Taskbar Auto-Hide fails frequently

I have the task bar set to Auto-Hide but now and then, maybe twice a day, it doesn't hide. None of the tray items are flashing, the mouse is not near. What I do is stop explorer.exe processes until the task bar disappears, then it comes back for a moment, and auto-hides correctly.

I don't know if this is a fault of the task-bar, or one of the icons/programs. I'd like to be able to ask each tray icon if it's the one keeping the task-bar visible.

Stopping explorers closes windows that I wanted open. It would be nice to know which exporer process is the one running the task-bar, even better would be to make one do that only.

Any help appreciated.

Couple of things you can try:

1. Run a full scan with your anti-virus of choice to rule out any malware hijacks of the taskbar. Since no AV product is 100% effective 100% of the time, you could run a second scan with the Free Malwarebytes. (Scroll to bottom of page and click on Free Download.)

Malwarebytes | Free Anti-Malware & Malware Removal

2. You might have accidentally resized your computer screen which could affect how the taskbar operates. Click F11 (top row of keyboard) and see if it makes any difference.

3. If the taskbar reappears in #2 above, it might have been resized. Right-click a blank part of the taskbar and a menu should appear. On this menu click Properties. The taskbar dialog box will appear. Customize how the taskbar operates by checking the appropriate boxes. You can also choose where you want the taskbar to be located: top, bottom, left or right. (Note: if a box is already checked, try unchecking it and then re-checking it.)

4. If none of the above helps, you might have damaged or corrupt system files. Run a System File Checker scan from an elevated command prompt. (Option 2.) Note: if damaged/corrupt system files are found, you should run the scan 3 times, rebooting after each scan. To open an elevated command prompt, Open the Start Menu, click on All Programs > Accessories, > right click on Command Prompt, > Run as administrator.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

Hope some of this helps. Please post back with results.

@marsmimar, thanks for those.

1. it's a corporate controlled computer, with McAfee. No recent reports of viruses. Disk died recently and was replaced with clean build. Fault was there before and after.

2. Screen is resized occasionally when connected to wall-TV/screen. Think I would have noticed if that was the cause.

3. Task bar is at the bottom and 'locked'

4. I think the disk-rebuild argument eliminates the idea of corrupted files. I had not thought of the relevance of the disk rebuild to this until you said.

Thanks for your ideas.

I have this regularly. It seems to be caused by some apps/games.
For example, the Freecell game always stops the taskbar automatically minimizing.
Forum posts suggest it is a Windows bug.
The simplest and most effective remedy is to restart the computer.

Nice to know it's not just me that gets this. Bug yes, but is it the app, or Explorer(?) Rebooting is too disruptive for me, I'd like to be able to stop just one explorer and know that it's the taskbar and nothing else.