Bizarre Windows7 task bar behavior on right-click menu

Question

I've recently installed Windows 7, 64-bit. I'm seeing a strange behavior with the task bar.

When I right click a running program on the task bar, a menu pops up, typically with the program name, "Unpin this program..." and "Close window". This is as expected. However, as soon as I move the mouse to try to select one of these options the pop-up menu immediately disappears! It's as if something is stealing the focus as soon as the pointer leaves the task bar.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this issue? Many thanks.

Answer 1

I was experiencing the same problem and realized that this was a problem with the focus being stolen by the underlying window through the small gap between the taskbar and the pop up menu, because when I move the mouse really fast, it was getting to the pop up without it disappearing. The solution that worked for me was to go to:

Control Panel->Ease of Access Center->Change how your mouse works

Here uncheck "Activate a window by hovering over it with my mouse"

It worked for me.

I remember that I had this option disabled before the problem started, so some application that I installed must have enabled it.

Hope this helps.