Page 160 - Windows 10 May 2019 Update The Missing Manual: The Book That Should Have Been in the Box

Auto-Hiding the Taskbar

To turn on the taskbar’s auto-hiding feature, right-click a blank spot on the
taskbar; choose “Taskbar settings.” The resulting box offers two
“Automatically hide the taskbar” settings, one each for desktop and Tablet

mode (“Manual Tablet Mode”). Each makes the taskbar disappear whenever
you’re not using it—a clever way to devote your entire screen to app
windows and yet have the taskbar at your cursortip when needed.

When this feature is turned on, the taskbar disappears whenever you click
elsewhere, or whenever your cursor moves away from it. Only a thin line at
the edge of the screen indicates that you have a taskbar at all. As soon as

your pointer moves close to that line, the taskbar joyfully springs back into
view.

Changing the Taskbar’s Size

The taskbar can accumulate a lot of buttons and icons. As a result, you may
want to enlarge the taskbar to see what’s what.

Note

This trick requires a mouse or trackpad; you can’t do it on a touchscreen.

The draggy way. First, ensure that the taskbar isn’t locked (which

means you can’t move or resize it). To do that, right-click (or hold
your finger down on) a blank spot on the taskbar; from the shortcut
menu, turn off “Lock the taskbar.”

Now position your pointer on the upper edge of the taskbar (or, if
you’ve moved the taskbar, on whichever edge is closest to the
center of the screen). When the pointer turns into a double-headed
arrow, drag to make the taskbar thicker or thinner.