Microsoft investigating unclickable Windows Start, Taskbar and Office bugs due to ClickShare

Amidst all the problems and bugs that are affecting Windows, both Windows 11 as well as Windows 10, it looks like Microsoft is currently looking into another issue. Although not publicly disclosed yet, the company is investigating user reports about an "unresponsive start menu or task bar". The bug is causing issues where the Start menu, the Taskbar, or the Search bar, become unclickable. The problems are apparently happening both on Windows 11 and Windows 10.

The bug seems to be a consequence of conflicts with Barco's ClickShare app's Calendar integration, an issue first documented last year. ClickShare is pretty popular among users and IT admins due to its wireless conferencing capabilities. The Belgian firm has updated its previous public advisory regarding the issue. The firm has confirmed that the Redmond giant is now investigating the problem and the issue has been assigned an internal tracking number "41322218".

On its advisory, Barco writes:

Important

The issue is under investigation with Microsoft Windows team but it still is good to take up contact directly with Microsoft Windows team to flag this issue. Make sure to mention for ticket submission the tittle "unresponsive start menu or task bar” and refer to Microsoft internal bug number: 41322218

However, Barco insisted that the bug is triggered due to changes on Microsoft's end as its ClickShare app only reads the Outlook Calender via the Outlook API. On its advisory Barco explained:

More investigation has shown that the windows taskbar issue occurs when the User Shell Registry has been modified for some reason (e.g. windows update, change password, any Apps using Microsoft Outlook API or other).

We have analyzed possible relations with the ClickShare App more in-depth and we can confirm that ClickShare does not modify Windows Registry values or permissions from the App. The ClickShare App only reads Microsoft Outlook Calendar via the Microsoft Outlook API for the One Click Join feature.

The problem with the unresponsive Windows taskbar, therefore, is not a ClickShare App issue. It is related to Microsoft and it can be triggered by any application using the Microsoft Outlook API.

As a workaround for the issue, Barco has recommended that users disable the "Calendar Integration" option inside ClickShare App settings.

Disabling Calendar integration in ClickShare app