Clicking minimized window in taskbar fails to open the window to desktop

MarkFenton 111

Interesting problem:

1) Open several windows on Windows 10 desktop.
2) Minimize (by any means -- <Win><d>, click the minimize button, whatever.
3) Click on icon on taskbar and the window will briefly flash on the screen and collapse back to taskbar.
4) hover over icon and the thumbnail preview(s) of windows collapsed under that icon appear,
and you can mouse over the thumbnails, but if you click them, they flash and collapse back to the taskbar.
5) <Alt><Tab> rotates through the open windows, bringing them to the fore normally.

User has experienced this on several different devices -- Surface Laptop, RDS Session, and regular desktop computers (with and without multiple monitors).
Also does not depend on the pointing device the user employs -- touchpad, mouse, bluetooth mouse, all exhibit the same behavior.
Repairing the OS, or installing updates will usually correct the issue for a time, but it crops up again after a short time.

Anyone know what else I ought to be looking at to diagnose this?

Thanks in advance,
Mark

Jenny Feng 14,246 Reputation points

2020-12-23T09:06:16.507+00:00

@MarkFenton
Hi,
Just checking in to see if the information provided was helpful.

If the reply helped you, please remember to accept as answer.
If no, please reply and tell us the current situation in order to provide further help.
Rachil 1 Reputation point

2022-08-20T00:17:00.907+00:00

After searching around on the web with no luck, I tried holding the CTRL key when clicking the Chrome tab on the taskbar, and it reopens again.
Rachil 1 Reputation point

2022-08-20T00:17:12.1+00:00

After searching around on the web with no luck, I tried holding the CTRL key when clicking the Chrome tab on the taskbar, and it reopens again.
Rachil 1 Reputation point

2022-08-20T00:38:32.353+00:00

After searching on the web for a solution with no luck, I tried pressing the CTRL key while clicking the Chrome tab on the taskbar. It reopens.

I also tried clicking the Chrome tab & holding it for more than a second, it also opens.

Accepted answer

MarkFenton 111 Reputation points

2021-01-21T08:28:21.44+00:00
OK, thank you all for your suggestions.

I'll state right up front I have no clue WHY this was happening. That said, I did find a solution:

Using DISM to do an on-line refresh of system files.

Opened an elevated command shell (I used powershell, but cmd works as well)

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth Followed by sfc /scannow

I had to run this while logged in as each user that was experiencing the issue on this workstation.

I suppose a fresh install of Windows would also have taken care of it, but this was easier, and didn't necessitate reinstalling all the user's applications.

Hope this helps others who run into this problem in the future
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1 person found this answer helpful.
Jim Hughes 0 Reputation points

2023-03-16T15:55:50.3533333+00:00

I tried this and it did not work for me. I've noticed that after restarting my computer the issue goes away , but if I then put the computer to sleep and awaken it, the issue is back. So entering sleep mode seems to trigger it on my machine.

Kevin Gao 0 Reputation points

2023-10-18T01:02:25.6833333+00:00

Same issue, only happening to one user in our domain and only doing the Health check and sfc /scannow is fixing it. Thanks
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Mark Fenton 36 Reputation points

2021-01-13T18:38:13.397+00:00

Addendum to the issue (apologies for not getting the right login for this forum -- this is still me)
The issue only happens when a program has multiple windows open.
If a program has only a single window, then everything works normally, but as soon as one opens a second window in the same application, and then minimizes one (or all) of the windows IN THAT APPLICATION, the problem crops up.

This is a real head-scratcher.

To re-iterate:
1 Open Outlook
2 minimize the window.
3 click on the taskbar icon and outlook expands to window normally.
4 now open an email message -- outlook now has two windows open, one for the main application, one for the email message
5 minimize one or all of these windows.
6 click on the taskbar icon and you cannot now reopen the email message's window this way -- it just flashes up on the screen and goes away.

This is repeatable with other applications -- Google Chrome, Edge, Powerpoint, Excel, whatever.
If there is only a single window for any given application, it functions normally. If there are multiple windows, it does not.

How does one even start to figure this stuff out?
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3 people found this answer helpful.
sachin sharma 6 Reputation points

2021-01-21T04:40:45.653+00:00

Have you found an solution for this? it's really irritating bug i've been facing since months and still couldn't find a solution!
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Jenny Feng 14,246 Reputation points

2020-12-21T03:21:18.623+00:00

@MarkFenton
Hi,
The user can’t maximize programs from taskbar on several different devices, right?
The main cause of this error is when two monitors are enabled but only one of them is plugged in and the program is running on another monitor where you can’t actually see it.
Choose the first option (PC Screen Only). Maximize your "hidden" application and you should see it on your screen. You can then Windows+P again and change it back to Extend.
If that doesn't work, try to disable the Tablet mode.
Open Settings then click System-From the left-hand menu select Tablet mode-Disable Tablet mode or select Use Desktop mode under “When I sign in.”
Reboot your PC to save changes.
Hope above information can help you.

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Chen Chao 陈超 0 Reputation points

2023-06-29T09:08:01.1666667+00:00

Hi Jenny

I met a same issue，the first solution is helpful，but when user restart PC， issue will reproduce.

And the second solution：i can not find Tablet mode in a win11 desktop， do you have idea about this ，thanks very much
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Rivanni 6 Reputation points

2021-11-14T13:23:31.33+00:00

I have this problem with some programs. In my case, it only appears to occur when something other than plain text has been copied to the clipboard. When I clear the clipboard or copy plain text, the problem is gone.
I know this isn't a solution, but it could also be the cause for you and others. Knowing what's causing it is one step closer to a solution.
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1 person found this answer helpful.
Aswin Francis 1 Reputation point

2022-02-24T08:02:07.5+00:00

Thank you @Rivanni This actually helped. I was having the same problem with VS 2022. This app alone wouldn't open after a while once minimized. Everything else was working fine. I was facing the problem now and it was getting frustrating and that's when I saw your comment. After clearing clipboard data, it opened fine. No idea how you thought of this but it's working for now. Thank you so much

I use a win10 laptop connected to a monitor. Use ditto to manage clipboard data. The issue occurs only with VS 2022 after 17.1.0. The only way to get it working before was top right click on the task bar icon and close it and then reopen it. Let me know if any further info is needed for the support team.

Peter Bäckgren 1 Reputation point

2022-03-14T09:51:47.877+00:00

I solved this by right-clicking and selecting Restore (after spending weeks closing VS2022 until I got fed up enough to find some solution).
But making sure I have text in the clipboard helped too.
Now we just have to wait until 2026 until MS fixes this.
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Ian Thompson 6 Reputation points

2022-08-10T16:12:48.313+00:00

I had the exact same problem, and seem to have fixed it here what I did
Setting - systems - Display - click on identify you should see the numbers 1 and 2 on your screens
this process seemed to rectify the problem. Restore did nothing so did to tablet mode.
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Clicking minimized window in taskbar fails to open the window to desktop

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