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Periodically when I select a menu command, the label or selected option gets "stuck" on screen and won't go away. I can close all open applications, including whichever one I was using when it got stuck, but it still won't go away.

In the screenshot below, I opened an new instance of IE just to show how the label stays on top. The label was not created by this instance of IE.

Lingering menu command label

(I added the circle in MS Paint. That part isn't stuck.)

The label that gets stuck is the first menu command I select in IE. If a label is already stuck, a new one does not get stuck (regardless of which instance(s) of IE are involved). Based on this knowledge, I now just open IE on my secondary monitor, carefully open the context menu so the Properties command is in the bottom corner, and click it. This is not a solution.

The floating label never moves and is transparent to mouse input (if I click it, it's as if I clicked the item behind it).

The label does not go away if I close all running applications. I haven't tried stopping services or closing system tray items like Live Mesh.

The label does go away if I change the screen resolution and then change it back.

Any ideas how I can stop this from happening? It's happened a half dozen times and it's becoming quite disrupting to my work.

random
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Sam Harwell
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    I had this happen a *LOT* in the betas of Win7, particularly when executing in a VM. It doesn't happen anymore, but I'm not sure exactly when it changed. I suggest updating your video card driver and, one by one, disabling startup programs until it stops. I think it was either my driver, UltraMon, or WinSplit Revolution, but never narrowed it down. – OwenP Oct 18 '09 at 17:43
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    I have some programs do that in Vista. I don't have a solution. – H H Oct 18 '09 at 22:05
  • Thanks for the resolution change - it does work even when actually not changing it (moving slider to something and move it back). Works great! – pimvdb Sep 18 '11 at 11:14
  • Happened on Win7 SP1 – Saw May 30 '13 at 16:31
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    Happens. Start - Run - "tskill dwm" or kill DWM.EXE from task manager, it will restart instantly with menu items gone. – Петър Петров Oct 07 '13 at 18:47
  • Just started happening on my Laptop and my Desktop all the time since some recent Windows update. So annoying. – Jotham Dec 22 '13 at 05:23
  • @Jotham: Yes, same for me. [This solution](http://superuser.com/a/57021/10342) fixed it. – awe Jan 02 '14 at 10:42
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    Happened to me some minutes ago. It wasn't a tooltip, but a menu item stuck on screen when IE11 devtools crashed. The `tskill dwn` trick didn't work, while changing the color depth did. – MaxArt Jan 15 '14 at 14:56
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    Internet Explorer 11 seems to be a big offender of leaving these ghost menu selections on the screen. – Matthew Lock Mar 20 '14 at 01:04
  • (reading this post with a ghost menu item floating over it) I think it's in core Windows actually, as I have had this happen with PDF reader's main menu and Windows Explorer context menu. A fix for this is switching resolution back and forth, but it's only a temporary fix to get rid of the ghost. – Stijn de Witt Jun 18 '15 at 00:05
  • This seems never _fixed_. It happens on my Surface Book 2, running Windows 10 17134. (I choose to stick with this version because there are more severe kernel bugs with new versions.) The bug can be temporarily worked around by killing `dwm.exe`. It can be otherwise worked around by disabling Intel UHD 620 or "fade out menu items after clicking". Anyway, those are workarounds, not fixes. I will always lose some functionalities for them. Sad. – FrankHB Feb 05 '20 at 13:09

11 Answers11

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The problem was introduced back in Windows 2000 when fading menu items were added. Originally, the feature was added in kernel-mode code and was tightly integrated into portions of the UI. Since it worked so well, it ended up staying there. The problem has appeared from time to time, but no one has had a reliable way to reproduce it in the kernel debugger to get it fixed.

The same effect can be achieved without changing the screen resolution or color depth. Go to Start -> Run -> and type tskill dwm. This command will reset the desktop window manager without the need to change the screen resolution.

Changing the screen resolution or color depth also resets the desktop window manager, so it's always been a workaround for the bug when it appears. Either of these solutions will fix the problem.

