Hi,

This isn't a particularly new topic, as my problem is very similar to the ones described previously in this post and this post but I wasn't sure if bumping those older threads would be helpful or not.

Like those previous posters, I'm having a problem where the taskbar has been hidden behind my Firefox. I've had this problem for quite a while now, but seeing as how there were updates both for DisplayFusion, and ClassicShell, and I'm still getting these issues, I thought I'd finally post something.

I'm using a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit system with Service Pack 1, DisplayFusion Pro on Steam v5.1.1 with ClassicShell 4.0.2. In my Windows Taskbar settings, I do have Auto-hide enabled, and in the DisplayFusion settings, I have "Show taskbar in front of full screen applications when they lose focus" checked. This is on a dual monitor setup, with both screens running at 1980x1080 resolution.

What happens is that I normally run Firefox (version 25.0.1) on my secondary monitor, maximized. Fairly frequently, whenever I go into a full screen application, such as a game, if I try to bring up the taskbar on my secondary monitor, it simply won't come up, even if I take focus away from the game. If I then bring up the taskbar on my primary monitor, I can see the taskbar on my secondary come up behind Firefox (thanks to the glass like theme I use in Firefox, I can see things behind it) although I still can't interact with it. Like the previous posts, minimizing Firefox and restoring it will fix it for that occasion, though the issue can easily happen again.

I've attached a screenshot of the taskbar behind Firefox as well as a copy of the contents of the Troubleshooting tab in DisplayFusion, taken a few seconds after the screenshot.

I enabled logging and restarted DisplayFusion.

I had thought to maybe video record it happening, and tried, but of course, the problem didn't surface while I was recording. When it did happen about 25 minutes later, I figured I'd try to get you a smaller log and restarted the process. The next time, it happened in less than a minute and...I had forgotten to restart logging. Argh.

Anyway, here's the log. I managed to get a fairly short reproduction where I basically ran a couple of games (all of which are set to run in a borderless maximized mode as opposed to true full screen), as well as play a video file, and noticed it had happened around the 19:15 mark.

I can try recording a video later if that would be helpful.

Sorry for the delay, but I got delayed with Black Friday shopping and stuff.

Anyway, here's the log. This one took a bit longer for it to happen, so the log ended up being larger, so I've zipped it up to make it transfer faster.

I first noticed the problem had occurred at about 02:34.

I have noticed that an application trying to get my attention by flashing it's task bar icon sometimes seems related to it, and it definitely doesn't always or consistently cause a problem, but I've seen it occur without any flashing going on as well.

I will try to confirm the latter, in case I'm simply misremembering. I have done tests though to determine that an application flashing it's task bar does not on it's own, in any consistent manner, cause the problem (as I tried making a program do this several times while in the background when I was trying to create the log of the event). In many cases, it does alert me to the problem though, since otherwise the bar is autohidden and I don't notice if it would otherwise show up behind my windows or not.

I was able to replicate the issue with the taskbar getting behind Firefox again, this time without any programs flashing their taskbar icon.

I also managed to capture a video of it while I did so, while also logging it through DisplayFusion.

The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuoEj9mp1Ck

As you can see in the video, I start out by playing Star Trek Online. While it's loading, I bring the mouse to the the task bar (I have mine on the top of the screen rather than the bottom) and am able to bring it up without any problem. I repeat this a few times once every so often as I play. This occurs at 0:05, at 0:17 (I point at the primary display's bar, which also brings up the secondary), at 0:25, at 0:49, at 1:42, and at 3:05.

Then at 5:06 you see me move the mouse up to the top of the secondary monitor again, but this time, the taskbar doesn't show up. About 10 seconds after that, I move the mouse over to the top of the screen on my primary monitor, to force the taskbars to show, and you can see that the secondary task bar shows up behind Firefox. (I also die in game shortly afterwards since I'm distracted.)

This would match up with approximately 17:20 in the log file, which I have attached, zipped.

Note that while I used Star Trek Online in this example, this can occur with any number of other applications, some games, some not. And the game is not running in true full screen either (otherwise I wouldn't be able to move my mouse outside of my primary monitor while the game was in the foreground) but rather a maximized window with the borders removed.

I wasn't sure if that was related, but while I was recording, I figured I would try to do the normal sorts of things I would do while at the computer, like looking at web pages.

In case it matters, I am currently (and at the time of the video) using the newest version of Flash for Windows, version 11.9.900.152.

