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Hide taskbar but keep space

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Harvengure
Posts: 4
Joined: August 5th, 2011, 6:52 pm

Hide taskbar but keep space

Post by Harvengure »

Hello everyone,

First I'd like to apologize for creating another thread about hiding the taskbar. A quick look around the forum reveals that it's a question that gets asked a lot. However I was unable to find a solution to what it is I am trying to do.

I'd like to be able to use one of the many taskbar themes out there for rainmeter as a replacement for my actual windows taskbar, starmenu and system tray...but still have to visible even with maximized windows as the taskbar is by default in windows.

I do not know if it matters any but I have objectdock plus and will be using that to replace the active tasks as well as the system tray, now I just have to figure out how to reserve that empty space at the bottom of the screen when the taskbar has been hidden.
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Kaelri
Developer
Posts: 1721
Joined: July 25th, 2009, 4:47 am

Re: Hide taskbar but keep space

Post by Kaelri »

DesktopWorkArea is what you're looking for. From the manual:
DesktopWorkArea
Sets a new work area for the desktop. The workarea defines the area maximized windows cover. Use four comma separated values to set the location of the top-left and bottom-right corners of the area (e.g. DesktopWorkArea=0,0,1500, 1200). Note that moving the taskbar will reset the workarea to Windows' default, as will changing screen resolution. If you have multiple monitors, you can set the DesktopWorkArea for a specific monitor by adding @ and the number of the monitor to the end of DesktopWorkArea. DesktopWorkArea= or DesktopWorkArea@0= is the primary monitor, and DesktopWorkArea@1-@xx is a specific monitor.
Short version: if you add a "DesktopWorkArea=" line in the main section of your Rainmeter settings, you can redefine the area of maximized windows when Rainmeter is loaded.
Harvengure
Posts: 4
Joined: August 5th, 2011, 6:52 pm

Re: Hide taskbar but keep space

Post by Harvengure »

Ah! Thank you! That would explain why I wasn't able to fin my answer, I didnt know I was looking for the wrong thing.

Just to be clear though, adding this setting will make it so that if, for example, I maximize FireFox the space will be reserved so that my rainmeter bar will not be hidden?
Harvengure
Posts: 4
Joined: August 5th, 2011, 6:52 pm

Re: Hide taskbar but keep space

Post by Harvengure »

Thank you again for your help Kaelri. In further exploring your answer I actually came across another solution that was presented to another user who was having the same issues and figured I' post it here for anyone else's future reference.

Desktop Coral
Last edited by Harvengure on August 5th, 2011, 7:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Kaelri
Developer
Posts: 1721
Joined: July 25th, 2009, 4:47 am

Re: Hide taskbar but keep space

Post by Kaelri »

Desktop Coral would work fine - it's what I used several years ago, before we added the DesktopWorkArea feature to Rainmeter. My recommendation is still to use DWA, simply because you don't have to install any extra software - and also because you can specify different dimensions for different themes, whereas Desktop Coral would force you to change it manually each time you switched.

It's entirely your choice, of course.
Harvengure
Posts: 4
Joined: August 5th, 2011, 6:52 pm

Re: Hide taskbar but keep space

Post by Harvengure »

Well, I've tried to get desktopworkarea to work to no avail and found I wasn't all that pleased with desktopcoral so what I did was create an invisible dock in objectdock and made it reserve the edge space.
mcnugg
Posts: 1
Joined: January 9th, 2012, 4:59 am

Re: Hide taskbar but keep space

Post by mcnugg »

Hi, sorry to bump an oldish post but I've been trying to get this to work and i finally got my windows to maximize in the right space but now the top and bottom task bars are too small... is there any way to get them to stretch across the screen?

edit- Also is there a way for DWA to change when i hide the sidebars?

Another note- VLC seems to reset DWA upon opening a video. (just thought i might throw that out there to see if there are any solutions)

edit # 6billion - i was able to adjust the width of my task bars, so that problem no longer exists :)