116

When I do remote desktop fullscreen connection on Windows 10 local host to Windows 7 remote host, the local task bar will not get covered by the RDP window as it used to be. It remains visible on top and the only help is to set the local taskbar to auto-hide. It overlays and hides the remote taskbar.

It had started to happen after some update, not sure which one, perhaps the Creators update.

I use shortcut on desktop, tried various settings but without any success.

How can I make the local taskbar hidden behind the RDP fullscreen window? (and not visible on top of the remote desktop fullscreen window rendering the remote taskbar unavailable?)

Local taskbar on top of the remote one

Jason Aller
  • 2,360
Vojtěch Dohnal
  • 3,938

7 Answers7

95

Try restarting explorer.exe process as mentioned in fixing remote desktop taskbar

Jikku Joseph John
  • 1,069
46

I have figured it out today using a hint from this discussion.

"Thanks Tony, that means a program has raised the MustBeSeen system flag. Typically this is a program that needs your attention, like antivirus or backup program that has some message it's waiting to tell you. It is almost always a program icon near the clock in the notification area. Once you clear the MustBeSeen flag by addressing the program, the taskbar will hide again.

As a best practice suggestion, hit Ctrl+Shift+Escape and disable anything on the Startup tab you don't need autorunning. That limits how many things load there, and lessens how many programs can raise the MustBeSeen flag."

There must have been something in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update that's changed the way how the taskbar overlays work and so seems to be causing it.

So I have closed all my apps running in the background with notification icon and the problem went away.

Here is a link to the quoted answer.

Vojtěch Dohnal
  • 3,938
2

I have Snagit on my home computer. If I open it (or it's a startup program), the taskbar of my home computer overlaps the taskbar of my remote computer. If I close Snagit on my home computer side, viola! Problem solved. Find the program running on the non-remote computer that is forcing its way into the foreground, then, "FINISH HIM!"

Nick Dupont
  • 21
2

I had the same issue, and decided to try the remove the "I need to be seen" task. But I just right clicked on the icons and then clicked on "remove from taskbar" I kept the ones that I know have been there before the problem and removed the others. After I did that I could see my remote desktop taskbar!

Shay
  • 21
  • 1
2

In Windows 10 to hide the local taskbar in the Microsoft Store Remote Desktop, you can follow these steps on local host:

Option 1. Use Local Group Policy Editor

  1. Open the Local Group Policy Editor as administrator by typing gpedit.msc in Windows taskbar search box, locate gpedit.msc and click on Run as administrator.
  2. Navigate to: Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Edge UI.
  3. In the right pane, double-click the on Allow edge swipe policy.
  4. To hide the local taskbar, select the Disabled option. Click Apply and then OK.

gpedit.msc window

Option 2. Use Windows Registry Editor

  1. Open the Windows Registry Editor as administrator by typing regedit in Windows taskbar search box, locate Registry Editor and click on Run as administrator.
  2. Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\EdgeUI
  1. If the EdgeUI key does not exist, you may need to create it. Right-click on the Windows key, choose New, and then select Key. Name the new key as EdgeUI.
  2. Inside the EdgeUI key, create a new DWORD (32-bit) value. Right-click on the right side, choose New, and then select DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name it AllowEdgeSwipe.
  3. Double-click on AllowEdgeSwipe and set its value to 0.

Make sure to restart the Microsoft Remote Desktop app back in to see the changes take effect.

sbrajchuk
  • 231
  • 1
  • 3
1

I was not able to find the offending task (perhaps is my remote utility that I cannot disable not to lose the connection). As a workaround I was able to move the overlapping bar to the right side of the screen allowing me to see the remote bottom bar.

Zac
  • 446
0

One possible solution on my Win10 machine where this happens regularly:

  • Right click on task bar
  • Choose Taskbar settings
  • Enable and disable the setting to show/not show task bar on multiple screens

Now it should work as expected.

petermeissner
  • 451
  • 4
  • 8