Taskbar Background is not painting with correct theme color

from Stardock Forums

Most times after running full screen apps and playing videos (usually KMPlayer or using Chrome/Edge on youtube), I notice that the full screen app (yes i pressed maximize) doesnt cover the taskbar any longer AND the taskbar background color appears to go transparent.

You may think the taskbar is hidden but it isnt. All icons show up and they work.

Closing the app doesnt help. Its broken until reboot.

It also breaks if startdock is disabled the default win 10 menu returns with the background color missing. Opening the menu immediately fixes it. Reboot and notice start10 launches fine but the taskbar no longer paints with the correct theme color (it goes solid black) and will never come back (reboots dont help). It will not ever fix itself. Reboots/power off-on doesnt help

The only fix is to change themes. Reboot. Change theme back. Then its restored.

I believe there is a case where start10 isnt honoring the background taskbar color correctly and that creates these two failure modes. As it stands my taskbar is driving me nuts. Every few hours it messes up

I have included repro steps below with associated screenshots of the issue in numeric order

Check out the enclosed pics. They are numbered sequentially to make the sequence of event understandable.

Thanks in advance.

Happy Holidays

 

1) Taskbar has green theme applied

2) Here is is full screen. Menu and taskbar are green as expected. Use Settings->Themes to change theme

3) Use Settings-> Colors to ensure the correct checkbox is enabled (start, taskbar and action center)

4) Play full screen videos ensuring you pressed maximize button. Alternate maximize on/off as you play diffent videos (i use youtube and KMPlayer) and after a while you will see what appears to be the video NOT covering the taskbar. Close the app and the taskbar is permanently wrong color

5) Reboots Dont Fix It. Unload Stardock to try to return taskbar color with default Win 10 menu

6) The wrong color is STILL displayed until you press the menu button once. Then everything returns to normal

7) Reload start 10 or reboot and Start10 comes up with wrong color permanently. It will NEVER correctly paint (reboots/power off-on) doesnt help.

8) Ask community for help

start menu products
8,832 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Hello,

Sorry to hear you are having issues.

Taskbar issues will be addressed in the next version of Start11 

No ETA though for the next version at this time .

 


AzDude
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi,

Thanks for the quick response.

Are you telling me that Start10 wont be fixed? I dont own Windows 11. If Stardock forces me to upgrade to fix a bug in the existing product, is there an upgrade price?

As you are obviously very familiar with Start 11, whats the top new feature for Start 11 (other than Win 11 support)

Happy Holidays

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But, I can not reproduce your issue on my system.

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

What do you suggest? I have uninstalled start10 twice, rebooted and installed. Are there any known conflicts with other sw?

When i uninstall start10 the system gets stable.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

First, please try purge and reinstall steps as mentioned here: [link]. Just make sure to redownload the latest version from your account. Reboot after the purged. Reinstall, and Reboot again after the installation. Retest it. Report back here.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Please ignore the post from AzDude, he must have mis read your post and thought it was about Windows 11 taskbar features.

However I will say Start11 offers many new things over Start10 on Windows 10 such as Win10 menu, Win11 menu style, compact mode for Win7/Modern style, more control over the right hand side items etc.

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

I intend to upgrade (if stardock has such a thing) eventually when Win 11 is more mature and if/when they support TPM / wrong processor officially. I cant imagine millions of people rushing out to buy new MB, processor, etc just to get Win 11 especially when prices are insane.

However, I would get it immedately if it ran on Win 10.

Anyway, I chased this issue for 2 weeks and less than 24 hours after posting, I decided to do something crazy time intensive. I downloaded MS symbols and ran win debugger. It appeared (hard to confirm) that it was a driver problem. This is hard to understand because both win 10 menu and start10 use the same video driver.

I was running the latest build (Nvidia 497.09) so it seemed there was no where to go. Then i tried to remember when was the last time it worked. I installed a version 2 releases back (Nvidia 471.96) and it seems to work. For the past day i havent had any issues. I will update this post if the issue returns.