Classic Shell: Forum

Windows 8 Pro x32 laptop (GPU is Intel945)
CS 3.9.0 (now same issue cropped up in v3.9.1 - 8/22/13)

At random times the taskbar icons stop working right. I will close a program and notice the program stays on taskbar but is actually the program to the right of it if you hover over it. The clock also stops refreshing and I am led to believe time has stopped.
The program icons to the left work normally. The icons to the far right also stop updating properly.

If I close CS the taskbar updates but icons are still off by one- in other words the icon you click is actually going to be whatever icon is to the left of the one you are clicking. If I reopen CS the start button overlaps the pinned icons.

Thanks

I have never seen this in Windows 8, but I also don't have any pinned icons to the taskbar.
Is your taskbar locked or unlocked?
Can you show me a screenshot? I need one where the buttons are off, and one where the button overlaps the icons.

Hi,
Taskbar is locked, I will post pics as soon as it happens again
Thanks for your time and help!

Ok so I finally looked down tonight and saw the clock says 7:50pm and it is like 9:30pm
I got some screen shots for you- the icons on task bar to right are 1 off and the icons to left are not showing some programs that are actually open. I will try to leave it like this to see if there is any info I can provide while the issue is present.
One pic shows when mouse is over a prog that is not showing- the Windows aero preview or whatever still works. The other photo shows how the mouse is over the Skype icon but is displaying info for Trillian which is to the left of the Skype icon.
Thanks!
C

edit- just added pic of overlap- occurs when CS is closed and reopened. thx
Also- CS is updated after restart but stays frozen- ie- the icons and time change but continue not to update

Just installed v3.9.1, thanks. Will report back with issues if any.
C

Hi,
Same issue with v3.9.1
left the computer sitting for a few hours- no sleep/hibernate, did have a VNC session that closed on it's own. Frozen taskbar. Restarting CS does not fix, but restarting CS and Windows Explorer seems to work.

When you say "frozen taskbar", do you mean that you can't do anything on the taskbar or that the clock stops updating?

All explained above- clock, icons not accureate, etc. It is not frozen like an app that is unresponsive- it is different- thx.

It is still not clear to me if all taskbar functionality is frozen or only parts of it. Apps can be responsive even if the entire taskbar is frozen. So can you for example switch applications by clicking on the buttons in the taskbar? Can you click on the clock and adjust the time?

No it still works but you might have a program showing it is open when it is closed or have an open program but only blank space on the taskbar. If you click it will work. It just seems to freeze in terms of display. Imagine if the display froze- and you closed or opened programs- the taskbar has them all wrong and does not respond visually to rollovers but the Aero preview works and clicking works.
Hope that helps.
Only happens occasionally, I am a very grateful CS user!
C

Happened a few times today. Seems like it may be related to display going to sleep? Also if I unlock the taskbar and move it it totally starts working again.
C

Well, if you are certain that the problem doesn't happen if the start menu is not running, then it might be related to Classic Shell. Or it may be a particular combination of software or drivers.
Unfortunately until I can reproduce this issue on my computer I can't do anything to fix it. The cause can be anything.

Ya had this machine for years and Win8 for almost a year never had the issue previously. I could run a debugger or something if you think that might help determine what happens. Maybe gpu driver? Thanks.
C

FWIW:

It seems all I have to do now is unlock the taskbar (if it is locked) drag it to another edge and drag it right back and it works again. Strange.
C

For some reason, I now have exactly this same problem, only on Windows Server 2012 Essentials (it has the same interface as Windows 8). This machine has been working fine for over a year. I'm running 4.1.0, which is the latest version as of this writing.

The taskbar display will freeze, e.g. it will no longer update on the display, so any programs that are running when it freezes will always appear to be there, and any new programs won't appear at all, even though hovering over the taskbar will generate popup windows as it should, you can just never tell which program you're hovering over because the taskbar image is frozen at some random moment in the past.

I found that if I resize the taskbar (make it two rows high instead of one), it starts working again. Weird.

I have found several times that the current time display freezes and does not update. This does not always occur, but does happen enough to be annoying. On reboot, the time again works correctly.

I could not find this bug as having already been reported. Has anyone else seen this? Is there a workaround?

Wow!
How do you make the taskbar higher than one row?

This is assuming your taskbar is along the bottom of the screen.

Right-click on the taskbar somewhere that there isn't a button. A context menu will appear,... ensure "Lock the Taskbar" is not selected.

Now hover the mouse over the top edge of the taskbar and the pointer will turn into an up/down arrow.

Click and drag up and the taskbar will resize to as many rows as you want.