2

In case where you are fullscreen, doing some work and suddenly have to jump to the taskbar to switch to another program or to use a utility which resides in system tray menu. Pressing Start or Ctrl+Esc shows the taskbar with start menu open. The opened start menu is somewhat distractive when you are doing some focus-oriented tasks such as programming.

So, are there any ways to achieve this? Any tweaks? Any registry edits?

PS. I have tried many utilities such as 7+ Taskbar Tweaker but got nothing to work!

4 Answers 4

1
  • Press Windows+T to focus on the apps
  • Press Windows+B to focus on the notification area

Both will show the taskbar without the start menu

0

Press ALT key, twice to show the taskbar without start menu. To achieve this, we need to use autohotkey.

Using the Rapidhotkey function, send Win key + B, to activate taskbar without start menu. Set the number of clicks required (2), and the time allowed between clicks (0.3).

~Alt::RapidHotkey("myLabel", 2, 0.3, 1)

myLabel:
    Send #b
Return

To use the RapidHotkey function, include the 2 functions below in your script. Copy pasted below for your convenience. Details in Autohotkey forums.

; Rapid hotkey library
RapidHotkey(keystroke, times="2", delay=0.2, IsLabel=0)
{
    Pattern := Morse(delay*1000)
    If (StrLen(Pattern) < 2 and Chr(Asc(times)) != "1")
        Return
    If (times = "" and InStr(keystroke, """"))
    {
        Loop, Parse, keystroke,""   
            If (StrLen(Pattern) = A_Index+1)
                continue := A_Index, times := StrLen(Pattern)
    }
    Else if (RegExMatch(times, "^\d+$") and InStr(keystroke, """"))
    {
        Loop, Parse, keystroke,""
            If (StrLen(Pattern) = A_Index+times-1)
                times := StrLen(Pattern), continue := A_Index
    }
    Else if InStr(times, """")
    {
        Loop, Parse, times,""
            If (StrLen(Pattern) = A_LoopField)
                continue := A_Index, times := A_LoopField
    }
    Else if (times = "")
        continue := 1, times := 2
    Else if (times = StrLen(Pattern))
        continue = 1
    If !continue
        Return
    Loop, Parse, keystroke,""
        If (continue = A_Index)
            keystr := A_LoopField
    Loop, Parse, IsLabel,""
        If (continue = A_Index)
            IsLabel := A_LoopField
    hotkey := RegExReplace(A_ThisHotkey, "[\*\~\$\#\+\!\^]")
    IfInString, hotkey, %A_Space%
        StringTrimLeft, hotkey,hotkey,% InStr(hotkey,A_Space,1,0)
    backspace := "{BS " times "}"
    keywait = Ctrl|Alt|Shift|LWin|RWin
    Loop, Parse, keywait, |
        KeyWait, %A_LoopField%
    If ((!IsLabel or (IsLabel and IsLabel(keystr))) and InStr(A_ThisHotkey, "~") and !RegExMatch(A_ThisHotkey
    , "i)\^[^\!\d]|![^\d]|#|Control|Ctrl|LCtrl|RCtrl|Shift|RShift|LShift|RWin|LWin|Alt|LAlt|RAlt|Escape|BackSpace|F\d\d?|"
    . "Insert|Esc|Escape|BS|Delete|Home|End|PgDn|PgUp|Up|Down|Left|Right|ScrollLock|CapsLock|NumLock|AppsKey|"
    . "PrintScreen|CtrlDown|Pause|Break|Help|Sleep|Browser_Back|Browser_Forward|Browser_Refresh|Browser_Stop|"
    . "Browser_Search|Browser_Favorites|Browser_Home|Volume_Mute|Volume_Down|Volume_Up|MButton|RButton|LButton|"
    . "Media_Next|Media_Prev|Media_Stop|Media_Play_Pause|Launch_Mail|Launch_Media|Launch_App1|Launch_App2"))
        Send % backspace
    If (WinExist("AHK_class #32768") and hotkey = "RButton")
        WinClose, AHK_class #32768
    If !IsLabel
        Send % keystr
    else if IsLabel(keystr)
        Gosub, %keystr%
    Return
}   
Morse(timeout = 400) { ;by Laszo -> http://www.autohotkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16951 (Modified to return: KeyWait %key%, T%tout%)
   tout := timeout/1000
   key := RegExReplace(A_ThisHotKey,"[\*\~\$\#\+\!\^]")
   IfInString, key, %A_Space%
        StringTrimLeft, key, key,% InStr(key,A_Space,1,0)
    If Key in Shift,Win,Ctrl,Alt
        key1:="{L" key "}{R" key "}"
   Loop {
      t := A_TickCount
      KeyWait %key%, T%tout%
        Pattern .= A_TickCount-t > timeout
        If(ErrorLevel)
            Return Pattern
    If key in Capslock,LButton,RButton,MButton,ScrollLock,CapsLock,NumLock
      KeyWait,%key%,T%tout% D
    else if Asc(A_ThisHotkey)=36
        KeyWait,%key%,T%tout% D
    else
      Input,pressed,T%tout% L1 V,{%key%}%key1%
    If (ErrorLevel="Timeout" or ErrorLevel=1)
        Return Pattern
    else if (ErrorLevel="Max")
        Return
   }
}
0

Here simple AutoHotKey script that shows taskbar when Capslock key pressed:

Capslock::
Send {LWin down}{b}{LWin up}
Send {Tab down}{Tab up}
return
-1

Would doing Start+D (Windows key+D) be useful maybe? This brings you to your desktop, and minimizes everything. It takes me out of fullscreen... at least, youtube fullscreen. Not sure about other programs.

2
  • Thanks. I do know about Start+D. Yes, this key combo is global thus works for all the Windows programs .
    – bantya
    Aug 11, 2018 at 15:02
  • does not answer the question
    – tinker
    Apr 27, 2021 at 2:17

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