However, I'm not sure if Kotaku actually has any flash on it. The first tab I clicked on was a Kotaku article I already had loaded previously, and while it had a YouTube video embedded, I've verified that those videos are using HTML5 to display. When I open up a new tab of their front page, I believe all the animated bits that you see as I scroll down are just animated gifs.

However, as you can see, I do have a lot of tabs open, and it's pretty certain that there's some flash content somewhere in some of them. I'm just not sure if that would be the trigger behind the event since that all was there before I even started recording the video.

Please let me know if there is anything more I can do to provide you with additional information that may be helpful in narrowing down the source of this problem.

Well, the problem isn't that it isn't coming out of autohide exactly, but that it's coming out behind other windows.

Still, I did see a few other recent threads with problems that sounded related, or possibly having the same root cause, so hopefully the fix will be something that works for all of them.

I hope I was able to assist with the reproduction of the problem, but if not, I guess it's still all good if it ends up being finally fixed!

I'm guessing that the Z-order will fix it in my situation as well, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to let you know that it happens with Chrome as well on a 3-monitor setup. I often have Chrome, IE, and FF up on separate monitors. I haven't seen it happen with IE, but IE is usually on my main screen, so I wouldn't notice.

I'm having this problem, too, on Windows 8.1, most of the time and independent of what windows are up (not just Firefox & mostly not full-screen). It makes the DisplayFusion taskbar useless. Fortunately I have multiple monitors, but things are difficult when I log in remotely and can only see one at a time. I have Classic Shell running, too, to help tame 8.1.

Thanks for working on this. I'll be looking forward to version 5.1.2.

Unfortunately, even with DisplayFusion v6.0 (for Steam) I'm still seeing the same issue occurring.

Hi Keith,

Sorry for the delay in getting you this log, but I had some unrelated computer issues and had to spend a bit of time doing data recovery on a failing hard drive.

Attached is a zip file of the log. The logging was set on "Detailed" rather than "Important Only" though, as I recalled when I first made this thread, and you asked me for the Important Only log, it didn't show what you wanted and I had to make a detailed one for you after anyway.

The issue occurs at approximately 18:33:30 in the log. As before, it seems having programs that attempt to "flash" on the taskbar as a way to alert the user is one of the more reliable ways to get it to happen, although I believe it has happened before without such an event.

Just to note, most of what I said in this thread's first post is still true, save that I'm now using DisplayFusion 6.0 for Steam, ClassicShell is now at version 4.0.4, and Firefox is version 30.0.

As before, if it helps, I could attempt to create a video to go along with the log if it would help.

I did have Star Trek Online running in full screen windowed (borderless) mode on my primary monitor, with Firefox maximized on my secondary monitor where the taskbar was hiding behind. DisplayFusion does indeed detect STO as a full screen application.


In fact, it was pretty much the same setup as in my earlier post, running in the same manner as the video I created https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuoEj9mp1Ck (while this is not a current video, it still accurately portrays the behaviour I am seeing. I can also create a new video if it would be helpful.)

So while I did have a full screen application running, I did not expect that would affect my ability to bring up the taskbar on a different monitor than the full screen application was running on.

The differences I have noted from previous versions of DisplayFusion is that it doesn't seem to happen quite as often, and - unrelated to this issue - when I bring up the context sensitive menu in something like Firefox, if the menu is large enough to overlap the taskbar area (set to autohide) it will popup if I try to select an item in that area and prevent me from clicking on the menu selection.

I am now running DisplayFusion 6.0. For me, this problem has changed. The DisplayFusion multi-monitor taskbars are now always correctly popping up on top of everything else. However, when I click the Start button on the multi-monitor taskbar for a ClassicMenu menu, that pops up partially under and obscured by the taskbar. This does not happen with the Windows taskbar, which I have also enabled on one of my screens.

This option was already checked.

Here is what you asked for, and DisplayFusion.log, too. I turned on detailed logging, accessed a multi-monitor taskbar, then the Start menu (It first popped up in front of (rather than next to) the taskbar, then the taskbar re-drew itself in front of the menu.), then accessed & attached the logfiles.

After some time of using my computer with the Ignore Full Screen Windows option, it seems to mostly get done what I want. Of course, it has the drawback of showing up sometimes when I don't want it to, such as if a program attempts to flash on the toolbar, it causes toolbars on all monitors to show, not just on the monitor that the program is currently on, but it does eliminate the problem of it not showing at all at certain times.

It's not ideal, but it is a workaround I can live with, thanks.