IDEA: Limit Taskbar Autohide

[gsull]

Thanks to FARR and TicTocTitle, I rarely need to access my taskbar, so it stays autohidden, and I gain the extra bit of space for full screen apps. 

There are two problems keeping me from a super-slick, full-screen world of wonder:

1 (a little annoying).  Autohide still makes space for the taskbar when an app opens.  This is annoying, but I could live with it.

2 (the painful, evil part).  I don't want to lose access to the taskbar completely, but I also don't want it being triggered when I go to use some of the controls that are located at the bottom/top/side of the apps I use.  When I maximize the app after problem #1, it puts some controls very close to the triggering point for the autohide to unhide.



What I'd love is similar to CloseFence, but basically reversed.  It would make a very small (or configurable-sized?) spot on the autohidden taskbar available for triggering.  Otherwise, it would ignore the mouse.  For me, if it only popped up when I moused into the very corner, it would be ideal.

The other issue, that of the taskbar getting space made for it, I have no idea about.  It's just annoying.

Thank you very much for considering this.

[gsull]

http://home.nordnet.fr/~pmdevigne/TaskbarActivate.html

This does something to make it less of a pain, but not exactly what I'm looking for.  I don't like the time delay thing, because it makes me wait for access to the taskbar, and if I'm trying to get to it, it's probably something I want to do quick.  I'd rather have a limited area of activation.  Just thought that this app might work for people with similar problems to mine that don't mind the pause.  It's the closest thing I've found to a solution.

[kimmchii]

how about if you move the taskbar to the top? it will be less likely to get triggered since the title bar is at the top.

[jgpaiva]

1 (a little annoying).  Autohide still makes space for the taskbar when an app opens.  This is annoying, but I could live with it.

Sorry, i didn't understand very well what you meant.

I believe Skrommel's FadingTaskbar already does exactly what you're asking for....
Check it out here: http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Skrommel/#FadingTaskbar

[gsull]

kimmchii:
Honestly, I just don't like it there. Although it would probably be less problematic, it's not an intuitive place for me, and it would still occasionally run into the same problems.

jgpaiva:
The behavior I was trying to explain is that even though the taskbar is hidden off-screen, windows that are supposed to open full-screen leave a blank space for the taskbar as if it was there.

Unless it's something undocumented about FadingTaskbar, I don't think it does what I'm talking about.  I want the taskbar to be autohidden except when a very small area of it is moused-over, as opposed to an entire side of the monitor.  This is using the autohide setting in windows, where the taskbar is just off screen, allowing programs to be opened to the full size of the monitor, while still allowing you to get to the taskbar by moving the mouse along the edge of the screen where the taskbar is.

[jgpaiva]

That's what i understood in the first place, but i can'g get that behaviour when using the autohide option in the taskbar, my windows maximize to the full size of the screen, and when i move the mouse to the bottom of the screen, the taskbar comes up over the current window.

FadingTaskbar has a feature called "activation rectangle", which i believe is exactly what you asked for. I'm not sure, as i couldn't configure it myself, but i'm pretty sure it's what you're looking for. Maybe skrommel could post here to explain it a little better, or you could pm him to ask.

[skrommel]

Yes, FadingTaskbar does support activation when the mouse is over a given region of the screen. Look at the second tab, Activation, in the Settings. To make it work, try unchecking Taskbar transparency when maximized window exist, and also try disabling Windows' taskbar autohiding option.

Skrommel

[gsull]

Maximize doesn't seem to work with FadingTaskbar.  I have to be in windowed mode, and manually resize the window to fill the screen.  Clicking maximize with FadingTaskbar only maximizes up to the point where the taskbar would be, leaving a blank space at the bottom of the screen; Whereas with normal windows autohide, apps wouldn't maximize on first run only, and I'd have to click maximize once it was started to get it to fill the screen.

I also can't seem to understand the activation rectangle.  I got it to sort of do what I wanted, but I'm confused as to what value does what.  Any chance you could describe how to use them?

Seems like I'm getting close.  Thanks for the quick replies everyone.

[gsull]

I actually went back to the prgram I referenced earlier, TaskbarActivate, and figured out a way to make it do basically what I want.  I didn't realize at first that if you click during the delay, it opens the taskbar.  I set the delay as high as it would go, and now I have to hit the side of the screen, and click in order to make it open.  good enough for my needs. 

Thanks for the suggestions.

[skrommel]

Clicking maximize with FadingTaskbar only maximizes up to the point where the taskbar would be

You have to set Windows' taskbar to autohide.

About the Activation rectangle, it's just screen coordinates, where X is the leftmost, Y is the topmost, Width is the width of the rectangle and Height is the height of the rectangle. You can also use the variables ScreenHeight, ScreenWidth, TaskbarX, TaskbarY, TaskbarHeight and TaskbarWidth to make FadingTaskbar work with different resolutions.

So to make it only activate when the mouse is at the bottom of the screen, use X=ScreenHeight-1, Y=0, Width=ScreenWidth and Height=1.

Skrommel