Restart Explorer to un-hide task bar

Is there some simple fix to the issue of having to restart Windows Explorer to unhide the task bar? It seems that opening a pdf or a word document or "ctrl tab" closes the taskbar and the only way to open it is to restart explorer.

I have read some of the information about what causes the problem and it's way beyond my understanding not to mention that I'm much less interested in the cause than I am the solution.
The solutions that I did find are unbelievably complex and require multiple steps that often can't be done because the item to be "clicked on" don't exist... a very common situation with MS instructions.
This seems like such a simple thing to correct and it is a real nuisance. Why would Microsoft allow such a problem to go unresolved? I've been trying to solve this for years.... I think since MS11

I gave up out of frustration but thought I'd take another shot at it.............

PLEASE tell me this has been addressed/fixed.

mike

Would you please state whether or not you use any 3rd party app that affects the GUI. such as OpenShell, Start 11, ExplorerPatcher, etc.

glasskuter said:

Would you please state whether or not you use any 3rd party app that affects the GUI. such as OpenShell, Start 11, ExplorerPatcher, etc.

Click to expand...

Thank you for your response.

I don't know what the GUI is so I don't know if I have an app that affects it. I am not aware of having OpenShell, Start 11 or ExplorerPatcher.

I try to avoid any apps other than a few communication apps like Telegram, Signal, Google Chat, Messenger and Whats App

I'm really a pretty basic user. Surfing the net and keeping up with friends and family via email and face book.

mike

Thanks again for the help.

Can you check if you have the option "automatically hide taskbar" set? Right-click on a clear part of the taskbar and select taskbar settings. In the menu that comes up, select taskbar behaviours. The option is in there.

Yes I have that option selected and it works perfectly every time except for what I suspect is when I open a pdf, word or use ctrl tab.

Just tried it myself to see what happens. After exiting the PDF. move the cursor to the bottom of the screen and the taskbar reappears. Hiding it only saves a little bit of space.

My mistake. I just tried it and the taskbar function worked correctly.

I'll take a closer look the next time I have the problem and report back.

thanks