Issues with "Windows 10 Home" taskbar bug/glitch on new custom PC build

steve3515

Hello, 

Within the past month, month and a half, a friend helped me build my first PC. Everything I bought was either brand new or maybe a year or so old in terms of when it was released, but regardless, all of the components are fairly new. After we built it, he installed Windows Pro on my PC, however, it wasn't an active version. I recently was able to buy my own version of Windows Home, not Pro and installed it about a week or two ago. 

However since doing that, I've noticed an annoying bug or glitch if you will, that keeps occurring relating to my apps on the taskbar. So as you all know, when you hover your mouse over an app on the taskbar, typically, it shows a tiny preview window just above (if of course you have the application already opened/active), and lets you select one of the windows of the app you have open, that you're previewing. Yet for example, there are times where I have multiple "File Explorer" windows open/active and I hover my mouse over the "File Explorer" app on the toolbar to see the preview windows I have active or open and one of the following occurs in this bug/glitch:

A. The preview windows don't show up at all as I'm hovering over the app

B. The preview windows do show up, but when I go to click on one of the preview windows to open on my desktop, it doesn't open that window

C. The preview windows become visible for a split second then disappears, or

D. When I click the actual app on the taskbar that is open or active, it doesn't open at all, but shows it is open or active on the taskbar

This goes for all apps by the way. Not only does this bug/glitch cause the issue I described above, but it also doesn't allow me to rearrange apps pinned on the taskbar while it is acting up. The only way I get it to stop temporarily is by putting my PC to sleep then working after that. But once I shut it down, the next day it goes right back into the issue. I've spoken with two Microsoft support advisors and one says it is an issue with the latest Windows update, while the other said it's a hardware issue. I've done everything from restarting my PC, unplugging monitors, resetting Windows to its default settings, making sure my NVIDIA graphics drivers are up to date and nothing has solved it. 

In case this helps with context, here is all I have in the PC: 

- B450 TOMAHAWK AMD AM4 ATX Motherboard

- Ryzen 5 3600 Matisse 3.6GHz 6-Core AM4 Boxed Processor with Wraith Stealth Cooler

- Ripjaws V 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3600 PC4-28800 CL16 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit F4-3600C16D-16GVKC

- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X Overclocked Dual Fan 6GB GDDR6 PCIe 3.0 Graphics Card

- RM650 650 Watt 80 Plus Gold ATX Fully Modular Power Supply

- Blue 500GB SSD 3D NAND SATA III 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive

- Blue Mainstream 1TB 7200RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

I also do have two monitors, one being a MSI Optix MAG241 Curved monitor which is a newer model and the other an HP EliteDisplay which is an older monitor and the issue happens on both. I even stopped using the older monitor and the issue still occurred on my newer, primary monitor. 

I have attached a link to the video I took of the issue as it happens. Has anyone else experienced this issue or seen/heard of this? Does this sound like a Windows software issue/bug or could this be an actual issue with a specific piece of hardware in my PC? Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated! Stay safe everyone!

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzpaqmBQQFc

TSKyleH

Hello @steve3515 I am sorry to hear you are having issues. This could be caused by a couple of factors. After reviewing the video it appears they are trying to open or may already be open on another screen. I would recommend checking your display settings to see if there is an extra monitor being detected on the computer. If your using only one monitor, but the display settings shows two, then I would check that your only using one cable connected to the video card, or clicking the 2nd display and choosing a show only on 1 or 2 option under Multiple displays. Here is a guide that shows where the display settings are and how to use the identify option to determine which monitor you do see. https://community.microcenter.com/discussion/2809/how-to-set-up-multiple-displays-on-windows-10-computers

steve3515

Hi @TSKyleH, thanks for taking the time to look this issue over. So I do have two monitors that I use. The newer one is an MSI Optix MAG241 Curved monitor and the other an HP EliteDisplay which is an older monitor. The issue happens when I have both plugged into the PC and/or if I just have the MSI monitor plugged in and not the HP monitor. When I use one or both, they are plugged into the video/graphics card. When I have tested to see if the issue still occurred on just my MSI, I made sure to unplug the older HP monitor from the video card. 

TS_JosephF

@steve3515
Alright, If the issue is not with the displays then it is likely the Windows OS causing the problem. Before you reinstalled Windows, did you have this issue? Or only after you installed Windows the 2nd time?

I would start by uninstalling some Windows updates, specifically any updates you installed around the time this issue first occurred. We have a step-by-step guide that can help you with this: https://www.microcenter.com/tech_center/article/11109/how-to-uninstall-an-update-in-windows-10
I would also check the visual effects settings to make sure all of these are enabled. You can do this by searching Control Panel in the Windows search bar. Then click System and Security > then click System. > Then click the Advanced system settings on the left > then in the 'Performance' box, click Settings...
This will display the visual effect settings for Windows. I recommend just checking all of these boxes and click Apply. You may need to restart the PC after this.
Worst case scenario, reinstalling Windows would solve this issue. Although, you may want to create a new bootable USB to make sure it is the updated version of Windows.