BuckoA51 BuckoA51

Windowblinds causing taskbar to lock up in Windows 8.1

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Windowblinds causing taskbar to lock up in Windows 8.1

from Stardock Forums

So I've had this problem for months now, been back and forth with Stardock technical support and nothing they suggest seems to fix it. I've used Windowblinds for years and apart from one issue with UAC a few years ago I've never had any big problems with it. But at the end of my tether I've disabled it this morning as I simply cannot fix this issue.

Basically what happens is my taskbar keeps locking up. By locking up I mean I click the icons and nothing happens, I can't peek at a program (by hovering the mouse over it) I can't open the notification area (system tray) or open the Start 8 Start Menu by clicking on it (though pressing Windows key does sometimes work). It will stay like this for several minutes sometimes, before returning to normal. While in this state, one or more of my taskbar icons will flicker as if being clicked rapidly, but no windows will move on the desktop (unless I move them myself, I mean).

Nothing else willl lock up on the PC, I can still alt-tab through windows for instance, but it's just become too frustrating.

Please, I can't be the only user in the world experiencing this, can anyone suggest what might be causing it.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro
Version 6.3.9600 Build 9600
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name W8-GAMES
System Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model X58A-UD5
System Type x64-based PC
System SKU
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz, 3059 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. FD, 01/02/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.4
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode Legacy
BaseBoard Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
BaseBoard Model Not Available
BaseBoard Name Base Board
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State Unsupported
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS
System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume3
Locale United Kingdom
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.3.9600.16408"
Username W8-GAMES\Bucko
Time Zone GMT Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 12.0 GB
Total Physical Memory 12.0 GB
Available Physical Memory 7.68 GB
Total Virtual Memory 13.8 GB
Available Virtual Memory 8.43 GB
Page File Space 1.81 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualisation Enabled in Firmware Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

Graphics card - Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 Driver version 332.21
3 Monitors (1x Dell SP2039W 2048x112 and 2 x Samsung Syncmaster 204B 1600x1200)

Other software of note - Directory Opus, Rainmeter, Multiplicity, Deskscapes, VirtualBox, Thunderbird, Firefox, Trillian, Yoono Desktop, OpenOffice (that's what I'd typically have running in a day working at my PC anyway)

PC passed the SFC test, no corrupted OS files

If anyone's experienced anything similar to this please let me know, even if you didn't solve it, maybe we can find a common factor and narrow down what might be the cause!

windowblinds
42,911 views 59 replies
Reply #51 from Stardock Forums Top

On my multi-monitor system, changing the taskbar multiple display settings from Show taskbar buttons on "Main taskbar and taskbar where window is open" to just "Taskbar where window is open" fixed the problem.
End of quote

Fancy that, I had to do the opposite! Though perhaps I should try it that way around again, as far from being fixed in the later builds the problem now seems to be getting worse, not better :(

Reply #52 from Stardock Forums Top

I hope some kind of resolution/fix to this issue is found!

I have the same problem, and have been since I installed Windows 8.1 + WindowBlinds :(

Start11 - Customize the Start Menu and Taskbar in Windows 10/11.
Reply #53 from Stardock Forums Top

I've had to disable my Windowblinds again, it looks pretty but all this locking up is just a joke on multi-monitor systems. I got a message back from technical support saying there was "no progress" on a fix :(

Reply #54 from Stardock Forums Top

Are you all running the latest version of WindowBlinds, as well as the latest video drivers?

Reply #55 from Stardock Forums Top

Yes, latest Windowblinds WindowBlinds 8.1 (035 - Windows 8 Edition according to the about, 8.12 according to the installer exe) and latest non-beta Nvidia drivers.

Reply #56 from Stardock Forums Top

BuckoA51 - What is your ticket ID?

Reply #57 from Stardock Forums Top

It's #MGQ-645-39742

Reply #58 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank you for posting that. It seems the issue is reported to the developers and that's all the news I have for you currently.

Reply #59 from Stardock Forums Top

OK, I understand such things can be difficult to fix though it has been on-going for more than a year, I'm pretty disappointed that we're still waiting for a fix.