Forum Discussion

Aosmen's avatar
Aosmen
Iron Contributor
Jul 30, 2025

Taskbar freezes in place, hiding bottom of apps

I have my taskbar set to automatically hide itself, which is important to my workflow. HOWEVER, after a few hours of work, the taskbar reappears and freezes in place, hiding the bottom of whatever window I'm working on: the Send button for emails, the worksheet tabs for Excel, etc. (All Windows programs would normally shrink to fit the smaller window as soon as the taskbar reappears, but they continue to fill the whole screen, as if the taskbar is not there, except that the taskbar is there and hides their lowest section.)

5 Replies

  • lololololytg's avatar
    lololololytg
    Copper Contributor
    Oct 21, 2025

    Try disabling graphic acceleration:
    Settings > Display > Graphics > Advanced Graphics Settings (Row 2) > Default High Performance GPU = PC CPU
    Otherwise, update drivers (BIOS + Graphics Card + Chipset Recommended)

  • FabianYang's avatar
    FabianYang
    Copper Contributor
    Oct 21, 2025

    Yeah, that’s a common Windows 11 glitch — the taskbar stops auto-hiding properly after long uptime. Restarting Windows Explorer from Task Manager usually fixes it instantly.

  • VES27's avatar
    VES27
    Copper Contributor
    Oct 18, 2025

    Have had this for years.  Each time it happens I open Taskbar Manager/scroll to Windows Explorer (near bottom)/right click/Restart/close Task Manager.  This sorts it out for that session.  It has been a continual cause of complaint on the forum and at one point I think it was acknowleged as a problem by MS but was considered a low priority.  Does anyone know a way of making the above sequence in to a one (or two) button fix instead of two right clicks, two left clicks and a longish scroll?

  • Bolim's avatar
    Bolim
    Iron Contributor
    Aug 04, 2025

    Some third-party apps (like display managers, window management tools) can interfere. Try booting into Safe Mode. Press Windows + R, type msconfig, go to Boot tab, check Safe Boot, and restart. If the problem doesn't occur in Safe Mode, identify and disable recent third-party software.

  • Tanybrun's avatar
    Tanybrun
    Iron Contributor
    Aug 03, 2025

    Taskbar-related freezes and visual glitches like the one you're describing can stem from various issues, including explorer.exe bugs, driver conflicts, or display scaling problems. Since you're using auto-hide for the taskbar, and it reappears and then causes windows to freeze or not resize properly.