Firefox and Thunderbird leaving Blank task Icons in Taskbar

from WinCustomize Forums

Well I'm giving the taskbar replacement another shot. To me, that only works best in Windows Vista because of the live previews option. However, I am getting something odd...

 

So far it ONLY seems to happen when I open firefox or thunderbird.... everything else works just fine, so I'm kind of stumped:

 

Whenever I open Firefox or Thunderbird, it opens, but in the live thumbnail preview "taskbar" area it just creates a blank space as to where the window would be.... you can hover over the blank spot and it will say "firefox" and it is clickable, but it is just blank, no live preview. Now get this... whenever I close Firefox or Thunderbird, the blank space STAYS there. You can still hover over it and click on it, but nothing happens. So if I open and close firefox 5 times, I will have 5 blank spaces..... I hope this isn't so confusing... but it's kind of annoying.... any ideas?

OS: Vista Home Premium 64bit

OD+ v. 1.90b537u(beta) - had to use the beta in order to get the system tray icons to work

 

Really, that's the only thing, otherwise this'd be perfect... any help would be appreciated...thanks!

objectdock
4,251 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Anyone having this problem? I seriously can't be the only one...

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I am not, but I do know that FF3.1 is being delayed because of bugs in it's Javascript. Maybe that's the reason, or maybe your Java has updated recently and that is causing a problem. I'm just speculating. I couldn't really say for sure.

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

are you suggesting I somehow revert to an older version? I have Version 6 update 7 (build 1.6.0_07-b06)

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

actually, this does the blank thing whether i have live previews enabled or not.... so it's not the live previews itself that is causing the problem...

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Okay.... anywhere else I can post? This is really annoying me and I wish there was a solution for this... it's the ONLY thing!! Fix that and I'm happy free!! I find it odd that EVERY other program works just great EXCEPT Firefox and Thunderbird... what I want to know is.... why?

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I soon found that the problem isn't tied down to just 'live previews'. Even with live previews and screenshots turned off, whenever i would open up firefox or thunderbird it would display a blank spot where it should be. Then it would just "stick" there even after closing firefox and/or explorer, thus, the taskbar can get very big with a bunch of blanks after a while.... kind of stupid... (this ONLY happens on the zoomer, the tabbed docks seem fine, but i want the zoomer because of the live previews). Anyone else with similar problems or know how to fix it? I seriously can't be the only one.... thanks!

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

If you haven't done so already, please email support@stardock.com and start a trouble ticket. They will be able to assist you.

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

oh yea, I didn't even think about doing that... lol :-" thanks Hankers.

I just submitted a ticket. If I happen to get a solution before someone else I will post it here then in case someone else has a problem...

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Well I did the tech support thing, which took forever and a day, only to have the conclusion that it is due to my OS being a 64bit system and there's no 64bit support in OD. He states that 64bit will be supported in OD 2, which will be "released later this year." But I'll believe it when I see it (the release that is.....)

Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top

I just found out my blank spaces problem is actually the same thing as this.  My firefox works fine, though.  On one computer, thunderbird works just fine, but on my wife's computer, blank spaces.  I have to restart od to get it to either fix, or show a thunderbird icon.

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

This is posted in my post as well, but now we have a half solution in two places:

Here's a half fix...there needs to be an update for option b:

A) if you use thunderbird (or firefox) that has this problem, do the following:

1) create thunderbird.bat

(right click, new, text document, then rename the file thunderbird.bat, you'll have to have your extentions showing)

2) add the following:

start C:\"Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe"

3) save

4) drag the batch file to od

5) right click on it and select dock entry properties

6) Change the icon, and run minimized (this keeps the black box from popping up)

Now thunderbird works as it should

 

B) If you use Thunderbird through your calendar link (like I do)

1) follow steps 1-3 above

2) right click the calendar and select dock entry properties

3) select the batch file as the link...or just change .exe to .bat

This allows thunderbird to work, but you will have a black box pop up for a very short period of time.