I'm writing an article on maximizing your Windows screen real estate, and I wanted to toggle the taskbar auto hide setting with a keyboard shortcut. Unfortunately, the only built-in way to change the setting is to manually openTaskbar and Start MenuProperties and click the Auto Hide check box. This wasn't efficient enough for me, so I wrote a tray utility called Taskbar Autohide, which toggles the auto hide setting using a keyboard shortcut or tray icon.
Taskbar Autohide is a compiled AutoHotkey application that toggles the Windows taskbar auto hidesetting on and off by:
1. Pressing the WIN+A key combination
2. Double-clicking the tray icon
3. Right-clicking the tray icon and choosing Toggle taskbar autohide.
If you want to leave the utility running all the time, copy it to your Start -> All Programs > Startup menu.
Tested on Windows Vista and Windows XP.
Source code
;------------------------------------------------ ; Taskbar Autohide 0.2 ; AutoHotkey application ; by Carl Campos at Brightrev.com ; Application icon from the Crystal Clear set ; http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Clear ;------------------------------------------------
#SingleInstance Off Menu, Tray, NoStandard Menu, Tray, Add, Toggle taskbar autohide, Toggle Menu, Tray, Add, About Menu, Tray, Add, Exit Menu, Tray, Default, Toggle taskbar autohide Menu, Tray, Tip, Double-click or WIN+A to toggle tasbkar autohide
;---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ; Launch Taskbar and Start Menu Proprties ; Wait for the window to appear ; Send the U key to Toggle autohide, the A key to apply and the Escape key to exit ;---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Toggle: Run rundll32.exe shell32.dll`,Options_RunDLL 1 WinWait, Taskbar and Start Menu Properties WinActivate, Taskbar and Start Menu Properties Send ua WinClose, Taskbar and Start Menu Properties Return
;------------------------------------------------- ; Displays a text box with application information ; Creates a link to the application's site ;------------------------------------------------- About: Gui, Add, Text, cBlack, Taskbar Autohide 0.1 Gui, Add, Text, cBlack, AutoHotkey app by Carl Campos Gui, Font, underline Gui, Add, Text, cBlue gLaunchBrightrev, http://www.brightrev.com Gui, Font, norm Gui, Add, Button, Default, OK Gui, Show return
;--------------------------------------------------------- ; Called by gLaunchBrightrev when the user clicks the ; simulated link above ;--------------------------------------------------------- LaunchBrightrev: Run www.brightrev.com return
;---------------------------------------------------- ; Closes the window and frees memory when you click OK ;---------------------------------------------------- ButtonOK: Gui, Destroy return
;--------------------- ; Exits the application ;--------------------- Exit: exitapp
I'm writing an article on maximizing your Windows screen real estate, and I wanted to toggle the taskbar auto hide setting with a keyboard shortcut. Unfortunately, the only built-in way to change the setting is to manually openTaskbar and Start Menu Properties and click the Auto Hide check box. This wasn't efficient enough for me, so I wrote a tray utility called Taskbar Autohide, which toggles the auto hide setting using a keyboard shortcut or tray icon.
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