Some buttons not working on some apps

I've noticed an occasional problem where some buttons are not working. This happens sometimes and seems to be restricted to the built in apps of Windows.

The newest instance of the problem was when I tried to close Notepad. I clicked the close button and the dialog asking if I wanted to save appeared. I tried clicking no, but the click didn't register as button click but it moved the text cursor to that place behind the dialog. I could verify it by moving the cursor by arrow keys and it came visible from behind the dialog.

It was like the dialog wasn't there at all. The click registered behind the dialog and I think that the dialog being open usually prevents moving the cursor altogether.

Because I couldn't close notepad the usual way I opened the task manager. There I could select notepad from the list of open programs but the end task button didn't work. It didn't highlight when hovering with mouse and clicking did nothing. I was able to close notepad by right clicking it on the programs list and selecting end task on the context menu.

I've encountered this problem a handful of times. For example once it prevented me from opening a new tab on explorer.

This is a strange problem as it only affects parts of the UI. Usually the program becomes entirely unresponsive but now only some buttons stop working.
What could cause this?

Don't ignore the fact that it may not be windows at all but a flaky mouse button that will sometimes work, sometimes not.

I was going to say that but Speedy the Glasskuter beat me to it. If you've got a spare mouse (and most of us have a bunch of old ones somewhere), just switch and see whether the buttons on the screen respond to the buttons on the alternate mouse.

couple of possible culprits in this thread Some Buttons in Apps Stop Working

glasskuter said:

Don't ignore the fact that it may not be windows at all but a flaky mouse button that will sometimes work, sometimes not.

Click to expand...

Wisewiz said:

I was going to say that but Speedy the Glasskuter beat me to it. If you've got a spare mouse (and most of us have a bunch of old ones somewhere), just switch and see whether the buttons on the screen respond to the buttons on the alternate mouse.

Click to expand...

It can’t be the mouse, because in the Notepad example the click did register but just in an incorrect way. The mouse button not working also would not prevent the buttons from highlighting when hovering.

JKAVS said:

It can’t be the mouse, because in the Notepad example the click did register but just in an incorrect way. The mouse button not working also would not prevent the buttons from highlighting when hovering.

Click to expand...

Probably the easiest thing to do, would be an In-Place Upgrade.
That will fix any Windows problems. It should take about 30 mins on your computer.




Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software

Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect (free)
Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

Get the Windows 11 ISO image and save it to your desktop...


Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations.
Your drivers, programs and data will be intact.

An In-Place Upgrade will NOT fix, driver problems, or issues with 3rd party programs or infections.

Ghot said:

It would also help to have a list of ALL the apps that have this problem. There might be something they all have in common.

Click to expand...

So far I've noticed Notepad, Task Manager and Explorer. The thing in common seems to be that the buttons that are not working are always those which have changed from Windows 10. In Notepad the closing confirmation dialog is new with the big modern buttons. In Task Manager the buttons and tabs are new and not working but the list of open programs is the old one from Windows 10 and it works. In Explorer the tabs are new and not working but the file browsing area is the same as in Windows 10 and it works.

I've also noticed another clue. In notepad the mouse cursor remains in the text mode (looking like a capital letter I) even when it is on the close confirmation dialog. It is just like the dialog wasn't there and the mouse was still on the text editing area behind it.

JKAVS said:

So far I've noticed Notepad, Task Manager and Explorer. The thing in common seems to be that the buttons that are not working are always those which have changed from Windows 10. In Notepad the closing confirmation dialog is new with the big modern buttons. In Task Manager the buttons and tabs are new and not working but the list of open programs is the old one from Windows 10 and it works. In Explorer the tabs are new and not working but the file browsing area is the same as in Windows 10 and it works.

I've also noticed another clue. In notepad the mouse cursor remains in the text mode (looking like a capital letter I) even when it is on the close confirmation dialog. It is just like the dialog wasn't there and the mouse was still on the text editing area behind it.

Click to expand...

Type: winver in the Taskbar search box and find out what version of Windows 11 you are running.
For example, mine is... 22621.1344





And just as an FYI...

To post a screenshot on this forum...

1. Take the screenshot, edit it as desired, save to your desktop as .png or .jpg (max. size = 2MB)
2. Left click in your post, where you want to place the screenshot.
3. Click the Attach Files button at lower left, browse to your pic and click Insert.
4. After clicking Insert, I usually choose the Thumbnail option.

glasskuter said:

couple of possible culprits in this thread Some Buttons in Apps Stop Working

Click to expand...

They noticed in that thread that the problem seems to be related do multiple monitors which I have. I tested things and everything seems to work fine in the second monitor. Notepad could be closed and Task Manager worked.

Ghot said:

Type: winver in the Taskbar search box and find out what version of Windows 11 you are running.
For example, mine is... 22621.1344

Click to expand...

22621.1265

JKAVS said:

They noticed in that thread that the problem seems to be related do multiple monitors which I have. I tested things and everything seems to work fine in the second monitor. Notepad could be closed and Task Manager worked.

22621.1265

Click to expand...

Ah ha! The plot thickens...

Could be vid card driver, or still could be Windows.
I already posted the In-Place Upgrade instructions, and here is the vid card driver instructions...






DDU Instructions - Nvidia
1. Get this program, here: Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) | Wagnardsoft ...get the latest version, and save it to your desktop.
2. Get the DCH/Game Ready vid card driver here, use the Manual Search: Advanced Driver Search | NVIDIA ...save this to your desktop.
Unhook the internet completely.
3. Reboot into Safe Mode and run DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) choose the "Highly Recommend Option", and just do what it tells you.
4. After it's done, reboot to normal mode, then just double click the Nvidia driver to install.
[See pics below]. If it want's to reboot, let it.
Rehook the internet.

Some other things...

When did this problem start? What changed, right before the problem started?

Open a command prompt as Admin and run this command... sfc /scannow
If SFC finds any problems it can't fix, run this command: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

I don't know of any display setting(s) that would cause the problem you describe.
If SFC and/or DISM can't fix the problem, then I would just do an In-Place Upgrade.

If after that, the problem still exists, then re-install the vid card driver like above.

Ghot said:

Ah ha! The plot thickens...

Click to expand...

If it helps, one person in the thread I referenced put the problem into his second monitor.(he thinks) Two others saying they had the same problem did not use a second monitor. In all 3 cases the issue temporarily resolved with a restart. The only thing in common was all 3 were laptops...of 3 different brands. They did not list whether or not they had discrete GPU as full system specs were not listed. Those 3 reports were in 2022.

glasskuter said:

If it helps, one person in the thread I referenced put the problem into his second monitor.(he thinks) Two others saying they had the same problem did not use a second monitor. In all 3 cases the issue temporarily resolved with a restart. The only thing in common was all 3 were laptops...of 3 different brands. They did not list whether or not they had discrete GPU as full system specs were not listed. Those 3 reports were in 2022.

Click to expand...

My PC is not a laptop.

Does a restart temporarily resolve it?

glasskuter said:

Does a restart temporarily resolve it?

Click to expand...

It didn't.

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. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

Ghot said:

When did this problem start? What changed, right before the problem started?

Click to expand...

Highly pertinent question. As always, Ghot is spot on with his advice to do an inplace upgrade if the issue remains while in a clean boot state.