STORM2K

Solutions abound for a pesky bug that’s been known to affect Windows operating systems for several years. Basically, here’s the issue: Normally, when the mouse is placed on a taskbar icon, a tooltip giving some helpful information related to the program the icon links to, should pop up in front of the taskbar. However, occasionally those tooltips randomly decide to partially hide themselves behind the taskbar, rendering them unreadable.

A simple Google search will reveal just how widespread this problem is, and as I alluded to earlier, there are several fixes: Anything from restarting the computer to downloading and running a utility in the background just to address this single problem. Well, most of the solutions I came across seemed like a bit of overkill and I figured that there must be something simpler.

Here’s what works for me (I’m running Windows XP Professional SP2, BTW. So this solution mightn’t work for everyone)

• Right-click an empty part of the taskbar
• In the context menu, click “Properties”
• Bring the “Taskbar” tab to the front if it isn’t (by default, it ought to be) and uncheck “Keep the taskbar on top of other windows”
• Confirm the change by clicking “Okay”
• Right-click the taskbar once again and return to its properties
• This time replace the check mark that was next to “Keep the taskbar on top of other windows”
• Click “Okay”

The tooltips should now display as they should (and the taskbar should display on top of other windows as it did before).
Give it a try the next time the problem occurs and let me know if it worked for you too.

thanks for that abajan! I have it happen on occasion as well and am so glad to know how to fix it!