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
42,721 views 59 replies
Reply #26 from Stardock Forums Top

Nevermind, just had the problem without having loaded VirtualBox this session...

*sigh*

Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting BuckoA51, reply 26

Nevermind, just had the problem without having loaded VirtualBox this session...

*sigh*
End of BuckoA51's quote
Told ya ^_^

Siege of Centauri
Reply #29 from Stardock Forums Top

I, myself, notice Windows 8/8.1 has some annoyances that I can't attribute to any of the Stardock products I run which I've dropped down to only Start8 although I also run DisplayFusion which may instigate it.  

For me, I run dual monitors and it is quite common for the taskbar to get pushed to the bottom of the stack such that programs will cover it completely which is difficult if you have auto-hide enabled which, in the end, prevents the taskbar from popping up on its own (although without auto-hide, they simply cover it instead).  I've also seen instances in the OP  problem but found that enabling the "Launch folder windows in a separate process" to have resolved them and increased stability.  The usual resolution to this is to use the task manager and right click Explorer and restart it although not a permanent solution by any means.

I think this is more-or-less just Microsoft's scheme in neglecting the old UI to force us to migrate to a new UI clearly designed by Fischer Price.

Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting mabreedlove, reply 29
clearly designed by Fischer Price.
End of mabreedlove's quote
:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Reply #31 from Stardock Forums Top

It's not "locking up" for me, I can still move windows, resize, alt tab etc, I just cannot click on the taskbar. Removing WindowBlinds definitely fixes the issue for me.

I don't even mind the new tiles in Windows 8 I think they are awesome on tablets, way better than Android or iOS. However I'm running a desktop here so have no need of them.

Reply #32 from Stardock Forums Top

Hey if you're running multiple monitors then you will have this problem. I found that only displaying the taskbar on one monitor fixed the issue. It may still happen but should be less often. A wonderful fix would be if someone just created a run file that would restart explorer as that is all you have to do to fix the bugged taskbar temporarily.

Reply #33 from Stardock Forums Top

I tried switching to one monitor and the problem persisted :( I really love the multiple taskbars though, think I'd rather switch Windowblinds off than lose them.

As I type this the taskbar has bugged out again, a real shame as Windows 8 looks so much nicer with Windowblinds applied. Stardock tech support are completely stumped too.

Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top

When My taskbar "Locks" I just press the windows button on the keyboard for the startmenue to pop up on that screen and it Unlocks & start working straight away :cylon:

Reply #35 from Stardock Forums Top

That definitely doesn't work for me, sometimes the start menu won't even open, though most times it does.

Reply #36 from WinCustomize Forums Top

windows 8 manager.it has a smart uninstaller function that can also get rid of anything left behind in the registry plus alot of other tools.it costs money but not much compared to what it all does that works without messing things up.even their registry cleaner does not break anything as far as i can tell.just focuses on bad things left behind

Reply #37 from Stardock Forums Top

I'll pass thanks, I don't hold out much hope of some random system optimiser magically fixing the problem.

For now I've given up on Windowblinds, Stardock Support are as stumped as the rest of us. I will try again next time there's an updated version.

Reply #38 from Stardock Forums Top

Stumbled across this thread looking for an issue with this.

Going to watch it for now.

1) Running 8.1 64X system 12G Ram Dual Monitors. build in Graphics Chipset.

2) WindowBlinds, Star Menu, Deskscapes,Fences would all be running.

Purchased Bundled Version and Downloaded From Stardock.

Would run fine, but then when doing some task like Opening Windows Explorer it would just show a white explorer bar.

All Taskbar Icons would have a shadow? / Image shifted version of them, none are clickable.

Start Menu will show All white, mousing over will reveal Some text at times, but 99% of the time is just a white bar with the app icon.

System is fairly new (under 3 Months old, so not much time for Registry corruption I'd hope)

3Key woopie to bring up Task manager would show the normal Win 8.1 Screen, returning to Desktop doesn't fix issues, Rebooting does.

 

Reply #39 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting BuckoA51, reply 35

That definitely doesn't work for me, sometimes the start menu won't even open, though most times it does.
End of BuckoA51's quote
Then all I can tell you is that it seems you have some serious issues with you setup. Re-install Windows :cylon:

Reply #40 from Stardock Forums Top

I've recently noticed W8 & Win8.1 demonstrating this issue. Explorer.exe dies, the task bar gets corrupted visually. None of the icons can be clicked on. I have to go into the task manager, force kill explorer.exe, then re-run it.

Reply #41 from Stardock Forums Top

I have the exact problem as Jeff_v, its beginning to look as if WB is starting to display a bug or incompatibility and this is not on one system but three completely different setups! The only way to get back to an operational Explorer is to kill the Explorer process and re run. Have stopped using WB for the mean time  :(

Reply #42 from Stardock Forums Top

Is this the type of corruption you are seeing?

 

 

 

 

Look at the notification area.  Eventually, if I don't kill WindowBlinds, the taskbar and individual windows become corrupt as well.  If I can exit WindowBlinds, the screen corruption goes away.  Then, restarting Windows Blinds is fine.

Reply #43 from Stardock Forums Top

Windowblinds 8.04 has been released, hopefully it fixes the issue. So far so good for me!

 

(v1.41.1 for Start8 has been released as well)

Reply #44 from Stardock Forums Top

Not fixed for me I'm sorry to say. Not really willing to reinstall my entire OS just for Windowblinds right now as I'm not having problems with anything else.

Reply #45 from Stardock Forums Top

I had the same issue and narrowed it down to a conflict with the DisplayLink Manager application running on my pc.  Unfortunately, this is the app that makes my USB video adapter (Toshiba dynadock) work.

If I kill the DisplayLink Manager in TaskManager the taskbar no longer freezes (unresponsive blinking icons are gone as well).

Reply #46 from Stardock Forums Top

I just installed WB and I am having the same issues, taskbar will lock up but will eventually free its self and open everything I clicked on, I am running Win8.1 and have 4 monitors running over a Lenovo dock and two DisplayLink USB Video cards..  I am testing the DisplayLink fix to see if its causing the issues, I am pretty sure that is what is causing my issues.

Reply #48 from Stardock Forums Top

I have some new information about this problem. Over Christmas I was lucky enough to get a new motherboard, so I finally reinstalled Windows 8. Completely fresh installation I set about updating, reinstalling the apps I use etc and of course one of the first things I installed was Windowblinds to see if the issue was resolved. At first everything seemed fine, then suddenly the problem was back again, completely locked up taskbar until Explorer was restarted.

At this point I knew it couldn't just be some bizarre Windows corruption, so I undid the last few things I'd changed and I found the setting that is causing the issue. In Windows 8 on a multi-monitor system, if you right click on the taskbar there are some new options for "Multiple Displays". If you choose "Shot taskbar buttons on Taskbar where window is open" rather than "All taskbars" then the locking up will happen. If you go back to "All taskbars" again, things are fine.

So those of you with multiple monitors that have also had issues can you reply here and tell me if this happens on your rigs too? I can then reopen the ticket to Stardock and get them to look into it again, maybe this time we'll get a proper solution.

Reply #49 from Stardock Forums Top

To everyone who said/thought I must be crazy/screwing up my computer etc, I just got this from Stardock tech support:-

Matthew,

I was finally able to reproduce this with the conditions you have given. I will place an internal ticket to have it looked at.

Thanks for the feedback.

End of quote

 

Looks like a fix might be on the way finally ^_^

Reply #50 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank goodness I found this thread--the hanging taskbar was beginning to make me hate the move to Windows 8.1. 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.