]

Just re-reading your post, I should clarify that my taskbar in Vista pops up randomly without going anywhere near it! Windows just randomly seizes the focus. It's like a bloody malicious virus. (yes I do run a paid for anti-virus program regularly.)

[Noisycricket]

If you have a wide screen monitor, you might try putting the taskbar on the left hand side of the monitor. I've used this setup for a long time now. It frees up a little bit of vertical space and puts the vast majority of button near that corner of the monitor.

 

 

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[Komag]

I also put a vertical taskbar on the left, just like that, for my 7 laptop, because the screen is 16:9 which is ridiculously wide to me

[Fidcal]

Not a bad idea actually. I didn't like the vertical years ago but things have changed now and my main use of the taskbar is only to access the start menu and the tray plus one toolbar folder.

 

So presumably you both mean with a fixed, always showing taskbar?

 

That would solve the popup problems.

 

There are two others I didn't mention. It still sticks down out of sight fairly often so I have to hit the Windows key to get it back. The other problem is fairly often it locks in the up position and the only solution is to bring up properties, change to 'always show', apply, then deselect 'always show' then apply!

 

This bloody taskbar actually has more bugs than features!

[Noisycricket]

Mine is fixed, probably because i can never remember which windows i have minimized.

[Fidcal]

Sadly my taskbar is twice as wide when at the side than it is high when at the bottom so uses probably as much space - maybe more. I think the problem is the start button wedges it open. I can't reduce the taskbar width because the start button is the minimum width I think.

[Noisycricket]

You can try right clicking in the toolbar area and check "small icons" and see if there not too small. I thought there was something else you could do, but i can't remember.

[Fidcal]

Yeah I've already got show small icons set. I did a search earlier and there may be a fix but all the websites I found were obscure and at best it looked like a messy fix and maybe all it would do would change the icon on the button and not necessarily the button size. I suppose I might search the registry for "start" but even if I reduced that to "go" or something the actual button size might remain the same.

[Fidcal]

After a bad session with this taskbar popping up unwanted over and over I googled and found a lot of people annoyed by this. One recommend 'Hide Taskbar' and this looks very promising:

 

Just run Hide Taskbar.exe and thereafter:

 

Ctrl + Esc toggles it totally hidden or 'normal' (depending on your setting.)

 

So with 'hide taskbar' NOT set in the taskbar's properties then Ctrl + Esc shows/hides the taskbar (BUT windows will maximize only to the top of where it will be so there is still a gap. But there is not much point in using it with this setting anyway I think.)

 

With 'hide taskbar' SET then Ctrl + Esc will hide/restore that state so then you can move the mouse down to show it as normal.

 

When hidden, the Start button and Start menu can be accessed via the keyboard Windows key. They pop up without the taskbar.

 

I wish it had an option to be triggered by moving the mouse down to the bottom of the screen. Then it might work like the Windows one ought to work instead of trying to be smart-arsed all the time.