HOWTO: Cover the Task Bar with a Window

• Microsoft Win32 Application Programming Interface (API) included with: - Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 - Microsoft Windows 95

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 code fragment 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);