Troubleshooting Taskbar Refreshing and Application Crashes on Windows

If you’ve recently encountered persistent issues with your taskbar refreshing and applications crashing, you’re not alone. Many users have faced similar challenges, often leading to frustration, especially when these problems arise unexpectedly. Here’s a detailed account and some potential solutions that may help in resolving this situation.

The Situation

Yesterday, I logged onto my PC to engage in some schoolwork after leaving it powered on overnight. While I frequently do this, I found myself encountering significant issues shortly after starting my day. Initially, I observed that the taskbar didn’t display the icon for my game, Schedule 1. After about ten seconds of a black screen followed by a taskbar refresh, the icon finally appeared.

This odd behavior raised my suspicions, though I attributed it to the game itself and continued working. However, after closing the game, I quickly realized that the taskbar refresh persisted whenever I attempted to switch between different applications. A reboot seemed like a logical step, but unfortunately, it did not rectify the issue.

As I delved deeper, I started noticing crashes across various applications. Discord struggled to launch, appearing as if it couldn’t establish a Wi-Fi connection, and once it did open, it remained unresponsive. The same fate befell several other programs, including Steam, Opera, and even the Task Manager. A particular instance involved Opera becoming unresponsive when I tried to play a show.

Troubleshooting Attempts

In hopes of troubleshooting these persistent issues, I undertook several strategies:

1. System File Checker (sfc /scannow):
2. I ran this command in Command Prompt, which indicated that it found corrupted files but successfully repaired them.

3. After rebooting, a subsequent scan reported no integrity violations.

4. Deployment Imaging Service and Management Tool (DISM.exe):

5. I executed this command, which confirmed that the restore operation had completed successfully.

6. Windows Error Reporting Service:

7. I experimented with disabling this service through the Services panel, though this did not yield any improvement. It’s currently set to manual.

8. Windows Update Rollback:

9. I attempted to revert the latest Windows update, suspecting it might have introduced some instability.

10. Drive Health Check:

11. Using CrystalDiskInfo, I ensured that all drives were in good condition.

Seeking Further Assistance

Despite these efforts, the issues continue to persist,