Windows 10: Lose autohidden taskbar AND windows don't land on top with Alt-Tab ...

I have a fairly new Windows 10 laptop (Lenovo T460s), which had lots of issues out of the box. Some were resolved with driver updates (networking issues), others by turning off hardware video acceleration in Office (routine crashes). Now, I have just one left that I've solved in a tolerable, but not good, way.

When I use Alt-Tab to switch between windows (some Office programs, Firefox, and Chrome), the window that I select with Alt-Tab often doesn't appear on top. I have to minimize windows to get to the one I selected. In a seemingly unrelated issue, the autohide taskbar sometimes won't reappear when I bring the mouse to the bottom.

I solved both by setting the registry entry AltTabSettings to a DWORD of 1. This results in an ugly Alt-Tab experience, but both probelms have gone away. Tried turning off hardware acceleration at the video driver level, but that didn't resolve the problem consistently.

I have the latest OS (10.0.10586), Win 10 Pro, and Intel HD 520 Graphics. Hard to imagine I'm the only one with this problem ...

Any wisdom from the crowd will be welcome.

:)

 

Lose autohidden taskbar AND windows don't land on top with Alt-Tab ...

I have a fairly new Windows 10 laptop (Lenovo T460s), which had lots of issues out of the box. Some were resolved with driver updates (networking issues), others by turning off hardware video acceleration in Office (routine crashes). Now, I have just one
left that I've solved in a tolerable, but not good, way.

When I use Alt-Tab to switch between windows (some Office programs, Firefox, and Chrome), the window that I select with Alt-Tab often doesn't appear on top. I have to minimize windows to get to the one I selected. In a seemingly unrelated issue, the autohide
taskbar sometimes won't reappear when I bring the mouse to the bottom.

I solved both (for a time) by setting the registry entry AltTabSettings to a DWORD of 1. This results in an ugly Alt-Tab experience, but both problems went away for a day or two (no reboots), and the "window doesn't come to top" problem is now back. The autohidden
task bar is still reappearing when he should.

Had previously tried turning off hardware acceleration at the video driver level, but that didn't resolve the problem consistently.

I have the latest OS (10.0.10586), Win 10 Pro, and Intel HD 520 Graphics. Hard to imagine I'm the only one with this problem ...

Any wisdom from the crowd will be welcome.

 

Lose autohidden taskbar AND windows don't land on top with Alt-Tab ...

Hi Paul,

From the information given by you, please try to do a clean boot and check if the Alt+ Tab issue is resolved.

Putting your system inClean Boot state helps in identifying if any third party applications or startup items are causing the issue. You need to follow the steps from the article mentioned below to perform
a Clean Boot.



https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135



Disclaimer: After troubleshooting, refer to this section "How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting".

After doing a clean boot, if the issue persists, please try to create a new account and check if it helps.

a. Type Settings on the search bar.

b. Click on Accounts.

c. Go to Family and Other users, in that click on Add someone else to PC.

d. In there click on Microsoft Account if you want to create an MS account or else click on Local Account.

e. There give a name to the account and provide password if you want.



Now, make that account as an admin account, by following the below steps:



a. Go to control panel.

b. In User accounts and Account type select
change account type.

c. Here select the account you have. There select
change account type.

d Select the Administrator
button and click change account type.

Please let us know if the issue is resolved or you need any further assistance.

Thank you.

 

Update - using the AltTabSettings to go back to the old (actually much worse than Windows 7) Alt-Tab experience solved the problem for quite a while, but the "window doesn't come to top" issue is back now.