Hannele
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Sam Harwell
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    I am using Windows 7 Ultimate. This is how I resolved the issue. Go to Control Panel > Change Theme. Set the theme to High Contrast White. The ghosted menu should go away. Set your theme back to what it was. – H A Jul 11 '12 at 17:06
  • I had this issue with other overlays on Windows 8 too. I was remoted in at the time. My fix was just now was to disconnect from remote desktop and reconnect. – GotDibbs Mar 25 '13 at 15:43
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    I just had a balloon tip's shadow stuck on screen (on top of everything else!). Changing resolutions didn't work for me, but changing color depth did. I switched the depth to 16-bit, then back to 32-bit. That seemed to do the trick. – ADTC Apr 19 '13 at 14:08
  • I think this has happened to me twice now when closing down an android emulator. – Erik Reppen May 21 '13 at 20:07
  • I found it easy to go into screen resolution and disconnect the given monitor. When the resolution changes, I pick "Revert" and go back the way it was, then cancel out of the window. Easy way to reset the desktop window manager as necessary. Thanks, @280Z28! – Erick Robertson Jun 26 '13 at 14:13
  • I have this problem on a laptop which is plugged into two screens. I simply unplug the hdmi monitor cable and plug it back in. Takes about 5 seconds. Obviously not a solution for everyone – Chris Nevill Aug 09 '13 at 12:14
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    Start - Run - tskill dwm - always fixes it - this really forces DWM to restart. – Петър Петров Oct 07 '13 at 18:44
  • I cannot +1 this answer again, so please take this great compliment. I've been here before, and I'm here again. – Erick Robertson Oct 29 '13 at 23:23
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    For permanent solution, see [next answer](http://superuser.com/a/57021/10342). – awe Jan 02 '14 at 10:40
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    Had this happen today for the first time ever. After using `tskill dwm`, it goes away, but has come back with the first menu item I select afterward. Here's hoping it doesn't come back after I reboot. [crosses fingers] – Mar Jan 30 '14 at 23:40
  • This is happening to me every day on both my laptop and desktop running W7 pro. Running `tskill dwm` clears the screen, but the problem happens again very quickly. I'm having to run that command at least a dozen times a day. Any suggestions? – Nate Mar 02 '14 at 17:39
  • When I try to run that command, I get "Windows cannot find 'tskill'" I'm on Windows 8.1. Am I missing something in my environment path variables? – HotN Mar 27 '15 at 02:20
  • I know how to do it in windows 8.1... I'm just waiting for SO to give me some rep so I can post the answer! – wordsforthewise May 21 '15 at 06:07
  • alright...no luck from SO, so anyway here's how to do it in windows 8: http://superuser.com/questions/656162/windows-8-restart-desktop-window-manager/925979#925979 open the command prompt with administrative rights windows key -> type 'cmd' -> right click 'command prompt' and choose 'run as administrator' then type taskkill /f /im dwm.exe – wordsforthewise Jun 10 '15 at 06:08
  • +1 However, I had to do it a different way: Start > "cmd" > Run as administrator > `taskkill /im dwm.exe`. – Dog Lover Aug 16 '15 at 03:00
  • For me, just selecting "run as admin" works – john Oct 24 '18 at 00:07
  • tskill dwm can cause a whole lot of problems to other apps. For me, Google Chrome and Blizzard app display as black windows sometimes after running the command. – GeorgiG May 21 '21 at 14:15
192

Last time I saw this was in Windows 2000 where it happened to me occasionally.

