taskbar sometimes refuses to open.

If True Launch Bar is on the taskbar try to set "Activate toolbar hotkey" in TLB Settings->Toolbar->General. This hotkey move the keyboard focus to the toolbar (so you can use the keyboard to navigate in the toolbar). Other effect: the taskbar popup from the autohide.

BTW, do you use any windows management software? Windows notify application about open/close of full screen window automatically. Windows stop autohide while fullscreen window is active. But, I guess, some application can block these notification and taskbar don't know that fullscreen window is closed. Maybe some software that manages opened windows, add's some functions into the caption?