Window in focus doesn't minimize when I click on its icon in the taskbar (Windows 10)

Question

After applying the anniversary update, Windows 10 decided it was okay to change various settings for me. I've reversed some of the changes but one persists and I can't seem to find where to fix it.

Let's say I have a number of applications running, with icons in the taskbar. I click on the icon for a minimized window. It restores itself to its previous size/position and takes focus, as expected and as wanted.

I now click the icon for the same window, still in focus. Nothing happens. What I want is for the window to minimize, as it did before the update.

Some things I have looked at:

• Right clicked taskbar -> check "Personalization" -> "Taskbar". Found no option that would remedy the situation.
  

• "System settings" -> "Multitasking" -> Looked through options for window behaviour; found nothing relevant.
  

• Googled various combinations of "taskbar" "window" "minimize" "focus" and some other keywords. Mainly found articles and questions about hiding icons in focus and one question about wanting to STOP the behavior I'm looking to get back, but the solution suggested third-party software. The behaviour I want should obviously already exist natively, so I'm looking to change a setting, not install new software, although that could be a last resort should no other fix be found.
  

So, to clarify the question:
How do I change my settings so that a window in focus minimizes when I click its icon in the taskbar?

Answer 1

It is unlikely settings were changed, by you or by an update. This behavior, AFAIK, is not something you can alter or customize, even with registry edits.

This is likely a temporary bug. Try to gracefully restart Explorer.exe to solve the problem without a reboot.

Open up a command window with administrative privileges

Paste each line below, one at a time, followed by enter

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
explorer.exe
exit

If this doesn't solve the problem, try rebooting.

If rebooting doesn't handle it, use system restore to bring the system back to a date prior to the problem start date.

Answer 2

Open the Task Manager (by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Esc or any of the other methods).  On the "Processes" tab, scroll down to "Windows Explorer" and highlight it.  Click the "Restart" button in the bottom right corner of the Task Manager.  Applications like Windows Media Player will be working as full screen after this change too.

Answer 3

Here is the convenient way to solve this repeated issue.

Take Gaia's answer with the three commands in it. Create a .bat file somewhere and paste the three commands into it (I called mine rex.bat). Create a shortcut to rex.bat on your desktop

Whenever the problem occurs (and it does repeat itself) - run the batch file and hey-presto - job sorted.

Remember to wait for explorer.exe to restart - it can take a few seconds sometimes.

Answer 4

In windows 10 build 14393.576 if you click on another window icon in taskbar to make it active window then click again to minimize it. Then that appears to solve the problem with the previous window which wasn't minimizing.

I haven't tested it on any other version/build.

Answer 5

A permanent fix (although a bit annoying) is to simply click the "Restore" button just to the right of the minimize button (this restores the window to its default size (usually "normal" but can be "maximized") and then click the minimize button.

For some reason the "minimize" button sometimes becomes inactive (obviously a fault in Windows 10) and the way to quickly "fix" this is to restore the default size first. This re-activates the minimize button. :-)

Answer 6

The highlighted answer with the restart explorer.exe didn't work for me, although I solved it as follows (I don't know if it's temporary or not): Shift+RClick on taskbar on the window with an issue. From the context menu select "Minimize". After this manipulation, the window should be minimized by simply clicking on it on the taskbar, as expected.

It worked on my Windows 10 v1809 build 17763.737

Answer 7

It appears to be an issue of the computer running out of resources (memory) Mine was doing the same thing and doing the restart of the Windows Explorer in the Task Manager did the trick and noticed afterwards that I had available resources and the program would minimize by just clicking on it again.