8

I have the Windows 10 taskbar set to automatically hide. By default, the taskbar appears when moving the mouse close to the edge of the screen where the taskbar is hidden.

How can I change this behavior so that

  • the taskbar never pops up on mouseover, and so that
  • the taskbar still pops up regularly when pressing the Windows key?

A solution that was posted some time ago here suggests that one can add an ExtendedUIHoverTime value to the registry. This sounds like a reasonable approach, but the solution as posted does not work for me on Windows 10 21H1.

mrcp_pc
  • 113

3 Answers3

2

I have two Solutions to your Problem:

Size Control:
Drag and reduce the size of the task-bar to "minimum" or "almost 0" which means it is hidden. Now, mouse-over will not reveal the task-bar.
Win Key will still work but will only to show the menu.
Drag and increase the size of the task-bar only when you want to access the task-bar. Drag and reduce the size of the task-bar when task-bar is unwanted.

Mouse Control:
Use some mouse-restricting Software tool to prevent your mouse from going over the task-bar, which means no more mouse-over on task-bar. The Software tool will be restricting your mouse movement to the whole screen except the bottom thin layer.
Pressing Win Key will still activate the task-bar.
Software which can restrict your mouse movement area : freeware like http://petethegoat.github.io/WinScroll/ [[ Details here : https://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/22/tutorial/limit-mouse-cursor-movement-to-specific-area-of-screen.html ]] or other tools ....

These two Solutions have certain trade-offs hence you can choose either one accordingly. You could even mix both Solutions.

Prem
  • 1,340
2

An out-of-the-box solution for this is Buttery Taskbar (https://github.com/CrypticButter/ButteryTaskbar).

I have only recently learned about it, but it completely solves my problem and I am no longer using the AutoHotkey script. An added bonus with Buttery Taskbar is that the taskbar doesn't reveal when applications are sending alerts.

Note Buttery Taskbar is no longer actively maintained. It has worked fine for me so far on Windows 10, however, and if you have the means, please consider becoming a maintainer for this awesome tool.

mrcp_pc
  • 113
1

The following AutoHotkey script works for me to restrict the mouse cursor (as suggested in the accepted answer to this question). I call ClipCursor every 100ms as the clipping of the cursor is reset, for example when switching window focus.

#Persistent ; keeps script from exiting

; clip cursor every 100ms
SetTimer, RestrictTopPixel, 100


RestrictTopPixel:
ClipCursor(True, 0, 2, A_screenwidth, A_screenheight)
Return


ClipCursor( Confine=True, x1=0 , y1=0, x2=1, y2=1 ) {
 VarSetCapacity(R,16,0),  NumPut(x1,&R+0),NumPut(y1,&R+4),NumPut(x2,&R+8),NumPut(y2,&R+12)
Return Confine ? DllCall( "ClipCursor", UInt,&R ) : DllCall( "ClipCursor" )
}

It's not pretty but seems to do the job well. Comments and critique welcome!

mrcp_pc
  • 113