[SOLVED] Some conditions cause a 1px gap to appear above maximized windows (top taskbar)

from Stardock Forums

System

  • Windows 11 24H2 (26100.3775) Pro
  • Start11 v2.52.3
  • 2 Monitors
    • Primary (1):  3840 x 1600 (On right)
    • Secondary (2): 3840 x 2160 (On left)
  • RTX 5080 GPU
  • Enhanced Taskbar
  • Taskbar on top
  • Taskbar (Start11) Auto-hide
  • Start Menu left aligned
  • Custom Start Button

Another minor, but annoying issue.

Sometimes, with the above configuration, Windows will manage to get into a state where a 1px gap is present above all maximized windows, through which one can see the desktop wallpaper like so (here the wallpaper is a solid red color for clarity):

This seems to happen almost at random, and remains this way for a while; you can resize, maximize, minimize, and restore any window, even ones that have not yet been opened, and they will all remain effected by this bug; although, eventually there is some kind of action one can take that will get it to go away until the problem is triggered again at a later time. The exact reason it gets in and out of this state is unclear, and may be affected by explorer refreshing due to program changes, or monitors being connected/disconnected; however, I was able to determine one reliable way to trigger the bug.

  1. Not strictly necessary, but best to work from a fresh restart when the system is settled
  2. Open a window and maximize it (unless it already opens maximized)
  3. Without touching the first window, open a second window and maximize it
  4. Restore either of the windows
  5. Minimize or restore the remaining window
  6. Maximize either of the windows (or the remaining one if you minimized the other)
  7. There will now be the 1px gap at the top of the screen until the state is somehow exited

 

Here is a sequence of me simply triggering the issue as fast as possible, such that it fits into a gif. Notice how at first the windows maximize correctly and take up the entire screen. NOTE: This was done in a minimal, single monitor VM for ease of reproduction, hence why there is a separate desktop wallpaper off to the right, but the issue also affects the host system):

And here is a video showing a reproduction of the issue, which also more thoroughly demonstrates how initially the bug is not present:

start menu products
2,462 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues.  Try disable or enable this setting and see if it make any different?

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

+1 Loading…
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Woops...

I meant to test if disabling that would prevent the issue once I found a repeatable way to trigger the issue, but it took me long enough to do so that I forgot about doing that and just went right to making a post >>

Disabling that option on the VM at least does seem to have prevented the issue when performing the same above steps shown in the GIF and video.

I have also disabled the option on my host system and will keep an eye out to see if the behavior does not seem to return.

Do you have any idea what exactly "compatibility reasons" refers to more specifically? I know that on older versions of windows when using an auto-hide taskbar, the taskbar actually does stick out 1px, which I assumed was part of the mechanism that still allowed the mouse to unhide it when moving it to the screen edge. I imagine having this option off might make it so that some applications, presumably older ones, might have some issues with the Start11 taskbar.

Just curious what to look out for, unless perhaps that feature is more out of an abundance of caution and turning it off generally doesn't cause problems.

Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

I am not sure, but, from what I understand, different user have different graphics card, monitor setups and setting etc. So it might be due to a lot of possibilities. From what I know few have report that turning it on help triggering to unhide taskbar. Some don't need them.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

I can confirm that after some time, I have not seen this issue return on my system, so disabling the above setting is the right move as long as it doesn't cause issues.

It may have influenced the issue I have where the task bar doesn't want to un-hide when a window is maximized, but I've experienced this intermittent problem even before turning this off so it's hard to say.

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

This is not a stardock or start11 problem. Go into System Settings (Win + i). Click Personalization. Click Colors. Deselect "Show accent color on title bars and windows borders."