Clicking on the 2nd program icon on the taskbar results in a click on another icon in the taskbar

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

Please try, uninstall Start11, reboot immediately (important), download latest version available in your account product download page: https://store.stardock.com/myaccount/products. Install it, reboot immediately again. Retest it and report back.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

I did everything you said to the letter, and unfortunately the issue still occurs. Some programs seem to only cause this behavior from one click to the next, but the one program that seems to always cause this is Chrome. 

I'd like to clarify that it does seem that the slot matters. It mainly happens to happen in the 2nd slot, though I have gotten it to happen once or twice in the first. In your testing you show the icon being far to the right, not in the 2nd or 1st slot, so I'd ask you try it again under more exact conditions.

I also determined more details while testing. If the secondary program that gets opened by the affected icon has more than one window open, instead of just bringing the window into focus and making that icon selected (aero glass) like in the OP, instead the window selection dropdown for that program will appear directly, in the wrong position of course.

I installed Chrome and pinned it next to my explorer button. But, I can not reproduce your issue, but I do notice a lightly different behavior when I click on Chrome button. It open up another Chrome.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Hmmm, sorry to nit pick, but what if you put the group of actual windows (and not the initial pin) in the second spot and click on that a few times? Not sure how you're pin ended up like that but I pinned chrome while it was open and my pin for it is the same as open windows. That is, clicking on my pin doesn't open the windows in a separate taskbar slot like yours.

IIRC you're also using the Enhanced Taskbar. What about autohide? Just trying to think of any differences since at least my GIFs show I'm not making this up lol...

With the taskbar autohide turn on, I still don't see your issue on my system.

Moving forward, please do Clean Boot steps as mention here: https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1334935592/Start11+Clean+Boot. Do note that clean boot need to be done with care. Try it and report back. 

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

I will try a Clean Boot soon when I get a chance.

However, I thought I'd try a Windows Sandbox first since it was more convenient, and in theory should be the most clean setup possible.

All I did in this sandbox after starting it was install Chrome. FireFox, and Start11, and then configure Start11 to have the enhanced taskbar on top with auto-hide, always combine icons, etc.

Apologies, since the sandbox seemed to screw with the recording framerate, which makes telling when a click happened difficult, but the following video shows:

1. All icons other than Chrome behaving normally (though I have seen others take on this bug on my host system)
2. Clicking Chrome while it's in the first slot unhides the icon two to the right (Edge), which was minimized!
3. Clicking Chrome while it's in the second slot does the same to Firefox! 
4. Sometimes (left) clicking on Chrome shows its right-click context menu! This doesn't even happen on my host system
5. Clicking on the Chrome icon after those two other Windows were unhidden, will still elect whichever is two to the right of Chrome, similar to the bug on my host

I assure you the Sandbox was not "lagging" like that and it's only the recording. While still not perfectly isolated (e.g. the hardware is still unique to my machine), I'd assume that fact I can trigger this bug (set of bugs?) in a Windows Sandbox should at least prove it's not unique to my system configuration or some other application I have installed.

No?

I still can not reproduce your issue. However, I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience. Thank you.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

-If your taskbar is at the bottom, can you reproduce this?

-If you have the 'Enhanced Taskbar' on or off, does it change the behavior either way?

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

1. Autohide is not required to reproduce
2. Chrome (or other programs willing to be part of this bug) must have more than one window open to reproduce, if there is only one window the issue seems to not occur
3. The issue is reproduceable even with the taskbar on the bottom
4. The issue requires the Enhanced Taskbar to be enabled to be reproduced. After enabling it the issue begins immediately, no Explorer restart is required
5. I could not get the context menu appearing from a left-click part of the issue to happen this time so that may have been a fluke from the previous sandbox
   
   

I'd like to clarify the behavior as well, in case my description wasn't clear.

Expected behavior when clicking icon with 2 windows open:

• First click: shows window selector pop-up
• Additional clicks: "Pushes in" the icon, but otherwise nothing happens and then window selector pop-up stays open

Observed behavior when clicking icon with 2 windows open:

• First click: Activates/brings-to-foreground a different program's icon/window, then after a decent delay shows the window selector of the correct program (e.g. chrome)
• Additional clicks: Completely repeats what the first click does.
  • The "other" program briefly made inactive, and then is activated again
  • Then, the window selector disappears and then after a decent delay re-appears

I can work to capture better (less laggy) footage of the sandbox if desired, probably using some other capture method.

Hi oblivioncth,

Following your steps with the same applications in Start11 2.6 (Start11Config.exe version 2.6.0.2 to be exact) from Windows 25H2 (26200.7840), but I haven't been able to reproduce an issue. 

It's possible I'm missing something you're doing or observing.  For example, when you say a window "comes into focus" I want to make sure I can see that to make sure we're talking about the same thing.  This is difficult if I can only see your taskbar.

Beyond that, other specific conditions could be helpful.  This may include:

• How many windows of each application are open, and on which monitors
• What exactly is pinned to the taskbar
• Whether or not these windows are maximized/minimized/closed, etc

Another thing that would be quite helpful:

"Reset settings" from Start11's settings backup tab, then only change the 'Enhanced taskbar'.  See if you can reproduce this with just that change alone.  If the problem does not occur, as you make any more changes, test again. 

