Restore Windows Taskbar Auto-hide

I have been experiencing a problem with the auto-hide feature of the Windows Taskbar for the last two weeks or so. Auto-hide would work fine for some time but eventually the Windows Taskbar would just lock up and not auto-hide anymore. This was sometimes caused by applications that have been started but the rest of the time by something that I personally could not figure out.

Even closing all applications and windows did not make the Windows Taskbar auto-hide anymore. That’s extremely frustrating for a user who has the taskbar on the left side of the screen. I was not able to maximize windows anymore because the taskbar would overshadow the left part of the screen.

After searching around for some time I discovered a script at Kelly’s Corner that would restore the Windows Taskbar functionality to the default values.

The Windows Taskbar would be reset to its original values by the script and Explorer would be restarted to show the changes immediately. It was moved to the bottom of the screen again but it took only a few seconds to move it back to the left side and enable auto-hide again.

What can I say: The script worked. My Windows Taskbar is auto-hiding again and I did not discover any problems so far with it remaining in the foreground. The script was designed for Windows XP only.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday October 6, 2008 -
Tags:reset taskbar, taskbar auto-hide, taskbar reset, windows taskbar, windows taskbar auto-hide, windows tips, windows-xp

Responses so far:

1. TaNTal says:

   November 13, 2008 at 5:36 pm

   Thanks, this means the end of my strugle.
   It is good, that people write scripts, instead of that long tutorials, so you just run the script and voila.
   But if you want to se how it is done, you can still open the script in notepad.

   BR

   Reply
2. David says:

   January 9, 2009 at 2:28 am

   All you have to do is go into Task Manager, end “explorer” under processes, then go to the applications tab, click new task and write: “explorer” and windows explorer will reset and the taskbar will be fine.

   Reply
   • Anonymous says:

     January 9, 2010 at 3:32 am

     Dave thank you! the task bar was driving me crazy! this was with Windows 7 and it worked perfectly

     Reply
3. Martina says:

   February 11, 2009 at 1:38 pm

   Thank you David, that solved the problem immediately.

   Reply
4. Jon says:

   March 17, 2009 at 1:26 am

   Thanks David, worked like a charm.

   Reply
5. EmceeW says:

   May 13, 2009 at 1:36 am

   Just wanted to say Thanks for this. I just started having this problem today and your post helped me find a solution quickly and easily.

   *Applauds*

   Reply
6. ash says:

   July 29, 2009 at 3:05 am

   thanks, taskbar faster now too

   Reply
7. Alex says:

   August 23, 2009 at 10:59 pm

   Thanks David!

   You ROCK!

   Reply
8. Rhaorth says:

   October 13, 2009 at 10:06 pm

   Just wanted to say a big Thank You to David, did what you suggested and fixed the task bar immediatedly!

   Reply
9. Mark says:

   October 20, 2009 at 3:22 am

   Davis’s fix did not work for me. Instead it killed the taskbar (and the windows sidebar). Am running Vista 64bit SP1 – so David not a 100% fix I’m afraid

   Reply
10. Anonymous says:

    December 13, 2009 at 10:05 pm

    works for win7 as well

    Reply
11. Chris says:

    December 28, 2009 at 4:37 am

    THANK YOU!!!!

    Reply
12. Michael says:

    February 10, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    Cheers David, had the same problem with windows 7, fixed it straight away.

    Reply
13. Brx says:

    February 23, 2011 at 12:52 am

    Hey, David’s suggestion of end explorer.exe task in Task Manager and then start it as a new process from the Applications tab worked!

    Note: make sure you the explorer.exe you end is the main UI, not iexplorer.exe which would be internet explorer.

    This was running WinXP Pro 32bit with SP3 and all current updates as of this posting.

    Reply
14. miselo says:

    February 25, 2011 at 5:35 am

    Thanks, your wisdom saved my pc experience, used it on vista..nice..thanks again

    Reply
15. Avi says:

    March 7, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    Thanks, David! Worked for me on Widnows Server 2003. Was driving me nuts.

    Reply
16. Anonymous says:

    May 30, 2011 at 2:33 pm

    Thanks it worked for me

    Reply
17. Michael says:

    June 22, 2011 at 6:49 pm

    Awesome! Great work. And yet more shame on Microsoft for not fixing this themselves. I noticed threads going back almost 4 years.

    Reply