What is the date, Gates?

September 17, 2009 6:29 AM

Windows clock/calendar annoyance: why does the date appear only sometimes when the mouse pointer hovers over the taskbar clock?

It seems to be the same with XP and Vista.

posted by fish tick to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

It's just a common bug. I know of no way to fix it permanently, but you can usually fix it by right clicking on the task bar, select properties, then toggle Auto-Hide, apply, then un-toggle and apply once more (or the reverse if, like me, you prefer Auto-Hide). This appears to reset whatever flags are being affected.
posted by empyrean at 6:42 AM on September 17, 2009

Are you talking about the problem I've always noticed where *sometimes* when you hover your mouse over the clock, the time/date appears BEHIND the TaskBar (which basically means its unreadable)... ? I have no idea why that happens.. but it annoys the shit out of me.
posted by jmnugent at 6:43 AM on September 17, 2009

I once installed a utility installed that provided a workaround for this bug. It would programatically reset the taskbar every minute or so so that the tooltips would stay on top. I don't remember what it was called, sadly, but maybe someone else can find it.
posted by grouse at 6:57 AM on September 17, 2009

Best answer: Of course, it was easy to Google. I think it might be ToolTipFixer.
posted by grouse at 7:14 AM on September 17, 2009 [1 favorite]

Thank you for asking this question! This same thing bugs the heck out of me!
posted by zizzle at 7:36 AM on September 17, 2009

But be careful not to linger too long on the date because, even with toolTipFixer, once the date times out, it's hard to get it back.
posted by Obscure Reference at 8:53 AM on September 17, 2009

Another reason I like a double-height taskbar - the date is always visible.
posted by timepiece at 11:37 AM on September 19, 2009

If your using Firefox try Statusbar Date.
posted by Dr.Pill at 4:26 PM on September 19, 2009