{"id":35703,"date":"2005-05-05T08:58:04","date_gmt":"2005-05-05T08:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.msdn.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/2005\/05\/05\/how-do-i-cover-the-taskbar-with-a-fullscreen-window\/"},"modified":"2005-05-05T08:58:04","modified_gmt":"2005-05-05T08:58:04","slug":"how-do-i-cover-the-taskbar-with-a-fullscreen-window","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/20050505-04\/?p=35703","title":{"rendered":"How do I cover the taskbar with a fullscreen window?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nFor some reason,\n\npeople think too hard<\/a>.\nIf you want to create\na fullscreen window that covers the taskbar, just create a fullscreen\nwindow and the taskbar will automatically get out of the way.\nDon’t go around hunting for the taskbar and poking it; let it do its thing.\n<\/p>\n

\nAs always, start with\n\nthe scratch program<\/a> and add the following:\n<\/p>\n

\nHWND CreateFullscreenWindow(HWND hwnd)\n{\n HMONITOR hmon = MonitorFromWindow(hwnd,\n                                   MONITOR_DEFAULTTONEAREST);\n MONITORINFO mi = { sizeof(mi) };\n if (!GetMonitorInfo(hmon, &mi)) return NULL;\n return CreateWindow(TEXT(\"static\"),\n       TEXT(\"something interesting might go here\"),\n       WS_POPUP | WS_VISIBLE,\n       mi.rcMonitor.left,\n       mi.rcMonitor.top,\n       mi.rcMonitor.right - mi.rcMonitor.left,\n       mi.rcMonitor.bottom - mi.rcMonitor.top,\n       hwnd, NULL, g_hinst, 0);\n}\nvoid OnChar(HWND hwnd, TCHAR ch, int cRepeat)\n{\n if (ch == TEXT(' ')) {\n  CreateFullscreenWindow(hwnd);\n }\n}\n    HANDLE_MSG(hwnd, WM_CHAR, OnChar);\n<\/pre>\n
\nNote that this sample program doesn’t worry about destroying that\nfullscreen window or preventing the user from creating more than one.\nIt’s just a sample.\nThe point is seeing how the CreateFullScreenWindow<\/code> function\nis written.\n<\/p>\n
\nWe use\n\nthe MonitorFromWindow<\/code> function<\/a>\nto figure out which monitor we should go fullscreen to.\nNote that in a multiple monitor system, this might not be the same\nmonitor that the taskbar is on.  Fortunately, we don’t have to worry\nabout that; the taskbar figures it out.\n<\/p>\n
\nI’ve seen people hunt for the taskbar window and then do\na ShowWindow(hwndTaskbar, SW_HIDE)<\/code> on it.\nThis is nuts for many reasons.\n<\/p>\n
\nFirst is a mental exercise you should always use when evaluating\ntricks like this: “What if two programs tried this trick?”\nNow you have two programs both of which think they are in charge\nof hiding and showing the taskbar, neither of which is coordinating\nwith the other.  The result is a mess.  One program hides\nthe taskbar, then the other does, then the first decides it’s finished\nso it unhides the taskbar, but the second program wasn’t finished yet\nand gets a visible taskbar when it thought it should be hidden.\nThings only go downhill from there.\n<\/p>\n
\nSecond, what if your program crashes before it gets a chance\nto unhide the taskbar?\nThe taskbar is now permanently hidden\nand the user has to log off and back on to get their taskbar back.\nThat’s not very nice.\n<\/p>\n
\nThird, what if there is no taskbar at all?\nIt is common in Terminal Server scenarios to\n\nrun programs by themselves without Explorer<\/a>\n[archived<\/a>].\nIn this configuration, there is no Explorer, no taskbar.\nOr maybe you’re running on a future version of Windows\nthat doesn’t have a taskbar,\nit having been replaced by some other mechanism.\nWhat will your program do now?\n<\/p>\n
\nDon’t do any of this messing with the taskbar.\nJust create your fullscreen window and let the taskbar do its thing\nautomatically.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For some reason, people think too hard. If you want to create a fullscreen window that covers the taskbar, just create a fullscreen window and the taskbar will automatically get out of the way. Don’t go around hunting for the taskbar and poking it; let it do its thing. As always, start with the scratch […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1069,"featured_media":111744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-35703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oldnewthing","tag-code"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"
For some reason, people think too hard. If you want to create a fullscreen window that covers the taskbar, just create a fullscreen window and the taskbar will automatically get out of the way. Don’t go around hunting for the taskbar and poking it; let it do its thing. As always, start with the scratch […]<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1069"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/oldnewthing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}