Windows application to improve the automatic hide feature of the windows taskbar. The taskbar will only be hidden when the current window intersects with it. Otherwise the taskbar is shown like normal. Inspired by SmartTaskbar. Written completely using native Win32 API. The binary itself is only ~10 KB in size and uses about 1 MB of memory while running. It is entirely self contained and doesn't require any CRT installed.
Tested on: Windows 11 23H2 (22631.2048)
- Low CPU/Memory usage
- Configurable via settings file
- Simple interface via tray icon
When right-clicking on the tray icon the following options are present:
- Disable/Enable: Temporary toggle for the application
- Settings: Opens the settings file (Promts to create a new one if it can't find)
- About: Opens the project Github-Page (this)
- Exit: Fully closes the application
Limitations: Only works with one taskbar (main monitor) and it has to be at the bottom of the screen (for now)
All settings are loaded at the start of the program from a settings.ini file.
This file has to be in the same folder as the executable. When the program
can't find the file, it uses default hardcoded settings. To adjust them,
click on the Settings entry in the tray menu. If no config file exists,
it will ask you to create one. After pressing Yes a editor with the file
should open up. The contents will look like the following:
[Settings]
TimerMs=200
Blacklist=Progman,XamlExplorerHostIslandWindow,Shell_TrayWnd,TopLevelWindowForOverflowXamlIsland,Windows.UI.Core.CoreWindow,WindowsDashboard,WorkerW
Whitelist=Shell_TrayWnd,MSTaskSwWClass,TrayNotifyWnd
EfficiencyMode=1
AutoStart=0With the TimerMs setting can the update interval adjusted. This is the
frequency how often the program refreshes the state of the taskbar.
In Blacklist is a list of window classes that when in foreground and
intersecting should not hide the taskbar. Whitelist contains a list of
class names for Windows that when hovered should show the taskbar.
This whitelist for example is used to keep the taskbar shown while it is
hovered with the mouse. Otherwise it would show and hide again while another
window intersects with it. With EfficiencyMode it is possible to
reduce the process priority and enable the new EcoQoS
feature. Enabling AutoStart will create a entry in the Registry
at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
This will enable the appilcation to launch when the computer starts.
Disabling this setting will remove the entry on the next start of
the application.