Windows 10 Taskbar is not "Always on Top"

My taskbar does not stay on top of applications, even when they are not full screen. As you can seen in the cropped screenshot below, the non-maximized windows are on top of the taskbar.

All applications are showing up on top of the taskbar, not just a specific application, such as Microsoft Word
If I maximize a window, it does size correctly - the bottom of the maximized window touches the top of the taskbar

In my googling, I've only found instances of people trying to go the other way (they want to disable Always on Top), or people talking about the taskbar being on top of full screen applications such has video games or movies. I found that the ability to toggle "Always on Top" was removed in Windows 7 and the behavior should be that the taskbar is always on top, but that is not the behavior I'm getting. I can't think of any application I may have installed that would change this behavior.

The closest SuperUser question I can find is this one, but the solutions there didn't work for me.

tehDorf

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 697

Are you using any display-changing plugins or applications. Things like alternate start menus or the like? – music2myear – 2017-01-05T23:49:11.337

Did you check this post?

– Asme Just – 2017-01-06T01:30:12.137

@music2myear I couldn't think of any, but I may need to review my "Programs and Features" list to see if I've forgotten about anything. The last answer in the post I linked to listed a couple of applications, but the last bullet was something like "or it could be any application, really" :/ – tehDorf – 2017-01-06T01:37:42.257

@AsmeJust I checked out your link, but I don't see how it is relevant. My taskbar is not set to Auto-hide and I do want it to be always on top. Did you misread my question? – tehDorf – 2017-01-06T01:42:44.450

1Well, Windows 10 as SOOO many weird behavior I never saw in Windows 7 or even in Windows 8. – Asme Just – 2017-01-06T01:47:36.227

Yea @tehDorf, based on just what I'm seeing now, either there is a taskbar modifier, or you might want to run one of the several system repair functions built-in to Windows 10 because as you note, that is not normal behavior. – music2myear – 2017-01-06T16:41:52.430

Update: I haven't been able to find the cause yet. I'm guessing it is because of an application I installed, but none of the ones I've uninstalled/reinstalled yet have fixed it. I'm hesitant to try any of few remaining apps left, for various reasons, so for now it looks like I'm stuck with this behavior. – tehDorf – 2017-06-02T14:24:47.843

Yeah, that's not normal behavior... The only things that would cause that are a GUI modifier (there's many types, from Aero modifiers to WindowBlinds), potentially a graphics driver, or most likely, system file corruption. Run from an admin terminal: dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth, and if any corruption is found, reboot after scan is finished; then run: sfc /scannow (reboot if corruption found) – JW0914 – 2017-07-12T04:16:42.210

Answers

Ok, so I fixed this for myself just now. All I did was right click the task bar, go to properties and set it to show at the top of the screen. Then I set it back to the bottom and now it works like it used to.

Steakzilla

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 91

You might add more detail, screen shots, etc. of what you did as it does not seem clear based on reading this answer. – Pimp Juice IT – 2017-07-12T00:53:51.087

Welcome to superuser: While this answers the question,(you need to accept it) it would be a better answer if you could provide some explanation why your solution works with detail and an easy to follow instructions. If you feel your answer is correct do these things and re-edit. Please take a couple of minutes and read:- http://superuser.com/help .Answering: http://superuser.com/help/how-to-answer, again welcome to superuser.Thankyou

– mic84 – 2017-07-12T01:42:50.777

1Right click the taskbar, go to Taskbar Settings, change "Taskbar Location on Screen", then change it back. Worked for me. – mbomb007 – 2019-06-03T19:30:16.477

Had exactly same issue, mine was caused by Nvidia shadowplay desktop capture, turn it off

randomguy

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 21

thanks ya turning off in-game overlay in nvidia experience fixed this for me – Rakka Rage – 2018-02-16T15:32:31.633

I had to restart Desktop Window Manager as I noticed it somehow used 20% of an 1080 ti. That fixed it for me.

Vin

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 11

Pires Dimmer caused this problem for me. Turning it off fixed the issue. https://www.nelsonpires.com/software/dimmer/

johny why

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 214

I've had this issue before many times and it drives me crazy.

Whenever you start having the issue, open Task Manager, and look for "File Explorer", just click on it and press restart in the bottom right. It's not a permanent solution, maybe even restarting the computer after restarting file manager would do something for you.

Thunder_Ruler

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 1

You may want to try ending the process of DWM [Desktop Windows Manager), of which will cause a desktop redraw to occur. That's more preferred to restarting Explorer, as doing so also ends many processes that were started by Explorer at login, of which are not restarted automatically following a restart of Explorer. – JW0914 – 2017-07-12T04:19:55.183

I believe you meant "Windows Explorer" (which operates the TaskBar). But in any case, this did not resolve it for me. – kmote – 2017-09-27T15:51:18.870

I tried setting Taskbar to the top of the screen, then changing it back to the bottom of the screen, and that fixed it! Taskbar is now always on top. Yay. Don't know if it will persist after restart.

Don N.

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 1

Incase more people still have this issue.

Quite often I find that simply right clicking an empty space on the task bar fixed this.

Minimise all but 1 window / program and move / change the height so that it covers half of the task bar, then hover over the task bar and right click on the bit you can see, for me this fixes it 9 times out of 10.

I noticed the issue usually occurs if explorer.exe has crashed or had an accident.

Another potential option is to open task manager and kill explorer.exe and then restart it. Sometimes has to be done a couple times.

Greg

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 1

FIXED for me - I noticed the bottom few rows of pixels were missing off the bottom of the screen. The mouse was stopping at the last row of pixels, not disappearing down to where the taskbar would be. There was apparently a problem with my screen resolution or registration.

I changed my screen resolution, then changed it back to the recommended setting (native resolution) and my taskbar is now accessible!

Gary Adelaide

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 1

I have used the option Cascade Windows. on the tool bar menu and it worked. the toolbar is under the application.

jay

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 1

In my case, the problem was caused by an add-in for Outlook 2016. After disabling the Outlook Addin the behavior did not occur anymore. The problematic Addin was Colligo Engage.

You can disable the Addins in Outlook in the options under the tab "Add-Ins". For troubleshooting - If you experience the same error, I would try to close all programs (also the Windows Startup programs) and check if it works or not.

xlimit91

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 1

-2

Here's how I solved it, hope it works for others who couldn't fix it by right clicking on the Taskbar and blocking it. You must go to your Task Manager (CTRL-ALT-SUPR) and finalize the Explorer item, mine didn't have the option of restarting so I just restarted my computer after that. Took me two days to work it out X-D Good luck!

Linda

Posted 2017-01-05T23:13:38.480

Reputation: 1