There is a bug with the Windows 8 Taskbar in that, after a period of time, the taskbar will refuse to update itself. It stays persistently frozen and/or out of sync, including the clock, running application window icons, and system tray icons. Most people will probably notice the clock first, since they may be surprised by the time it reports.
The taskbar will do a one time update when one switches to the Modern UI Start screen.
Restarting explorer will fix the issue for a time.
The cause is unknown. This issue has been reported by many, but no acknowledgement from Microsoft is known.
Hi Jeremy,
ReplyDeleteI am having the same problem - at first I thought it was just a minor issue, but it has now become recurrent on my freshly installed Windows 8 PC. It has a tendency of occuring when the CPU is under load. Typical symptoms are:
- The clock will be on time.
- System tray icons are not in the correct place - or non closed applications still appear there.
- Left over icons remain in the task bar of applications that are no longer open.
I've been searching the internet to see if anyone had similar problems and your post was the first (and only) one that I came across. I hope Microsoft picks this up as it is becoming a pain in the neck to constantly have to go back and forth between the desktop and the modern start menu (doesn't work all the time either).
Regards,
Nadil.
Clarification:
Delete- The clock will no longer be on time.
- System tray icons are not in the correct place - or closed applications still appear there.
Regards,
Nadil.
Thank you for verifying this. I wondered if I was crazy or what, as it is easily reproducible on all my PCs, yet I'd not seen this reported anywhere. We'll have to assume Microsoft is aware of this deficiency. While they may prefer everyone use the Metro/Modern UI, I would certainly hope they don't actually think the traditional explorer interface is going away anytime soon! This is a fairly large error to have left in the final, and - to me at least - the length of time it takes to address will reflect their dedication to explorer.
ReplyDeleteJeremy,
ReplyDeleteBy any chance are you using Start8 from Stardock Software?
Regards,
Nadil.
No, I am not using it, or any similar add-on to restore the Start Menu, modify the Task Bar or System Tray. This is a pure Windows 8 (NT 6.2) bug.
DeleteHi Again Jeremy,
DeleteJust for your info I figured out what was causing it on my computer - I use Coretemp and for some reason Windows 8 does not digest it too well. I've disabled Coretemp for the time being and the above mentioned problem disappears completely. Took me a couple of days to find since I used the elimination process. My computer's been running two days non stop without any hiccups.
Regards,
Nadil.
And don't ask me what the heck is going on with the comments here... it seems Blogger has gone askew itself :o
ReplyDeleteCan confirm this in Windows 8 Enterprise fully patched. time on taskbar gets stuck ( shows time up to 2-3 hours before correct time sometimes) hitting the windows key twice refreshes the time
ReplyDeleteI've experienced this issue on my laptop running windows 8. Both the time and date freeze on the task bar. When I look at the control panel to reset, it show the correct info.
ReplyDeleteSame issue reported here, still exists with Windows 8.1 release version. Commenting here mainly just so that I get notified if someone happens to post a fix here in the comments.
ReplyDeleteSomething similar is occurring for me in Win 8.1 Pro - the time never updates, even though I can ping the time servers, and the tray that pops up when you click the arrow to view all tray icons... won't close. It constantly gets stuck open for no apparent reason.
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