topic Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays in Discussions

Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays

Stef-UK — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 07:09:58 GMT

Environment:

Firefox: 137.0.2
Windows 11 Version 24H2 (OS Build: 26.100.3775), Experience Pack: 1000.26100.66.0
Windows Settings:
Dual monitors present. System > Display > Extend these displays
Personalisation > TaskBar - Taskbar Behaviours - Show my taskbar on all displays = ON

Bug (1):

Start with "Show my taskbar..." setting OFF, and Firefox active on 2nd display only, 3 open tabs.
Enable the "Show my taskbar..." setting via Windows settings
Hover the cursor over the FF icon on the 2nd display's taskbar. You will see duplication (2x3) open icons appear above the taskbar (PIC-1.jpg).

Bug (2):

Start with "Show my taskbar..." setting ON, and Firefox active on 2nd display only, 3 open tabs.
Close one or two FF tabs and hover the cursor over the FF icon on the 2nd display's taskbar. You will see 'ghost' icon(s) representing the closed tab(s). (PIC-2.jpg).

Effects

Such 'ghosts' do not disappear, even if you close and re-open Firefox.
They do not appear if you hover the cursor over the Firefox icon on the taskbar of the primary display
They do not appear if you turn OFF the "Show my taskbar..." setting via Windows settings.

Re: Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays

L3x — Mon, 11 Aug 2025 06:36:07 GMT

Yes, unfortunately, this bug really annoys me too.
Only on Windows 11 and currently affects two applications (Mozilla Firefox + Adobe Reader).

I use three monitors.
If you open Firefox on one screen and drag it to another, multiple tabs appear in the taskbar.
If you drag Firefox back to the main screen, it works, and it's stacked - correct.

The only solution so far has been to close and reopen the browser.

As I said, it only affects the two software solutions so far.
I hope either Microsoft, or more likely Mozilla and Adobe, can fix this.

Re: Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays

dds — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 12:46:53 GMT

I'm experiencing the same issue with Firefox. I'm using two monitors, and even though I keep all the windows on the same monitor, ghost windows still appear.

Re: Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays

DarioViva — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 18:44:24 GMT

It's even worse when items in taskbar also show their title.
Bug on Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1986589

Re: Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays

Tri4L — Wed, 24 Sep 2025 09:46:45 GMT

Same problem here, tab display bug on dual monitor.
Firefox 143.0.1
Win11 24h2

Re: Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays

Mars_chroma — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 07:28:50 GMT

Also having this issue.

Firefox 143.0.4 and I'm sure at least one previous version.

It only started recently for me, and so far firefox seems to be the only application that does it.

Windows 11 24h2

Re: Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays

Mars_chroma — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 16:51:42 GMT

Restarting Windows Explorer fixes the issue temporarily until another ghost window pops up, if that helps.

Edit: I am now on Firefox 144.0 and the issue is still present.
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 TI, Studio Driver 581.57 (issue was present on the previous driver release as well on Windows 11).

Re: Persistent Ghost Tabs appear on Windows' Taskbar with dual displays

RickJamesLR — Sun, 14 Dec 2025 09:26:28 GMT

If anyone else is having this issue on windows 11 24h2, i found a solution that worked for me, I unpinned my firefox app on the taskbar that would open a new instance of firefox next to my pinned one. I then opened firefox from the install location and pinned the tab that showed up from doing that, it seems to now stack now and doesnt open any new tabs next to the new pinned one. they now all stack neatly on the new pinned icon on the taskbar.