Part of taskbar getting overwritten

[Gwaihir]

Hi, this is my first post here so apologies if this issue has been dealt with elsewhere.
I have a problem whereby the top edge of the taskbar gets overwritten by some applications. In the attached image this has been caused by the bookmarks pop-up in Firefox but similar things happen with other apps. It seems as if this area of the taskbar is not properly delineated so, although it is not possible to drag open windows over it, applications seem to be able to overwrite it
This is on a new-build system with Windows 7 and the various apps newly-installed and whilst not a serious issue any insights would be gratefully received.

 

[Imperfect1]

Hi Gwaihir, welcome to the forum.

You should be able to manually change the size of your windows so they don't overlap the Taskbar. For example, if you put your cursor in the Title Bar at the top of the screen, and move it up, it will lift the whole window up higher. (You could, of course, resize the window so that it is permanently slightly smaller.) On the Desktop, you should be able to do something similar, by placing your cursor on the lower edge of the program page (where it's overlapping the Taskbar) and when you get the vertical double-arrow ⬍ just move the window up a little, until it's off the Taskbar.

 

[Gwaihir]

Thanks for the reply. I can indeed do all that, and as I explained a window so treated does not cause any problems, even if it is moved so that it's bottom edge goes behind the taskbar.

The problem is that some applications (Firefox in the example I provided) can open a pop-up window which extends below the main app window and this seems to corrupt the top edge of the taskbar. Once that's happened it persists until (1) I hover over the taskbar icons in the affected area until the pop-up information text appears, which overwrites the corruption, or (2) unlock the taskbar and briefly drag it's top edge upwards and back.

 

[PhantomTa2]

Did you find a solution to this problem? I have it, too, and it's extremely annoying

 

[Layback Bear]

Try changing the resolution on your screen.

 

[PhantomTa2]

Tried it, didn't work. Plus, I like the resolution as it is.

 

[Gwaihir]

Hi PhantomTa2,

I was using Windows Classic theme. Since switching back to Windows 7 Aero the problem has gone away. So it might be worth trying another theme.

 

[PhantomTa2]

I'm on classic, too. Will try that, thanks

*EDIT* It worked, thanks. But I don't really like the other themes.....guess I'll have to get used to them

 

[Gwaihir]

Interesting - so it looks like Classic has a bug. I don't suppose there's a snowflake's chance in hell of Micro$oft doing anything about that.

 

[PhantomTa2]

I used classic on x86 with no problems. Since I switched to Win7 Utimate x64 SP1 I've come across a few annoying bugs. Now I'm on just x64 without SP1 and the only problem I have is the taskbar. I think it's to do with the x64 version rather than Win7 as a whole

 

[Layback Bear]

Glad you all got it fixed. That Classic thing sure would of fit well in the first post. The more info you can give us the better. Just a tid bit more; if you let Windows 7 look like and be Windows 7 it won't be long and you all will like Windows 7.

 

[Gwaihir]

Well, it simply never occurred to me that it might be dependant on the theme I was using. That's why I didn't think of mentioning it. I was thinking that it was a bug in the graphics driver and it was purely by chance that I happened on the true explanation. Obviously no-one on this forum had discovered this problem up to now, presumably because most don't choose to use the older styles. At least my graphics card and driver have been exonerated which is a relief.

As for getting to like Windows 7 I would say it's more a case of getting used to it's eccentricities. At every new incarnation the designers seem to introduce things more for the sake of making it look new and different than more convenient to use. One example of this is the task bar and quick-launch bar. On my old XP and Vista systems I could mix application and document shortcuts in the same bar. Now that appears to be no longer possible and I really can't see why that change was necessary.

 

[Layback Bear]

It's imposable to make a operating system everybody will like everything. This might help.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/888-quick-launch-enable-disable.html

 

[Gwaihir]

Hi LB,
Yes , I knew about that one and already used it to put some doc shortcuts on the taskbar - but - it still doesn't allow mixing of app and doc shortcuts in the same space. This might not seem important but it has removed some flexibility for no obvious purpose.

Anyway I suppose this is getting off topic so I'd better leave it there