# Windows 8 - application appears and disappears on taskbar

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-8-application-appears-and-disappears-on-taskbar/683600>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 13, 2014, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-8-application-appears-and-disappears-on-taskbar/683600 "2014-03-13T10:07:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-8-application-appears-and-disappears-on-taskbar/683600/1 "2014-03-13T10:07:22Z")

</div>

Here’s an odd question for people: is there a legitimate reason why a program would show up on my taskbar and disappear in a split second? I only ever see it in my peripheral vision - it never stays up long enough to see what it says.

As far as I can recall, it has only ever happened while I’m using Firefox.

Any ideas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-8-application-appears-and-disappears-on-taskbar/683600/2 "2014-03-13T11:58:49Z")

</div>

Could be some add-on/plug-in that requires to start into the front and then disappears into the background.  
Might be your antivirus, popup blocker etc software.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2014, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-8-application-appears-and-disappears-on-taskbar/683600/3 "2014-03-13T12:14:14Z")

</div>

Thank you for your input, **Doughbag**. Those are certainly possibilities.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Space\_Vegetable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Space\_Vegetable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Space_Vegetable)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-8-application-appears-and-disappears-on-taskbar/683600/4 "2014-03-14T07:34:12Z")

</div>

Maybe you’re visiting a site in Firefox that opens a new Firefox popup window, then immediately closes it? (Some websites do this.)

Do you have the taskbar configured to show a new icon for each of a program’s windows, or the default where it combines them all into one icon? Try changing that setting (on the taskbar’s Properties page) and see if the issue goes away.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2014, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-8-application-appears-and-disappears-on-taskbar/683600/5 "2014-03-14T11:23:33Z")

</div>

It could also be an automatic updater for drivers or some such - I have an HP machine and it does stuff like this - and every now and again, the transiently-visible update program blossoms into a popup asking me if I want to apply some updates it found.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\
**Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/windows-8-application-appears-and-disappears-on-taskbar/683600/6 "2014-03-28T21:58:25Z")

</div>

I was finally able to get a proper look at it - it was the HP Support Assistant.