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Windows XP Task Bar

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10 replies

by theblessedbodywell

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I cannot seem to keep my task bar from falling down on the bottom of my desktop; if I want to go to the start menu, I have to just continue clicking in that area until the bar decides to come back up and when it does it stays up for a hot minute and then falls back down off the bottom of the desktop; a little help please

10 replies

by rob miners

Control Panel

Open taskbar & Start Menu

Untick Auto Hide

by theblessedbodywell

Thank you so very very much; I shall try it when I get out of class. May I contact you again if it does not work?

by coremd

I wrote a program that requires the task bar to autohide ir certain parts of the forms are not visible (windows XP(SP2) and 2K).
I tried running your program on both XP and 2K but it did not autohide the task bar (and the settings form has nothing in it except an exit button?

1) What am I doing wrong with your program?

2) Can you tell me where the settings are in the Registry (API Call to a DLL?) so I can set the Auto Hide from within my program?

Thanks
If possible, please reply to coremd@thedoctor-is-in.com

by Former member

Then you will/should see "auto hide".
Select it (tick) for Auto hide, or un-tick it to keep showing on the desktop.

Please post back if you have any more problems or questions.
If this info is useful, please mark it helpful. Thanks

by coremd

Thanks for the reply but I think I was not clear.

I need to be able to adjust the task bar settings from within my program without user input.

If the settings are stored in the Registry then where is it stored and how to I need to change it to set auto hide on.

OR

Is there is an API call I can make to a DLL file to set the Auto Hide.

Or G-d forbid it is an easy fix and I just need to change a line in an INI file.

Thanks again

by Former member

Yes, there is a registry setting to set the
auto-hide taskbar option.

There is a binary registry value
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckR
ects2] on XP or Win2000 (or just StuckRects earlier)
that has a particular bit for the option. It is the first bit of 8-th byte
(starting from 0) to adjust auto-hide taskbar option. To
change the bit you may use regedit, import .reg file or simple run a script
file that changes the registry value. I've attached a VB script file to this
post that does
it. Since it is required to change the registry value and WSH does
not allow multiple binary data to be written as data so
the WMI was used. That means in order to run this vbs script you should have
WMI support in your image. If you don't want to include
it, you may just write a simple app to change the binary value in C/C++.

Another hard thing about the registry value is that even if you change it
Windows will overwrite it on user logoff to return it to
previous value being loaded on logon. So, you will need to change the value
just before the Explorer starts. You may do that using
UserInit key running a .bat or .cmd file. The batch file should launch the
.vbs file (or your custom app) and then run userinit.exe
to perform normal logon. I attached a sample .cmd script that does the job.
Just change (once!)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon],"Userinit" value to something like
"c:\windows\system32\userinit.cmd,", then reboot, logon to the user account
and see the changes. Then you may return your "Userinit"
key to previous
value and reboot again - the taskbar setting should still persist. Playing
with "strValue(8)" line at the bottom of the .vbs file,
you can set or clear the option.

begin 666 userinit.cmd
M0&5C:&\@;V9F#0IC;',-"E-E=$%U=&](:61E5&%S:V)A5!A=&@L('-T

by coremd

Thanks for the info. At least knowing where the Registry Setting is half the battle.

Your scripts seemed to come on the page as jibberish? Can you re-post them?

Thank you very very much

by coremd

No I mean the post came out as jibberish not that VBS is jibberish

Here is a copy of how the post of the VBS came out

begin 666 SetAutoHideTaskbar.vbs
M3W!T:6]N($5X><&QI8VET#0I/;B!%<-"D1I
M;2!I;G1":71S5&]3970-"D1I;2!S=')#;VUP=71E5!A=&@@/2 B4T]&5%=!4D5<36EC<'1I;VYS#0H-"F]2965!A=&@L('-T

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