Menu select item stuck on screen after context or command menu has closed

"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."

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.

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

"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."

"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."