I've begun to notice that when right-clicking system tray icons, the menus often STAY in place; they don't disappear when you click on another icon or another spot in the taskbar. They stay open until you select something within the menu.
I disabled NextStart and used the Windows taskbar for a while just to see if it happened, but it never did; it's only with NextStart.
I'm liking NextStart enough to accept this minor irritation, but I thought I'd see if there was a way to deal with this?
I have read, to my annoyance, that a lot of people don't care about the system tray one way or another, but I really need to have stable access to system tray menus; one example: since I can't have the WMP toolbar with NextStart, there's a Powertoy that gives you all WMP controls when WMP is minimized but it resides, of course, in the systray. I also have a work-related IM utility, 4t tray minimizer, and Rainlendar in my systray.

So, if anyone knows a way to stabilize the systray menus - that is, to make them go away when clicking from one menu to another - I'd really appreciate any tips.
Thanks in advance!

Something like that usually happens because of z-order problems. Temporarily disable NextSTART task management to get your Windows taskbar back. What are it's settings? Try changing them and then re-enabling NextSTART task management to see if the problem goes away.