Windows 10: BUG: Clicking on taskbar preview intermittently refuses to bring a window to the foreground

Something has happened to Windows 11 Professional within the last two weeks that has made the taskbar window switching no longer work reliably. It sometimes works just like it should, and seemingly at random it does not work.As you know, the taskbar categorizes windows so that for example open folders are all under a single Explorer icon, browser windows are all under a browser icon, etc. When you mouse over an icon, it displays a preview of all the windows, and then you can click one of the previews to bring that window to the front. This function has stopped working reliably within the last

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On-Screen Keyboard bug changes foreground window

This On-Screen Keyboard bug changes the current foreground window.

Steps:

1. Open Edge and notepad and maximize them (never minimize them)
2. Select notepad by clicking on it in taskbar (it's now on top)
3. Open the On-Screen Keyboard (in Windows Ease of access)
4. Type a few characters into notepad with the On-Screen Keyboard
5. Minimize the On-Screen Keyboard
6. Select Edge by clicking on it in taskbar (it's now on top)
7. Restore the On-Screen Keyboard by clicking on it in taskbar and use it to type into Edge

Result:

Notepad is now on top

Expected result:

Edge remains on top i.e. the On-Screen Keyboard maintains the current foreground window in which you intended to type.

History:

This superuser Q&A contains links to this bug being reported in windows 8, windows 7 and claims it goes back 17 years to Windows XP.

Workarounds:

Kill the On-Screen Keyboard every time instead of minimizing it. The bug occurs because the On-Screen Keyboard fails to keep track of the current foreground window while minimized.

Patch out the SetForegroundWindow call from the On-Screen Keyboard binary as described in the superuser link above.

Wait 17 more years for Microsoft to fix it.

Tell user to stop being disabled.

 

Windows 11 difficulty to bring a window to the foreground

After upgrading to Windows 11, I have a difficulty to bring a window to the foreground. For example, I have multiple browser windows open. With Alt-TAB I can select one of the others, and then it comes to the foreground.

If I hoover over the icon in the taskbar, a small picture of each of the open windows appears. When I then click on one of those small pictures, the window should come to the top. Often it does, and often it does not. I can't find the pattern.

When the application is not open, clicking on its icon (attached to the taskbar), open's the app and brings it to the foreground. However, once opened, there is only one window of that app open. Instead of clicking on the picture, just clicking on the icon in the taskbar, should bring the opened app to the foreground. It often does, but it also often does not. I can click on the icon, or click on it's picture, but in that case the window is never brought to the foreground. I need to use ALT-TAB, or click on a small visible part of the window, to get it to come to the foreground.

This is very irritating, it slows my work down considerably.

Is this a known bug, or is there something I can do to fix this?

 

Difficulty to bring a window to the foreground

When the application is not open, clicking on its icon (attached to the taskbar), open's the app and brings it to the foreground. However, once opened, there is only one window of that app open. Instead of clicking on the picture, just clicking on the icon in the taskbar, should bring the opened app to the foreground. It often does, but it also often does not. I can click on the icon, or click on it's picture, but in that case the window is never brought to the foreground. I need to use ALT-TAB, or click on a small visible part of the window, to get it to come to the foreground.

I tried the Ease of Access Center thing but that option wasn't checked for me to begin with.

Please help earliest as different software I've to use together along with different folders for my professional works and using widows+Tab key is tough to use considering number of apps & folders.