Windows Explorer window & some Control Panel windows will not close

[csbellmd]

Windows Explorer window & some Control Panel windows will not close

Hello to all:
This problem just started a few days ago on my Windows 7 Professional 32bit system.

When I open a Windows Explorer window and some Control Panel windows all is good. Problem is that when I try to close the window by pressing the top right window close button or if I right click on the taskbar instance of the window and choose to close it, the program does not close but instead is minimized to the notification area with the formation of a new folder icon. This icon is a standard windows yellow folder. If I expand the notifications area and hover over that folder, a balloon window lets me know that there are 'x windows' where x represents the number of windows that have been minimized (instead of closing as I originally wanted).

Furthermore, a right click on that folder in the notification area brings up a context menu including the names of the windows (that I can click on and maximize back onto the screen). At the bottom of the context menu are the options to 'Restore all' and 'Close all'.

Not sure why this came about. Thanks in advance for your help.

Clint

 

[csbellmd]

Update:

Just noticed that if I click on the window close button while holding down the keyboard shift key, the window closes normally.

Clint

 

[csbellmd]

Just wanted to bump this since to see if anyone had any ideas.