minimizing & taskbar problem

Hi
On minimizing apps they keep running but completely vanish from the screen - they still run as per Taskmanager.
As the taskbar will not show program apps - even after repairs as on this forum - the only way to close those apps, even File Explorer, is by killing them in Taskman.... any ideas
Regards
G

Welcome to the forum. First, a question of what version of windows you are running. Your specs say 25h2 but you list no version number. If your have
installed the latest cumulative update it should be 25h2 (OS Build 26200.9445) Is that correct?
You can find your build by opening a command prompt as administrator and typing winver

Also, have you installed any 3rd party app that alters the GUI (ie: explorerpatcher, start11, open shell, etc)
If so, either uninstall or update the app to see if that resolves the problem and report back.

Hester said:

even after repairs as on this forum

Click to expand...

Even if it was suggested on this forum, can you state what those repairs were.

tx, i have added the build no and am not aware of any 3rd party apps that could influence the GUI the cmd operations i used are those suggested for the situation here No program shortcut icons on taskbar

The issue in the thread you referred to is somewhat different from yours as his issue occurred when the system resumed from sleep..
Let's start with some toubleshooting. These are listed in no particular order as it is eliminating things that could be the issue. I do suggest doing 1-5 first though.

1. In Setting>Personalization>Taskbar make sure "Resume" is toggled on.

2. Update your Radeon graphics driver and software to the latest version available directly from AMD to ensure full compatibility with recent Windows feature changes.

3. CLEAN BOOT
Perform a clean boot to eliminate software conflict causing the issue. If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. You have to use process of elimination to find which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

5. DISM/SFC
Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
When complete restart. Then open command prompt as admin again and run sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair

6. Did this issue start after a particular event? ie: windows update or driver update? If so uninstall the update if possible (some updates cannot be uninstalled) or rollback the driver. You can also attempt a system restore or the new point in time restore to a time before the issue started.
OR restore a system image if you have made one.

7. Test using another user account. If it doesn't happen in another account it indicates there is a problem in you user account, not windows.

8. Repair install Windows 11 with an inplace upgrade Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

the cause seems to have been an update on 09092026 which i will have to roll back - as it is an entra/intune enrolled device i will have to change the policy as global admin to exclude the device from the ''update ring'' prior to deleting the 3 updates of that date

I know nothing about Intune. Perhaps @garlin or @pseymour would have more ideas for you.