Taskbar Freezing/Unclickable

I've recently installed Windows Vista: Ultimate, and have ran into 2 problems
that i've noticed. One problem is that my taskbar freezes after
double-clicking the speaker icon in the taskbar. I can hoover over the
speaker with my mouse, and it would be ok, but once i double-click it, then
the entire taskbar freezes, and only the Start button is accessible, as well
as my entire desktop, but quicklaunch and system tray icons are all frozen.
My second problem is when I right-click my taskbar and I click "properties"
and then remove check mark on "Show Quick Launch", and also Remove the check
marks Under Start Menu tab "Store and display a list of recently opened
files" and "Store and display a list of recently opened programs" the system
then completely freezes, and become unresponsive. A error message comes up on
my desktop showing "Windows Explorer has stopped Running". Has anyone came
across this problem, or tried to see if they have any issues, or is this just
a Vista bug unfound by Microsoft? Thanks you all for your Help!.

Lots of people are reporting this, as am I. I've switched computers and
monitors, and it still happens. So far, no solution that I've seen. I have
found that it only happens when my Dell 620 is docked.

I have the same problem with the taskbar. What we should do??

It's becomming clear that this is a problem that is related to the bios
supplied in Dell computers. Another poster was working with Microsoft on the
problem when they discovered that the Dell bios was not compatable with
Vista. So, you have to go do the Dell web pages and find a bios that fits
your computer, and is Vista compatable, and then flash your bios. But, BE
CAREFUL! And, I'm also told that once you do that, you'll have to reinstall
Vista because the bios flash corrupts some of the installed parts of Vista.
Oh boy, huh? I'm not sure if this means you'll also have to reinstall all the
rest of your programs and settings, also. If you get any other, or more,
information, please post!!

I've got a HP Compaq nx7300, Vista Business and am having the same
issue...are they sure its a BIOS issue?

Turns out that it is not a bios problem. Microsoft has what they call a
"hotfix" for this problem, but you have to talk directly with MS's technical
support people and get the URL and password to download and install it.
Several of us have done that, and the problem has never come back.

Fantastic... Do they have a KnowledgeBase article (KB) about the issue, or
did you just call them up and describe the issue?

can you send me the hotfix at all?

Does anyone know the HOTFIX #... I just called microsoft and hey can't help
me unless i have the hotfix #...Thats POOR customer service if i called with
a problem and they know there is one but won't help me without a fix #....
Can anyonehelp or just post the link and password to save all of us the
trouble...It should be public anyways...

Refer the MS techie to this page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932406/en-us

[rbonja1]

i thaught i had the right KB but when i try to reun it it says that it is an out of date update and wont install it. i have a toahiba satellite A-135. Any help would be much appreciated thanks in advance.

[z3eed]

Hey, if you test the workaround in the bottom of the KB, the Taskbar starts to work again!

Method 1
Log off, and then log on to the computer.

Method 2
Stop and then restart the Explorer.exe process. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL.
2. Click Task Manager.
3. Click the Processes tab.
4. Click the explorer.exe process.
5. Click End Process, and then click End process.
6. Click the Applications tab.
7. Click New Task.
8. Type explorer in the Open box, and then click OK.

[allanrockwell]

thank you so much!!! this works!!!

Whoohoo!! --Thanks. This also solved my problem. So... was it a quota problem? Anyhoo... I had to suscribe just to thank you. But i'll be around, as i was recently looking for just such a forum, and had not decided...

[Bin0474]

I also joined just for the sole purpose of thanking z3eed for his solution. Worked a treat!