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Minimize, maximize and close button disappears

Anonymous
2010-03-24T08:34:53+00:00

For some reason the minimize, maximize and close buttons disappear on top of my windows. This is so for all applications. THe buttons are not visible, but they still work. For instance, if I click in the top right corner of the application, the application will close.

I don't know what causing this. Sometimes it happens just after I started my PC. Sometimes it doesn't occur for over an hour. I've tried to detect the reason, but I wasn't able.

I've surfed the internet trying to find a solution, but couldn't find anything that works (they speak of nvidia drivers often, but there isn't a nvidia driver in my laptop.)

Does anyone have a solution for this problem?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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  1. Anonymous
    2010-03-24T10:07:00+00:00

    First of all try to findout if this is related to any recent change that you have done on the machine.

    Such rendering issues can happen due to display driver? Try with inbox driver if you have installed additional driver for the display card.

    Do you see same problem in safe mode or safe mode with networking?

    Are you using AERO? if yes, would disabling AERO help?

    Try disabling all third party shell extentions using the tool shellexview and test. http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/shexview.html

    If you are not using default windows 7 theme change it to that and test?

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-09-10T11:19:45+00:00

    I have also had this problem from time to time.

    I found that by closing the process "dwm.exe" (Desktop Window Manager) from the task manager, it would restart by it self and restore all windows with their respective buttons to their original state.

    Hope this helps someone.

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-09-10T09:32:14+00:00

    I have the same problem from time to time in Windows 7.

    If I close "dwm.exe" from the task manager (this is the Desktop Window Manager") it will restart by it self and all the windows on my desktop will reinitialize, hence all the button appears again!

    Ps. restarting "explorer.exe" does not help.

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-07-18T03:43:16+00:00

    This happen to my Surface Pro and my tablet mode button was turned off.  When turned back on every thing was back to normal.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-09-10T18:44:19+00:00

    WTF.....speak in real people terms...

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