Fix: Floating Transparent Box Above the Taskbar on Windows 11

Several users have reported that a strange transparent box appears out of nowhere on their screens on Windows 11. Occasionally, it appears without any user interaction, while other users report seeing it as a transparent box floating over the taskbar with a loading cursor.

In this rectangle floating box, nothing works. You cannot click or scroll, you can’t use a text editor like Word, and you can’t even place the cursor to type. We had a look into this issue and discovered that it is typically caused due to an issue with the MiniSearchHost process in the taskbar, outdated drivers, and generic corruption errors within the system. 

We have listed several effective troubleshooting methods that helped users fix the issue, below. Proceed with the one that suits your situation the best.

Restart Windows Explorer

If your desktop screen on Windows 11 is displaying a floating transparent box above the taskbar, then the first thing you should do is restart Windows Explorer. Several users managed to fix the issue by doing so, which is we recommend giving it a shot.

Here is what you need to do:

1. Type Task Manager in the search area of the taskbar and click Open.
2. Inside the Task Manager window, head over to the Processes tab.
3. Locate and right-click on Windows Explorer. Then, select Restart from the context menu.

   

4. Once done, go back to the Home screen and check if the issue is resolved.

Reinstall Display Driver

There is also a chance that your Display driver is corrupt or outdated, which is causing the transparent box issue. If this scenario is applicable, reinstalling the Display driver might do the trick for you. 

Here is what you need to do:

1. Type Device Manager in the search area of your taskbar and click Open.
2. Inside the Device Manager window, expand the Display drivers option.
3. Right-click on the faulty Display driver and select Uninstall from the context menu.

   

4. Once the uninstallation process is complete, restart your PC. Upon reboot, the operating system will install the latest driver automatically, which should fix the problem.

Run SFC and DISM Command

Your screen might also be displaying a transparent box if there is a corruption error within the system interfering with the system’s processes. If this scenario is applicable, then you should be able to fix the issue by running two of the many troubleshooting utilities that are built into the Windows operating system; SFC and DISM.

System File Checker (SFC) is a free tool included with all modern versions of Windows. With this utility, you can inspect all of your Windows files, including Windows DLL files. If any potential problems are identified, the System File Checker will fix them by replacing the faulty files.

A similar command-line tool, Deployment Image Servicing, and Management, allows administrators to set up, modify, and restore system images, including Windows Recovery Environment (WRE), Windows Setup, and Windows PE (WinPE). It can also fix system problems when used with a local recovery image. There are three ways to repair an image, “CheckHealth,” “ScanHealth,” and “RestoreHealth.” In this method, we will use ScanHealth and RestoreHealth. 

Here is how you can run SFC and DISM commands on Windows 11:

1. Type cmd in the search bar and click on Run as administrator to launch Command Prompt with administrative privileges.
2. In the Command Prompt window, type the command mentioned below and hit Enter.
   

   Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
   
   Dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth

3. Once the operation is complete, close the elevated CMD window, then restart the computer.
4. Now open elevated Command Prompt again and this time, execute the following command.
   

   sfc /scannow

   
   

5. When the scan is complete, restart your computer once more to see if the issue has been resolved.

Disable MiniSearchHost

As it turns out, several users managed to fix the transparent box issue by disabling MiniSearchHost, so we encourage you to give it a try. 

Here is how you can do that too:

1. Type Task Manager in the search area of the taskbar and click Open.
2. Inside the Task Manager window, head over to the Details tab.
3. Locate and right-click on MiniSearchHost. Then, click End task.

   

4.  In case you can’t locate MiniSearchHost on the Processes tab, head over to the Processes tab. Then, disable it from there and check if that fixes the transparent box issue on Windows 11.