I suppose, a workaround would be to disable menu items fading out after clicking in the Performance options:

alt text

Gaff
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Joey
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    Took me a trip to Google to see how to get to that screen: - Right Click Computer and select Properties from menu - Choose Advanced System Settings - In the Performance area, click Settings – Al Crowley Apr 08 '11 at 11:50
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    @AlCrowley: Or simply type "performance" into the start menu and choose "Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows". – Joey Apr 08 '11 at 16:42
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    This solution worked for me on Windows 7. Thanks. – Ankur Apr 10 '13 at 06:36
  • You can also type "fade" into the start menu and it will also find the "Adjust appearance" task. There are lots of keywords that can get you there. – Soviut Aug 08 '13 at 03:56
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    Awesome! Disabled fading effects, were useless anyway. –  Sep 28 '13 at 15:20
  • tskill dwm - the easiest way. – Петър Петров Oct 07 '13 at 18:44
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    +1 for the permanent solution (for one machine anyways) – Erick Robertson Oct 30 '13 at 07:14
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    Also if you disable the two checkboxes above contextmenus will appear much faster – Sven Hecht Nov 03 '13 at 13:33
  • @Sven, that's a non-issue, usually, as they will respond to keypresses as soon as they start appearing. And you're not fast enough with the mouse to click a menu item that's currently fading in anyway. – Joey Nov 03 '13 at 21:43
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    This is probably the best long term solution. It is only a relatively minor reduction in visual styling (which most people will never notice anyway). Bonus, it makes menu's work just a little faster. – Chase Jan 03 '14 at 08:13
  • Problem recently popped up for me after being dormant for a while. Tried disableing Fade Out Menu, but that did not seem to resolve it. Have now disabled the two checkboxes above to see if that has any impact. – Bob Weber Jan 13 '14 at 21:57
  • This is the way to fix it. +1 and an "attaboy"! – Robusto Jan 16 '14 at 17:10
  • What's an »attaboy«? – Joey Jan 16 '14 at 19:15
  • Awesome! This was driving me crazy, and I've always found the fading a little annoying. +1 – Howard Renollet Jan 27 '14 at 20:00
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    Note that this setting doesn't prevent all cases. I just had a network status popup get stuck on-screen and I have this disabled. – guymid Jan 22 '15 at 08:29
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    It is the definitive solution. `tskill dwm` is not the solution, but a palliative action. – kokbira Aug 14 '17 at 11:49
  • @SvenHecht Please consider punctually revising your sentence. Your sentence needs a comma. – chx101 Nov 30 '18 at 04:57
28

Right click Computer, Properties, Advanced System Settings, Advanced Tab, Performance-Settings, Uncheck both:

  • Fade or Slide menus into view and
  • Fade out Menu Items after clicking

Fixed.

studiohack
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Brandon
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28

In Windows 7 (and probably Vista), using the task manager to kill "dwm.exe" (it restarts automatically) seems a pretty painless way to get rid of the artifact.

user17365
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    Unfortunately this is just a very temporary solution at least for me - even if the stuck menu item disappears after killing dwm.exe a new one gets stuck as soon as I click any menu item again. – alexteg Jan 18 '11 at 19:36
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    At first, I thought this would work, but unfortunately alexteg is right. I just tried to kill `dwm`, and indeed the menu item disappeared, but within a minute a new menu item got stuck (and that's hardly a coincidence, since this Windows bug manifests itself rather seldom). At least, with this approach, you can replace the stuck menu item with a new one, the on-screen position of which you can decide for yourself. – Andreas Rejbrand Sep 17 '12 at 16:21
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    Thanks, with http://superuser.com/a/57021/152255 it works fine. – onetdev May 08 '13 at 07:53
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    I combined this with @Joey's answer. Joey's answer seems to stop it from occurring, but doesn't clean up the problem on screen at the moment. This clears out the problem on screen at the moment. Running a full screen DirectX game also seems to clear the problem. – AJ Henderson Aug 15 '13 at 03:09
  • Even faster, type "tskill dwm" in Run :) – Петър Петров Oct 07 '13 at 18:45
  • tskill dwm didn't actually work for me. I had to restart. On Win 7. – Almo Aug 21 '14 at 13:32
11

I think it's faster to just change the colour depth. Once you've changed and clicked Apply, you can just answer NO to the "Do you want to keep these settings?" prompt. It will revert to your original colour depth (with the problem solved). Btw, I recommend you to not change the resolution because doing so will force Windows to recalculate window sizes and positions... twice! It's noticeably slower than changing colour depth.

