Weird XP taskbar misclick behavior?

January 28, 2009 5:00 PM

Clicking on my Windows XP taskbar exhibits funky behavior, raising both the window I clicked on and a second unrelated window. Why?

I run Windows XP at work, fully patched, on a dual-monitor desktop with my taskbar stretched to three rows. When I first start it up, everything's fine, but after a few hours of use it starts to develop an odd behavior.

When I click on a task button to switch to it, a second unrelated task button will do the click animation at the same time, and that second button's window will be brought to the "front" in addition to the window I meant to switch to. The second task button changes each time... I can click from Outlook to Firefox and back six times and six different unrelated windows will be falsely activated.

This is obviously annoying, sometimes awkward (such as when I'm switching between eclipse windows with my boss looking over my shoulder and suddenly OH HI METAFILTER), but mostly it's just confusing. I'm a savvy computer guy and I've never seen this behavior on other systems.

Anyone have any thoughts as to what might be causing it?

posted by Riki tiki to technology (3 comments total)

Do you run non-full screen RDP sessions to other computers/servers? I've found this when I have a RDP session in a window, I've never investigated it before though...
posted by Admira at 6:07 PM on January 28

Or are you running any of those taskbar customisation programs that let you drag items around the taskbar? If so I'd deactivate them and try again.

Any of your co-workers praksters? At a place I worked in, someone wrote a piece of code and ran it on an unsuspecting co-workers PC that at random intervals would move the mouse around a little bit. Drove the poor guy mad.

If its always done it, I'd update your display drivers and maybe BIOS (or ask your IT dudes to do it for you if you don't have admin rights). If its a laptop/notebook, then update the touchpad drivers - and if you are using the touchpad then try an external mouse. If you are using an external mouse, try the touchpad or a different mouse.

Also, if none of that works, try a few things to narrow it down. If you can handle it, go to a single monitor setup to see if that helps. Change the resolution of your display. Move to a 1 row or two row taskbar.

Hope that helps, its about all I can think of right now.
posted by Admira at 7:01 PM on January 28

Admira: I don't often remote desktop into another machine from here, but I do often remote desktop into this machine from elsewhere. That may well be the problem, but it's not something I can really avoid, sadly. If the problem is something configuration- or driver-specific then I'm probably out of luck due to security restrictions.

Oh well, I guess I'll just put up with it. Thanks.
posted by Riki tiki at 3:08 PM on January 30