How can I get rid of this number at the bottom of my screen on my surface 5 laptop?

Question

A number in small grey box has appeared at the bottom of my screen. It is present on every single screen, including the home page, and even on the sign in page. I initially thought that it was the temperature but not I am unsure. It block outs important buttons. Please help. Screenshot 2023-12-28 002353.png

Answer 1

1. Open Task Manager(Click on the search button and type in Task Manager)
2. Under the "Processes" tab, find the process named "WindowsExplorer"
3. Click on it and hit restart task on the top of the task manager window.
4. It should work now

Microsoft should be embarrassed for allowing silly bugs like this to still persist. What's even more embarrassing are these so called "experts" who instruct the users to run extensive scanning operations like sfc or outright advocating a full device format to fix such issues.

Answer 2

restarting windows explorer worked for me as i had the same issue.Thanks BelowDecibel

Answer 3

Hi Riya,

Welcome to Windows Q&A community.

Can I know if there is any application open in the background, such as Visual Studio? If so, try to turn off the application and see if it persists. You can also try to open Task Manager and End Task for individual application to see if the number is triggered by specific application.

Also, you can try to fix the system via the following two methods and then see if it takes effect.

Method 1: Run the SFC.
Follow the below steps:

1. Open Command Prompt.
2. Select “Run as Administrator”.
3. Type “sfc /scannow” without quotes and hit Enter.
   Now check for the issue.
   Method 2: Run the DISM Tool.
   If the issue persists, I would have you run the DISM tool to check the system health and will try to restore the files.
4. Click on 'Start'.
5. Enter 'Command prompt' in the Search box.
6. In the list of results, swipe down on or right-click Command prompt, and then tap or click 'Run as administrator'.
7. In the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type the following commands. Press the Enter key after each command:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

To close the Administrator: Command Prompt window, type Exit, and then press Enter.
Note: The tool might take 15-20 minutes to finish running, so please do not cancel it.

Best Regards,

Ian Xue

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