Every open program has duplicate window in side bar area on right side

My first question will probably drive ya all crazy like I said in my intro. Here are the system specs first:

Windows 10 version 2004
HP DV6 notebook
2.13 gigahertz Intel Core i3 M 330
2999.83 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
880.52 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
7992 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
Intel(R) HD Graphics [Display adapter]
Generic PnP Monitor (15.3"vis)

Okay, here we go. This situation is REALLY hard to describe, I think. I hope you will know what I'm talking about.

Every program I open, every folder I open, immediately opens a duplicate mini-window over along the right edge of the screen in the side bar area. They are not icons. I went the route of trying to get rid of them via Settings, but no icon setting will affect them.
As I have this screen up right now, if I run my cursor accidentally over into the sidebar area over the top of one of those duplicate mini-windows, then that window becomes the main screen and covers up this window. It is really frustrating! There is no setting available anywhere that I'm aware of that will stop these duplicate mini-windows from popping up along the right edge of the screen.
I have run malwarebytes and Win Defender both, checking to see if it's malware and can find no trace of any problem there. I ran CCleaner (carefully) and that didn't help.
I had this same situation happen to an earlier version of Win 10 and the only way I got rid of it was to overwrite the drive with a copy of a good running drive. I can do that again, but that is so time consuming as you know. And I'd far rather find out what's causing this so I can eliminate it and not have to go to that extreme.
I would pull my hair out but I don't have enough to spare any more, so that won't help. I don't know whether to pray for you folks, that you will come up with an answer, or for my patience. Maybe I should pray for both.

I do hope someone can come up with an answer to this mystery. Where is Scooby Doo when you need him??

Thank, folks-
Ron K

Hi it would help if you could post a screen shot of what your talking about as someone here might know what it is by looking at the screen shot thanks

@RKelly5327

Copy and Paste SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe into a Run dialog,

under Visual Effects, uncheck 'Enable Peek' click Apply, click OK

RKelly5327 said:

This situation is REALLY hard to describe, I think. I hope you will know what I'm talking about....

I think I've understood it....

Every program I open, every folder I open, immediately opens a duplicate mini-window over along the right edge of the screen in the side bar area. They are not icons. I went the route of trying to get rid of them via Settings, but no icon setting will affect them.

As I have this screen up right now, if I run my cursor accidentally over into the sidebar area over the top of one of those duplicate mini-windows, then that window becomes the main screen and covers up this window. It is really frustrating! There is no setting available anywhere that I'm aware of that will stop these duplicate mini-windows from popping up along the right edge of the screen.

That 'sidebar' is known as the Taskbar. You can place it at either side, or the top or bottom of your screen. When you run any program its icon should appear on the Taskbar to a) show you that it is running and b) provide a quick way to switch to it by clicking on its icon.

The 'mini-windows' are a Thumbnail Preview of the full window, they should only pop up when you hover your mouse over the icon on the Taskbar. Hovering over the Thumbnail will show a preview of the window full size, but it has not 'taken over'. Move the cursor away from the Thumbnail and the preview will disappear leaving your desktop as it was. Only when you click on the Thumbnail will you switch to that program and have its window on top of your desktop.

These are features intended to help you easily switch between programs you are using. Once you get used to how they work it can be quite useful.


If the Thumbnails becoming a full sized preview annoys you, then you can that off.

Enable or Disable Taskbar Thumbnail Live Previews in Windows 10

You can also change how long you have to hover over an icon on the Taskbar before the Thumbnail appears....

Change Delay Time to Show Taskbar Thumbnails in Windows 10

...and how long to hover over the Thumbnail before the full sized Preview appears.

Change Taskbar Thumbnail Live Preview Hover Delay Time in Windows 10


Oh, and you can also make the Taskbar auto-hide. Then the taskbar itself will only appear when you move the cursor to the edge of the screen where it is hiding.

Turn On or Off Auto-hide Taskbar in Desktop Mode in Windows 10

Edwin, I did what you suggested, and Bree, what you suggested. Neither procedure cured the problem. But Bree, your description is exactly what's happening except what you show is happening at the bottom where the Taskbar is. This is happening in the sidebar, where gadgets go. It's along the right edge of the screen, the vertical right edge, not the bottom, the horizontal bottom. I'm uploading the pics I took to show you folks. Also Bree, from what you are describing makes me wonder if it's possible that I have a duplicate taskbar over on the right side, the vertical side. I say that because my taskbar is at the bottom as it should be, and it responds exactly as it should. I place my cursor over a window in the bottom taskbar and I get the preview window. I can't get a screenshot of it because when I do the prt sc function, it brings up another program in which I have to move the cursor to get to it, and as soon as I do that, then the preview popup at the bottom disappears.
Anyway, what I'm wondering now is it possible that I have a duplicate taskbar over in the sidebar area- the gadget area, along the vertical right edge of the screen. Take a look at the pics and that will help.

RKelly5327 said:

...Anyway, what I'm wondering now is it possible that I have a duplicate taskbar over in the sidebar area- the gadget area, along the vertical right edge of the screen. Take a look at the pics and that will help.

The pictures clear up a lot of misunderstanding. I thought you were talking about the Window 10 Taskbar, but your problem is actually with the Sidebar gadgets.

That is not part of a standard Windows 10 install, so I'm wondering where you got the Sidebar from. There are several 3rd-party sources for a 'Sidebar' app, but the one place you wouldn't have got it from is Microsoft.

Microsoft said:

Gadgets are no longer available on our website because the Windows Sidebar platform in Windows 7 has serious vulnerabilities. Microsoft has retired the feature in newer releases of Windows...

https://support.microsoft.com/help/1...n-discontinued


So what 'Sidebar' have you installed? It should be listed in Settings > Apps > Apps & Features.

This is the website where I got the gadgets- 8GadgetPack - Gadgets for Windows 10 / 8.1 / 7 I've used it for years, from Windows 7 right on up to 10. It's never caused any problems. You can probably see in some of the pics that I only had a couple gadgets in it, which get covered up with the mini-windows, or thumbnail preview windows, I guess you call them.
If I remember right, this all started right after I was on a Zoom meeting. That was all brand new to me and I believe I had installed some program for Zoom instead of going right into a meeting with the info I had.
In spite of never having any issues with the gadget area, I went ahead and uninstalled the gadgets. When I did, all the thumbnail preview windows disappeared with it. I need to re-start now. After I do, I'll see what happens in that area and come back here to report how things went.
I sure appreciate the geniuses at work here. Funny- I did so much repair stuff in the vacuum tube era. Now look at what we have! Amazing.
As McArthur said, "I will return." I hope.

- - - Updated - - -

Okay folks, I'm back after the restart. Uninstalling the 8gadget pack did the trick and got rid of those thumbnail preview windows in the gadget area. I had talked with other 'sharp' techies and no one could get past the fact that they were not icons. But you folks nailed it. Thank you so much for your help! Now to get it marked "solved" and we're all set.

Thanks again,

Ron

Hi their should be a green button that says something like mark as solved at top of reply box

Yes... this one.....

I guess I'm all squared away with "solved" and thanks. I sure do appreciate the help!