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On my secondary monitor (currently using Windows 10), my taskbar will barely show up. I've tried adjusting the resolution to lower ones (it recommends 1920x1080) and it doesn't do much. Is there a way to adjust the taskbar so I can see it?enter image description here

That is about what I see. I could make it bigger via Snipping Tool and see my entire desktop on the picture but not normally.

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  • Can you post a screenshot of this behavior?
    – Ramhound
    Aug 23, 2015 at 20:26
  • That's because of the monitor, not Windows. Most TVs crop a part of the screen like that
    – phuclv
    Aug 24, 2015 at 2:19
  • @LưuVĩnhPhúc Thanks! I was just using an extra monitor I had for my gaming consoles. Put that as the answer.
    – Mr McClean
    Aug 24, 2015 at 19:21

2 Answers 2

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Most LCD/LED/Plasma TVs crop the outer part of the video input from HDMI although I don't know why. It's not OS depending.

Edit: now I know it's called overscan which is a relic from the CRT era

For some Samsung TVs you can select the option full 16:9/screen fit to disable cropping. LG seems to call the feature Just Scan in "Aspect Ratio" option. On Panasonic it's under Picture Overscan option. In Sharp TVs select Wide option and choose "dot-by-dot". Sony TVs also have similar features but I forgot the name.

For a few other TVs it's impossible to disable this. I know that because I had spent time struggling with it. But in many cases you can trade a bit image quality off by using "underscan" to scale the image down and then the TV will enlarge it while overscanning. This is supported by many graphics cards' drivers. You can also see this if you're outputting from an Xperia Zx via MHL, where you have the option to change the image size to smaller depending on the pictured cropped.

You can find more explanation on this and the fix for various brands of TVs here:

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  • Thank you! I have an LG 29WK600 and when I changed from 2560 X 1080 to 3840 X 2160 my taskbar was not visible and I also could not see the "Title bar buttons" (minimise, maximise and close icons in the top right corner of a window). This also happened with other resolutions too (2K, 3K etc). But I had an "Aha" moment when I saw this and changed my aspect ratio which fixed my problem (was in 'Cinema' mode instead of 'Full Wide'). You saved my hunders of hours of investigation... :)
    – Kounavi
    Mar 1, 2020 at 11:49
  • Thanks. For a "different permutation" of the same issue. I have an older HP monitor. There was an "Overscan" setting buried in the menu system that has possible values "Auto"/"On"/"Off". I turned it "Off" and now I can see my Taskbar. The keypoint is that (as discussed in this answer), it is a MONITOR setting, not an O/S "video display-card settings" situation. May 1, 2023 at 13:30
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I'm not using a tv, I have an old Hannspree 1440x900 monitor. There was no mention of "overscan" or anything like that in the settings. I had to go to Menu -> Image Setting -> HDMI Mode and change it from "Video Mode" to "PC Mode". (I guess "video" means "tv"?)

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