Why would a taskbar item turn yellow when its application is minimized?

In this excerpt from
Answercast #71, I look at the way Windows programs are set to flash a
different color when they need to get your attention.

Yellow taskbar icons

I’m not at all familiar with WinFast PVR, so I can’t speak to that program
specifically, but what I can tell you is that:

• When an application is not in the foreground (in other words it’s not the
  application that you’re currently looking at on your screen);

• When such an application throws up an error message, or a dialog, or a
  little alert box that says, “Hey, something’s going on,”

• What Windows does… instead of dramatically swapping whatever you’re
  working on with this error box, it actually turns the icon or the little
  taskbar item a different color.

• Typically something like a yellow.

It’s to get your attention without necessarily interfering with your current
work.

When you click on it, Windows immediately says, “OK. Fine, he’s looking at
the app, we’ll turn this off; we’ll set it back to its normal color.”

But that’s all it really is. It’s Windows telling you that the application
is trying to say something to you, but Windows doesn’t want to interfere with
what you’re currently working on.

Trying to get your attention

Now, an application can also cause this to happen itself through different
mechanisms. But the bottom line is it’s typically the application trying to
get your attention.

Now, if you were to regular-click on it and the application goes to the
foreground, and there is no error message, I’m not really sure what to tell you
– other than to say that the application itself seems to be messing with this
setting, somehow causing it to happen for reasons that don’t really make
sense. Because if the taskbar item goes to that color, the application should
be trying to tell you something.

If it’s not trying to tell you something, then it shouldn’t have changed
color.

So that’s what’s probably going on. I recommend when you see something like
that happen on your taskbar (when it’s convenient, you don’t have to interrupt
what you’re doing but when it’s convenient), click on it, see what the
application is trying to tell you, and then carry on with your work.