Blank area at top of some programs when displayed in Maximized mode

I asked this question back on July 2020, but have updated it and am reposting in hopes that someone knows a solution. Others are experiencing the same problem.

The problem manifests itself as a blank area at the top of a maximized window. It occurs

• Only for certain programs (Notepad, Intel Graphics, Thunderbird, Firefox, Macro Exchange Pro32, VLC Media Player, Irfanview)
• Not for other programs (Word, Excel, Outlook, Powerpoint, Notepad++, PDFXchange Editor, Jarte, Mathcad, Visual Studio, Macrium Reflect)
• Only when the window is displayed in Maximized mode on whichever monitor is designated as primary on a dual-monitor system

When it occurs, clicking on the program's menu items does nothing, and if, for example, the X at the top right of the screen is clicked, it closes not the affected program, but rather any program underneath it.

The only way I've found to cure the problem temporarily is to reboot the computer. How long it takes before the problem recurs is variable. For example, I was free of the problem for over a month until 2 days ago. Now it's occurred 3 times in the span of 2 days.

I've seen various suggestions for curing the problem, but none have worked. For example, one person suggested using Task Manager to "end task" of dwm.exe. This works for an already-opened program, but if the program is closed and reopened the problem comes back.

This problem has been plaguing me (and others with dual monitors) for over a year. Any suggestions?

System: Windows 10 Home 2009 64-bit; Intel Graphics 630 card

[I wanted to reduce the size of these screenshots & display them side-by-side, but double-clicking them does not bring up a screen for adjusting size, as I was told. If someone can tell me how, I'll reduce them.]
Windowed_________________________________________________________________________Maximized

This is an issue that we have been dealing with recently. It started with one person, then another. Now we have three people that are having the issue. I think one of them has been happening for a month or two. The others for a couple of weeks.

I'm hoping to find a true fix for the problem, but this is a reliable workaround.

1. Right-click a blank spot on your desktop
2. Click on Display Settings
3. Click on whichever display is giving you trouble.
4. Scroll down to Display Resolution. Change this to the next setting down.
5. Your screen will briefly go blank and you will be given the option to keep those settings or revert. Choose revert.
6. You can close the display window at that time. Hopefully the issue is resolved when you do that.


I've also seen that you can press 'Ctrl + Shift + Win Key + B' to reload the graphics driver, which could also temporarily resolve the issue. It didn't work in my case on our Dell's with integrated Intel graphics.

Our computers (so far) that are having this trouble are:
Dell Optiplex 3060 - Windows 10 Pro (20h2 i believe) - i5-8500 - Intel® UHD Graphics 630
Dell Optiplex 3070 - Windows 10 Pro (20h2 i beleive) - i5-9500 - Intel® UHD Graphics 630

It seems that a common connection is the integrated video. The problem happens seldomly enough that it's hard to troubleshoot an actual fix. Hopefully the steps above will help you to not have to restart each time. More importantly, maybe someone will see this and offer a permanent fix.

I'm considering throwing a dedicated video card into one of the computers to see if that eliminates the issue.

Thanks for the suggestions, CB80. I will try them next time the problem occurs. It's strange why it occurs so sporadically. I'm interested to see that all the afflicted computers are Dell's with Intel 630 graphics. I've been in touch with both Dell and Intel about the problem, and I'm going to send them both a link to this thread.