How to prevent window titlebar from being obscured when taskbar is at top?

Question

Lately when using Windows 7 on my laptop, I like to keep the taskbar at the top. It just seems more natural to me to keep these controls at eye level than at the bottom.

One of the problems you encounter with this setup is the occasional window opening underneath the task bar, completely obscuring the titlebar such that you can't move it or click its buttons. The workaround is to either move the taskbar or Alt-Space + M and move down with the arrow keys or mouse. I'm aware you can also use Win+Up/Left/Right to maximize or position left/right.

But, if anybody remembers Windows 95, this has always been a problem with the taskbar at the top. Has Windows 7 managed to fix this with some option I'm not aware of?

Answer 1

well, if you keep the taskbar on top of other windows then this quite normal ("it's not a bug, it's a feature!" :). unfortunately, when the taskbar is located at the top of the screen, the first part of a window that disappears behind the taskbar is the titlebar which can indeed cause some inconvenience.

however, Windows should remember the location of a window, so when you move the window and the close it, the next time you open this program it should open at the last position.

alternatively, you may resort to a windows manager, these porgrams allow you to assign rules to any windows (i.e. location, transparency, etc.). 2 recommendations: Eusing's Auto Window Manager (free) and Actual Window Manager (my favorite, shareware), both programs offer a plethora of useful features, well worth having.