Taskbar Icons Inconsistent (XPPro Version 5.1.260

Topic

New Reply

I’m a ‘late adopter’ of XP Pro (from Win98) and have been meaning to ask about inconsistent behavior of the icons on the taskbar.

I am a many windows worker; I just counted 17 (and that ignores multiple tabs in SeaMonkey.) This means that the taskbar begins scrolling sideways in multiple pages fairly quickly in the day.

I start with a fixed order, Webmail, local mail, Yahoo and its mail and groups in tabs, then perhaps a browser window for searching. Thereafter it is instances of Word, Excel, Acrobat, etc, as needed, including further browser windows.

I find that I can navigate to the level that shows my ‘opening sequence’ (the local mail window has a unique icon) and that when I hover over the Webmail icon the popup identifies it. When I click, I often end up in an recently used browser window way off to the right instead.

Is this a Mozilla issue (Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.13) Gecko/20080313 SeaMonkey/1.1.9) or is it a Windows issue?

There are moves I could try to further pin this down. Like most ‘problems’ it ‘pops up’ and I can’t remember what might have triggered it.

Anyone else seen this?

thanks

Reply | Quote

Replies

Here’s a follow-up. I currently have 11 instances of Mozilla SeaMonkey (some with multiple tabs), a browser mail window, 8 instances of Word, and a Download Manager window in my taskbar. I Alt-Tabbed to the browser mail window, placed the cursor on the icon to its left, and was told, via popup that it is my Web Mail window. When I click on the icon, I am taken to the most recently used browser window instead. If I right-click on the icon the desired Web Mail window opens. Is this ‘normal’ behavior, or should a ‘normal’ left click open the desired window?

Thanks,

Reply | Quote

In the task bar properties, do you have “group similar tasks” checked?

Joe

--Joe

Reply | Quote

Joe,

Thanks for the question. The answer is NO.

Only the items “Keep the taskbar on top…” and “Show Quick Launch” (and “Show the clock”) are checked.

Thanks again,

Reply | Quote

And with TweakUI, you can further control how/when the buttons are grouped. I rarely get to the numbers of application instances you mention, but find the grouping helpful even with just a few instances/windows.

Reply | Quote

Hi,
I will just add links to my replies in the more recent, now locked, thread. Since this is the original thread.

See my post 734,334 and post 734,405. Perhaps a screen shot will help us understand.

Reply | Quote

I am chagrined that I failed to remember that I’d asked about this once before. Please accept my apologies.

I tried to follow-up last night. Either the WOPR server was slow or my less than sterling Earthlink/Covad DSL (I put the blame on AT&T for still using early 20th century copper between me and the CO and thereby doubling the apparent distance) was getting in the way, but I could not get the forum pages to load in an ‘interactive’ fashion.

I’ll give “Group Similar Taskbar Buttons” a try and see how it works for me. It seems a pity that one must accurately click the tiny down arrow to open the dropdown menu.

I’ve given up trying to reproduce the misbehavior I tried to report. It always caught me ‘unawares’ as I was working. Most of the time I was focused on the task at hand and just worked around the problem with or by a sequence of right and left clicks on the offending icon.

Just for the record, I’ve attached a screen shot of the task bar and associated real estate. I see it (left to right) as the “Start” button, the “Quick Start Toolbar,” the “Task Bar,” and the “System Tray.” It is the center section that I am talking about.

Thanks again,

Reply | Quote

I see that my image has problems. My panel has different dimensions from all the others, apparently to accommodate the image. I tried 900 pixels wide, then 800 and it didn’t make any apparent difference.

I didn’t see a FAQ entry or Help entry regarding image attachment dimensions and resolution. Clearly there are limits I should observe.

Thanks

Reply | Quote

Hello,
No problem with a slightly smaller attachment if one can see the important parts; the screen shot is good.

I understand it is the “task area” of the Taskbar we are talking about. I have sometimes found that when you click an icon in the Notification area, another application opens. I don’t know the cause; if a single-click to mark one icon later is interpreted as a double-click, even if another icon is clicked. That is: a small glitch in the Windows shell. But, of course, I have to be sure I click the right icon.

How one chooses to set up and use the Taskbar is very individual. As you know, it is mostly there for the running tasks. So to minimize the use of the up/down arrows, scrolling the tasks, in your setup:

• One can limit the Quick Launch Bar (QLB) slightly, and have the rest in pop up menu (the double-arrow). To change the size of QLB/task area, unlock the Taskbar.
• To the right in the Notification area it is possible, perhaps, to remove some icons, either via a setting in the application, or have the Taskbar hide some icons.
• But still, with several tasks running, there will probably not be enough task area estate. As you say, and as mentioned earlier, you can group similar tasks. But you don’t have to click on any “tiny down arrow”; click anywhere on the button for the grouped tasks, and select from the pop up menu.
  [/list]Back to your original question: it could perhaps be that when you scroll the task area (up/down), looking for as you say the “opening sequence” and perhaps the Webmail icon your last task is still selected, and a single click in the task area sometimes behaves differently depending on where the focus are, if present program is on top, minimized etc.

  By the way, between around UTC 23:00 and 01:00 there is a backup going on at The Lounge, so it is much slower during that time.

Reply | Quote