If you can isolate the specific settings change that directly results in the behavior you are seeing, let us know and feel free to send me that backup file.  If we could get a bigger picture (whole screen if possible) of this reproducing on sandbox, this will especially be useful to help us try again to reproduce with your exact reproduction steps.

Thanks and best regards,

Adam McGuinness
Stardock Support Specialist

Sure thing. When I have a little more time Ill make a proper video showing most of the screen and the entire testing process from start to finish with commentary so it's as clear as possible.

Edited my comment above with an additional suggestion.  Thanks again.

I get this too and it is driving me !@#$% nuts.

I have the same issue. When there are apps that have multiple windows open a click on that icon becomes a click on somewhere to the right. If I click on the Explorer Icon here it will open After Effects of Total Commander instead. 

Quoting Zimond, reply 14

 

 



I have the same issue. When there are apps that have multiple windows open a click on that icon becomes a click on somewhere to the right. If I click on the Explorer Icon here it will open After Effects of Total Commander instead. 

End of Zimond's quote

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. I believe this same issue has been reported before and I have forwarded your problem/question to Stardock Support Team for their assistance. Please keep an eye on this thread for any updates. We appreciate your feedback and patience. 

While waiting, Please add information on your Windows full version and OS Build number. Use Winver.exe to get these numbers.

Thank you.

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

It seems like the same issue as in the OP. At least I'm not alone haha.

Im back where my Win 11 machine is so I'll make the demonstration video soon.

Hello,

We'll have this logged and do appreciate your posts. 

Internal Ref: ODNT-12105

Thanks and best regards,

Adam McGuinness
Stardock Support Specialist

It will be addressed in the next update.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Hello again,

This is now addressed in the latest beta release for the software. 

For details on downloading the beta, listed changes, and feedback, please see:

https://forums.stardock.com/541012/start11-27-beta-feedback

Thanks again and best regards,

Adam McGuinness
Stardock Support Specialist

Hello,

After suffering from the same situation, I followed a few methods to stop this from happening. First I have two PC's running the same configurations of windows, the latest 26H2, my tower does not do this, but my laptop does. Both run Windows 11 Pro, and both have much of the window's update settings modified to NOT automatically download and update the systems and well as the hardware drivers. I have made that my default method of operation so that I can carefully control what Microsoft does when I do my regular bimonthly updating and backup cloning of my systems.

I had updated my OS's October 1, 2026 only to find that my laptop began doing this double running of programs. When you left click on an icon to run it from the taskbar, for some weird reason the icon adjacent usually, but not always, will also run. So if I have my Edge program on the far left, and to the right of it is the File Explorer, and to the right of the File Explorer is Ookla's Speed test, when I click on the File Explorer, usually the speed test opens too. If I click on the Edge icon, usually the File Explorer runs or the taskbar's far right program's icon is run as well, but not always as I said because it seems a random occurrence. I have Stardock's Start11 (v1), Windowblinds 11, CursorFX, IconPackager as well as the installer manager, Object Desktop installed on both my computers. All of them are up to date.

One solution I tried was to check for corrupted system files by using the following procedure, (and hopefully it would fix it):

Press the Windows key + R and type CMD.
Press Ctrl + Shift + Enter to open an administrative Command Prompt.
Type the following command and press Enter:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Wait for the scan to complete. From there, type the following command and press Enter:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Reboot the PC when the scan is complete.

Run the SFC tool, (System File Checker) open the Command Prompt as per the previous steps.
Type the following command and press Enter:

sfc /scannow

Close the Command Prompt when the scan is complete. Reboot the PC. This unfortunately did nothing, even though it did find corrupted files.

I decided to do the initial suggestion: uninstall Start11 (I am using version 1, not Start11v2) and I seen in the uninstall procedure to first shut down the program before uninstalling. When I opened the task manager and found the program, I stopped the task, it began running again, this was not expected, so I closed all of this, ceased the uninstall procedure and ran msconfig.exe. From there I chose to boot up in safe mode with network capacity.

That was my fist clue to being on the right track. When the safe mode reboot was done, I checked and could open any of the taskbar programs with a single left click, no double runs of anything! I uninstalled Start11 and rebooted to normal mode again by running msconfig to do so. I tested the taskbar, and yes, they all worked properly, no double runs of programs happened.

In normal mode, I now opened up my Object Desktop manager and reinstalled the legacy Start11 program. Rebooted my laptop and I no longer have any double runs from a single left click on any of my taskbar icons.

To further clarify what I have setup in my Windows settings (Personalize-Taskbar), I never combine taskbar buttons and hide labels, icons or group them together. The only boxes checked are "show flashing on taskbar apps", the taskbar is at the bottom and left aligned, with default size and it is not 'auto hidden' either. In Start11, taskbar button are never combined, Windows 7 style is chosen, taskbar align is at the bottom, and size is large.

I hope that this does not happen again with the next major Microsoft OS update, but at least this procedure seems to have solved the problem. I find that is is odd though that with two PC's running nearly everything the same, that one is affected and the other is not. Thanks for your help and suggestions on how to fix this.