Windows Taskbar not responding

[Inkz]

For the past few weeks every now and then my task bar won't be interactive, then after like 10 seconds everything I clicked all happens later.  I also noticed on my second screen with my desktop shortcuts that randomly they sometimes flash to the default windows icons before going to their normal ones.  I have a 10900k so I know it's not like a generic slow computer thing but not sure what the issue would be.

[JeffreyLF]

1 hour ago, Inkz said:

For the past few weeks every now and then my task bar won't be interactive, then after like 10 seconds everything I clicked all happens later.  I also noticed on my second screen with my desktop shortcuts that randomly they sometimes flash to the default windows icons before going to their normal ones.  I have a 10900k so I know it's not like a generic slow computer thing but not sure what the issue would be.

Try running sfc /scannow

[dimforest]

Next time it happens, try opening task manager and killing the explorer.exe process in the Details tab, then relaunch it from File > Run New Task

 

As for what's causing it - could be a plethora of different things, so we'd need more information to adequately help. When it happens, what else is running? Not just the open applications on your desktop, but what is all running in your system tray as well? In Task Manager do you notice anything spiking during the time when the taskbar is unresponsive? 

 

Is this a spinning disk or SSD/NVME?

[Inkz]

22 hours ago, JeffreyLF said:

Try running sfc /scannow

Like in cmd prompt?

[Inkz]

22 hours ago, dimforest said:

Next time it happens, try opening task manager and killing the explorer.exe process in the Details tab, then relaunch it from File > Run New Task

 

As for what's causing it - could be a plethora of different things, so we'd need more information to adequately help. When it happens, what else is running? Not just the open applications on your desktop, but what is all running in your system tray as well? In Task Manager do you notice anything spiking during the time when the taskbar is unresponsive? 

 

Is this a spinning disk or SSD/NVME?

OS is stored on a NVME SSD, I also have 2 USB hard drives plugged in and one other NVME m.2 drive for more storage.

[dimforest]

23 minutes ago, Inkz said:

Like in cmd prompt?

Yep, you'll want to run this in command prompt. 

[dimforest]

23 minutes ago, Inkz said:

OS is stored on a NVME SSD, I also have 2 USB hard drives plugged in and one other NVME m.2 drive for more storage.

You could try unplugging the two USB drives and seeing if just doing that eliminates the issue. If that were the case, that'd be easy to work around.