Anyway this is definitely a video problem in Windows, so the only sure-fire way (other than restarting) would be to force Windows to fully refresh the video buffer. You can do that by killing dwm.exe, but changing colour depth is faster (no need to search long list of processes), safer (no need to risk your Windows' stability) and easier to grasp for novices.

Adding to this: The important thing may be to say "NO" when prompted to "keep the settings". If you say yes, then the orphan menu pieces may return.

Community
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user34216
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10

Enough tskill dwm commands seems to stop dwm re-starting, so you may need to restart the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager in Services:

enter image description here

Matthew Lock
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6

I recently started getting this problem on a Windows 7 Professional Thinkpad W510 and a generic i7 workstation running Windows 7 Ultimate. Having it happen to both machines was a source of interest and typing 'tskill dwm' would do things like break screenshot and felt like a bad work around.

In my case I have found the problem was the Logitech SetPoint process crashing. Disabling the on screen notification modifications it makes to the system seems to have solved the tooltip problem.

Hopefully the core idea here helps someone:- Some tool that manipulates the Aero overlay may be interfering.

Jotham
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If you're using Windows 10, you may be unable to kill dwm.exe without being forced to shutdown/restart Windows as I was.

To prevent this issue in the future, I followed this answer, but to fix the problem I had at the moment, I just changed my resolution, then reverted back to my original resolution, which erased the menu item which had been stuck on the screen.

Will Ediger
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  • I'm using Windows 10 17134, and killing `dwm.exe` works. However the ghost will just come back soon for a new menu item... – FrankHB Feb 05 '20 at 13:04
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I used to get this quite a lot on my home system, running XPPro, along with tool-tip boxes doing the same. Windows Explorer was the app that exposed the oddity most (though that might be because it is on of the utilities most commonly used). Closing/killing applications, as in your case, did nothing but flipping screen resolutions or colour depths did. Also switching to the login screen then logging back in would usually, but not always, do the trick.

I happens very rarely now, though I'm not sure what has changed to reduce the occurrence. I have recently upgraded the graphics card in the machine, but the reduction in occurrence happened noticably before that upgrade took place. My guess is that either a driver update or one of MS's patches has reduced the problem, but that is only a guess. In any case, make sure that you have not missed any updates and make sure you are running the latest stable drivers for your graphics chipset.

David Spillett
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The "Rotate to normal" hotkey CTRL + ALT + UpArrow can be used to clear the stuck menu, if your graphics card driver supports it.

(I know for a fact this works with Intel graphics, but can't vouch for any others.)

benrwb
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  • Doesn't work for me. – Andreas Rejbrand Jan 13 '14 at 00:47
  • @AndreasRejbrand I have updated my answer to be more specific – benrwb Jan 13 '14 at 13:46
  • @benrwd: OK, I see, it's a feature of some video graphics drivers. Well, it certainly is a shortcut for those with this hotkey. (But I suppose the fix is only temporary -- the next time you click a native Win32 popup menu item, it will stick again?) – Andreas Rejbrand Jan 13 '14 at 14:11
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    @AndreasRejbrand Yes it is only a temporary fix, the best solution is to disable the "Fade out Menu Items after clicking" setting as detailed in other answers. – benrwb Jan 15 '14 at 07:57
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    This is a default hotkey on Intel integrated graphics drivers, although it's often disabled because people hit it accidentally and then don't know how to change it back. – nullability Feb 05 '14 at 19:31
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You can use the taskkill command:

  1. Open Command Prompt
  2. Type taskkill /im dwm.exe and then press Enter.

"taskkill" Command

If it happens regularly, you can also save the command in a batch file.

Dog Lover
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