Taskbar bug, doesn't bring programs to front.

This is the second time I've gotten this bug, and it seems to occur roughly two weeks after a fresh install.

Long story short, I pin all of my favorite applications to the taskbar and when I click on a running program, I expect it to bring focus to that program (bring it to the front). Instead, it flashes yellow and the window that I want stays behind every other window. The only program that does not do this is Digsby for whatever reason. Basically, the only way to see an existing window is to minimize all of the windows in front of it and only clicking on the window itself will give it focus. That's partly a lie, because I've discovered that a series of clicks on the taskbar icon will do it, namely: right click, left click, right click, left click. I don't want to have to do four clicks when one normally works.

I am running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit acquired through the MSDN program for students (Academic Alliance or something). I do know that I never had these issues in the beta with Ultimate edition.

Thanks.

I am also having this problem. I'm using Windows 7 Professional 32-bit and am having the same symptoms. Clicking a program on the taskbar doesn't bring it to the front, it just blinks yellow/orange. I have to Win-tab or minimize windows in front of the program to get to it. Any help on this would be most appreciated.

richc46 said:

Go to search type cmd

Then right click on cmd and run as administrator.

Then in cmd type this sfc /scannow. If errors are found and it is not fixed. Run it again. It repairs one error at a time.

This is something that I have been wondering about, because with XP SFC was a quite different critter. It required having the CD (unless it had been copied to the drive, and the path to it had been set), and it checked all errors sequentially. The greatest problem with it was that it would sometimes replace a newer file with an older one, which of course is often undesirable. Therefore, I'm wondering exactly what it uses for a reference, and how it deals with updated files?

surfasb said:

It helps to specify the offending program(s)..........

It's all programs, the bug is in windows itself. I've tried multiple combinations of apps. Here is a more detailed description of what happens.

Say I have 3 programs open. I have IE at maximized, AIM behind IE, and Notepad minimized.

If I click on the AIM bar label, it blinks orange and doesn't bring AIM to the front. My only way to get to it is to minimize IE.

If I click on the Notepad bar label, it restores notepad from minimize and brings it in front of IE. If I then click on IE and put notepad behind IE, then I can no longer click on the Notepad bar to bring it back to the front. It just blinks yellow. I have to minimize IE to access the program.

This may be a bug specific to the Win7 Aero GUI, I haven't tried turning it off, nor am I willing to accept that as a valid fix. There must be some reason its doing this. I hope this additional description is helpful.

After selecting the application that does not show up, press alt+space, then maximize. Worked for me.

You can give this idea a try: Newly opened program/email does not open in front

Set the decimal value to 0. Worked for me!

richc46 said:

Go to search type cmd

Then right click on cmd and run as administrator.

Then in cmd type this sfc /scannow. If errors are found and it is not fixed. Run it again. It repairs one error at a time.

Thanks for the suggestion, richc46 :)
I had the same problem, scanned my system with sfc /scannow, it found many problems and repaired them although the result was that "Some of the problems couldn't be repaired" or something similar.
Then I restarted my system and everything works perfectly good. No problems with loosing focus to programs (especially Google Chrome) and having to minimize the ones I am working to get to them, the taskbar hides itself correctly and some other problems are gone too :)
Thanks once more :)