How to keep the taskbar hidden (i.e., minimized) in Windows 10?

Question

I understand that in order to disable or remove the taskbar in Windows 10, the explorer.exe process must be terminated. However, is there a way to:

• keep the taskbar minimized (i.e., auto-hide in the settings) and prevent it to pop-up when hovering over the area where it is hidden (e.g., bottom of the screen)?

I would like not to use external software, but rather find out associated registry keys--if any--that can prevent it from popping up.

Solution

Windows 10 has a mode called Tablet mode. What this does is hide the taskbar and makes every window maximized to the screen automatically.

In order to enable it, Go to Settings, System, Tablet Mode.

At the top set it to Tablet mode, and enable Hide taskbar in tablet mode.

Do note, tablet mode only works if one screen is connected to the display.

You can toggle tablet mode on and off by going to the notification screen (bottom right icon in the task bar, right of the clock) and pressing the Tablet mode button.

By default the taskbar is not hidden in tablet mode.

Alternatively, you can do the same in Desktop mode (if you don't want to, or cannot switch to tablet mode).

Go to Settings, Personalisation, Taskbar. Check Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode.

In either case, the taskbar can still be accessed by moving the mouse to the edge of the screen. If you really don't want this to happen at the bottom, consider moving the taskbar to the top, left or right edge of the screen. The left side is usually the least used side.

If you have 2 displays, consider moving the taskbar to the display you use least frequenty, and set it to not show up on the other desktop.

This is the easiest to do in Windows 10 without going to a hacky solution that may break in a future windows update.

One last thing I can think of that may work for you is to install a program that replaces the taskbar. If I'm not mistaken, RocketDock does this. You get a different bar in return, but you can configure this bar in such way that it is going to work for you.

Comments

[Mokubai]

Is it something like Kiosk mode that you are after rather than just "hiding" the taskbar? thewindowsclub.com/windows-10-kiosk-mode-assigned-access

[Mihai]

Thanks for the link! No, I am not interested in the kiosk mode. I simply want to gain a bit more space on my screen. Hiding would do just fine, as long as it doesn't pop-up on hover. Changing the pop-up delay to something very high would also work (e.g., 10 seconds or so).

[LPChip]

I did look into registry settings, but those that worked in older versions of windows don't seem to work at all in Windows 10.

[Mihai]

Thanks for mentioning it. I am curious, where in the registry settings did you look?

[LPChip]

@Mihai Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curren‌​tVersion\Explorer\Ad‌​vanced There you add a key UIDelay...eh something... I found that by google, but that didn't change the taskbar at all, where people mentioned it worked for them in earlier versions of windows.

[Mihai]

Thanks for the detailed answer, much appreciated! I like your suggestion to position the taskbar on the left, on the second monitor; that should do it. I think that RocketDock only hides the taskbar, rendering the screen area unusable for other apps (i.e., apps will not resize to cover the area where the taskbar used to be). I will wait a bit more in case others want to come up with suggestions and will accept your answer.

[Mihai]

This only hides the taskbar, which on hover reappears. This is not what I am looking for, but thanks.