HOWTO: Cover the Task Bar with a Window

ID: Q179363

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API)

SUMMARY

A taskbar automatically hides itself if a program sizes itself to cover the entire screen.

There is no programmatic way to change the Auto-Hide option (that is left up to the user by design), but if a program takes over the entire screen then it will automatically cover the taskbar.

MORE INFORMATION

To cover the taskbar, you must set the size of the full-screen window explicitly. You cannot just maximize the window. A maximized window takes up the workspace area, which doesn't include the taskbar.

The following sample code causes the specified window to cover the entire primary monitor and cover all taskbars on the primary monitor.

   cx = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CXSCREEN);
   cy = GetSystemMetrics(SM_CYSCREEN);
   SetWindowPos(hwnd,HWND_TOP,0,0,cx,cy,SWP_SHOWWINDOW);

This works for all taskbars on the primary monitor, including the shell's taskbar and any others (such as Office's taskbar) that are written to use the standard Desktop Application Toolbar interface.

Additional query words: tray auto hide autohide

Keywords          : kbAppToolBar kbNTOS400 kbWinOS2000 kbWinOS95 kbWinOS98 kbGrpShell 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: December 17, 1998