Windows 7 Black taskbar/window bug

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kcorbitt

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Jan 13, 2009
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Hey everyone,

I just did a fresh install of Windows 7 build 7000 on a machine with a Windows Experience Index graphics for aero subscore of 4.1 - which should be sufficient to run aero no problem.

I am running into what seems to be a bug. I have my system set up with the default aero theme, but every time I open a file explorer window both the border around the current window and the taskbar turn an opaque black, and the border around any other open windows turn from a translucent blue to a translucent grey. I can change it back to the default appearance easily enough, and it stays that way until the next time I open a file explorer window. Has anyone else run into this problem, or know of a workaround? It is really bothering me. Thanks.
 
Solution
Guys I had that same problem, after doing an upgrade install, I let that run a couple days then decided to reinstall without doing an upgrade and everything is working fine. Go back and install without ugrading and I'm sure you'll get better results.

That was bugging the h3ll out of me, everytime I'd open a explorer window the taskbar would go back to black.

Good Luck
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Thanks for the quick reply. I have uploaded two screenshots - "before.png" is what my desktop normally looks like (the default windows 7 theme), and "after.png" is how it looks after I have opened a file explorer window. As you can see, my taskbar and the border on the current window both turn black, and the other windows change hue as well. Thanks again, and I hope you'll be able to identify my problem.
 
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It seems as though windows is just changing the windows color as aero is still enabled. This is a weird problem that i have not seen before. What is ur theme currently set to?
 
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My theme is currently set to the default - "Windows 7." I even went so far as to delete the custom theme that it automatically generated, but the problem continues to recur.
 
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Well There are several things that could be the problem. The first and most probable case is that your driver for your display adapters is corrupt. Try Reinstalling it. Second it could be a bug in windows 7 that i have not come across yet. Third it maybe that you have a software program that is interfering with your theme and is changing it. Fourth and finally you may have a virus or other harmful code on your computer in which case i would suggest installing antivirus.
 
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Ok, thanks for the suggestions. I already tried installing the latest graphics driver, but I'll try your other suggestions as well. Thanks.
 
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Same probelm

I just did an upgrade install and am having the exact same problem. I did try reinstalling the display drivers, but that did not work.
 
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Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. Be sure to post back here if you find a fix for the issue.

I just installed windows 7 on a second system - my laptop. This time I ran an upgrade installation on vista, instead of a clean install. I'm wondering now whether it is a problem with the installation media I used, because the only thing in common between the systems is the DVD I used to install the OS. I downloaded the .iso directly from the Microsoft site, but it is possible it got corrupted either in the download or the burning process.

Does anyone have the MD5 hash for the .iso?
 
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Guys I had that same problem, after doing an upgrade install, I let that run a couple days then decided to reinstall without doing an upgrade and everything is working fine. Go back and install without ugrading and I'm sure you'll get better results.

That was bugging the h3ll out of me, everytime I'd open a explorer window the taskbar would go back to black.

Good Luck
 
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Solution
I'm also having the exact same problem. I did an upgrade install on my Dell Inspiron 9400 2GB ram. I never had a problem with aero with Vista. This could be a coincidence but everything seemed to be fine until i started mucking around with Windows Mesh. That may not be what caused it but that's when it happened for the first time. I can set whatever theme I want and it will be fine untill I hit the explorer button on the task bar. I even did the Windows Experience Index test because (and I really don't know what I'm talking about here) I heard some people were having video display problems until that test made thier video drivers kick in. Anyway maybe I'll try reinstalling my video driver...tommorrow.

I also did a clean install of Windows 7 beta with bootcamp on my MacBook and I haven't had this problem.
 
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Interesting, I use Mesh as well. I wonder if it is related to that. Is there anyone who has encountered this problem who does not use Mesh?

UPDATE: it looks like Mesh might be the culprit after all. It appears that mesh disabling aero is a known problem, but they are Link Removed that should fix it.
 
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You beat me to the punch. I reinstalled my video drivers and it didn't help. I uninstalled Mesh and after I restarted ...problem solved.
 
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I had similar problems until I remembered to run disk cleanup and then defrag, which should have been done right after the install.

For good measure I downloaded and installed CC Cleaner and ran it, even though defragging solved the problems.
 
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it more looks like a problem with the program you are running. some programs do not support aero and some dont even fully support windows 7. when i open a program that is not supported then the aero of windows will turn to normal mode. maybe some kind of problem is happening with you too.
 
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I have confirmed that the new mesh update solves this problem! Right click on the mesh icon in the taskbar and select "check for updates" - after the update finishes and you restart, the issue is gone.
 
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No mesh

I don't have mesh installed, and I have this problem. It started after I restarted my computer. Now every time it starts up my whole desktop is black and I can only see the start menu. Everything is still on the pinup bar but I can't see it. I can guess and click on a program and if I guess right it opens! I can still access everything from the start bar so it's not causing any problems with my work, it's just a little annoying. Any ideas?

When I restart or shutdown it goes back to my normal desktop for about 3-4 seconds. Weird!
 
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