If you have a program that appears in the Task Bar but not on any of your screens you likely have one of two problems. Fortunately both are easy to fix.
PROGRAM IS RESTORED TO A POSITION ON A SCREEN YOU CANNOT SEE
I have seen this occur in two instances:
- When the program is on a non-existent screen which can happen when a screen is removed or if you drag a program window off the screen (which SHOULD not be possible)
- When the program has been moved under the Task Bar
The fix is to use the old keyboard commands to relocate the program to a part of the screen you can see.
- Put your mouse over (do NOT click) the program in the Task Bar until the preview appears directly above it
- Right Click on the preview and select MOVE
- Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to relocate to a part of the screen you can see
- Press the ENTER key on your keyboard when it is moved
- You can then use the mouse to move and resize the window as you see fit
PROGRAM HAS BEEN RESIZED TO A SINGLE PIXEL
I have see this only twice in 20+ years but it does happen. The fix is to use old keyboard commands to resize the program window:
- Put your mouse over (do NOT click) the program in the Task Bar until the preview appears directly above it
- Right Click on the preview and select SIZE or MOVE
- Press the Down or Right arrow key on the keyboard have it resize to what should be its minimum size
- Press the ENTER key on your keyboard when it is moved
- You can then use the mouse to resize the window as you see fit
If none of these options work:
- Put your mouse over (do NOT click) the program in the Task Bar until the preview appears directly above it
- Right Click on the preview and select MAXIMIZE
If the program appears full screen, then it is running but is just not visible to you. Click RESTORE and try both of the options above again.
You may find other sites like THIS ONE useful too.
84 Comments
Shaun · December 3, 2021 at 4:21 pm
Thank you so much for posting this. Never would have thought of the problem happening on my single-screen laptop.
Jennifer · October 19, 2021 at 9:26 am
Thank you so much for this! It worked. I think my program was on my laptop screen (3 screens) but my laptop is closed as I have two peripheral screens attached.
Ian Matthews · October 19, 2021 at 11:47 am
Wonderful. Glad we could help with this oooooold trick. 🙂
Geoff · October 10, 2021 at 7:07 am
On Windows 11 this was the only method that worked for me. The advice may be old but it still works…. Thanks:-)
SANDRA T RIVERA · April 19, 2021 at 1:32 pm
Thank You…it worked!!!
Sonjia · April 4, 2021 at 4:26 pm
Thank You very much. Your title was exactly what my problem.was. First time I ever had this to happen.
Sue · December 7, 2020 at 9:15 am
Thank you so much – this has been driving me mad. Laptop nearly through window!!
werew · December 2, 2020 at 7:30 pm
It worked!
S. Rad · November 25, 2020 at 12:46 am
Thanks, perfect fix, I also had to change orientation of my screens in dual screen setup. Main screen right, second screen left.
Harvey · October 5, 2020 at 1:40 pm
Thanks for this – all is well now
Jen · September 14, 2020 at 12:52 pm
Thank you for getting me going in the right direction! Size and Move did not work for me, but Maximize did, and then I was able to drag the window around by the title and resize it that way. What a weird issue!
saadaxl0811 · April 14, 2020 at 1:10 pm
thank you very much, the only issue is to find the correct title of this issue 😀
Jesse Lehman · April 12, 2020 at 5:50 pm
When I right click the preview it just disappears
Ian Matthews · April 13, 2020 at 8:02 pm
Hi Jesse;
To be clear, you are right clicking on the popup preview as shown https://i2.wp.com/www.urtech.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/program-on-taskbar-not-on-screen.jpg ?
Thomas Lamkin · April 7, 2020 at 7:49 pm
You are awesome. Microsoft could not figure out. You gave a simple solution. Thank you!
Freddy · March 8, 2020 at 8:03 am
I love you guys! :D:D:D easy and powerful
Frank S · December 27, 2019 at 8:13 pm
Thank you, as per Norbert H Henn, once I could get to Settings following your method (PROGRAM IS RESTORED TO A POSITION ON A SCREEN YOU CANNOT SEE), I could change the screen settings so that there was only one screen. That fixed it for everything else.