Persistent Windows taskbar on top of my WoW window

Good day everyone!
I have a problem with my ISBoxer. Its nothing major but annoys me.

I have set up ISBoxer and InnerSpace and all is good. I run a configuration of 2 computers and play WoW.
I created everything, following the guides etc and all seems to work fine, with 1 or 2 quirks which are good.

BUT

When I start my "Team" it launches appropriately WoW on the Master and Slave PC's.
The slave PC works fine. Everything is working correctly.

The master PC launches WoW but the windows taskbar stays on top of everything and I cannot make it go away.

Now pre-answering possible questions:

ISBoxer - latest version
Windows 10 - both machines
Lock Taskbar turned on and off - both machines
WoW settings - Windowed (Fullscreen) - both machines

What am I doing wrong?

A possible solution is to Auto-Hide the taskbar but I really do not want to do this for obvious reasons - I use the taskbar often after all. AutoHiding drives me crazy.


Thank you for any help.

[bob]

This is a known issue with some applications, like Display Fusion (specifically it's taskbar management). Are you running any special display management or taskbar management type applications?

This is a known issue with some applications, like Display Fusion (specifically it's taskbar management). Are you running any special display management or taskbar management type applications?

I dont think so. I am not in front of the PC to double check this but as far as I am aware, I am not running any such applications. For sure Display Fusion I am not using.

This is a known issue with some applications, like Display Fusion (specifically it's taskbar management). Are you running any special display management or taskbar management type applications?

I dont think so. I am not in front of the PC to double check this but as far as I am aware, I am not running any such applications. For sure Display Fusion I am not using.

I can confirm that AFAIK there is no such software installed. I have rather standard stuff - teamviewer, plex etc running all the time but I also have the other computer.
What could be next?
If it is a known issue, does it pertain only to this kind of applications such as Display Fusion? Could it be something else also, therefore, any ideas how to start troubleshooting it?

[bob]

It is highly probable it is something else. As I said in chat, this is usually caused by something focussing the taskbar. Whether via incorrect settings (which I haven't found any obvious ones after some testing) or an application that is running in the background (maybe reporting in the system tray) or even something that interfaces with the taskbar (Display Fusion just happened to be one that turned up when I googled the issue).

Your best bet is to shutdown any running background programs not essential to your multiboxing and see if the problem goes away.

Well, I rebooted the PC. Stopped every single application I could possibly stop. I could not fix the issue. I was stopping processes and not services.
Rebooted again and started WoW normally, everything was working fine, then I started WoW with ISBoxer - same problem.


I guess I will just have to live with it as I cant figure it out. thanks though

[bob]

Apparently, if you have Display Scaling enabled (i.e. set to something other than 100%, this might also cause this problem.
You could also try toggling the graphics settings in game between Full Screen and Windowed (I believe you want to finish on Windowed FuillScreen)
If you have a screen saver, remove it (i.e. set to None -> you'll need to reboot after this too).
There are also suggestions for clearing the %SystemRoot%\Prefetch folder, although that is a related but not quite the same issue so you might not want to do this one (it wont harm anything).

You could also provide a diagnostic for crashes (yes, even though you aren't crashing) and I can see what processes are running to see if anything sticks out.

[lax]

Okay it hasn't been asked.

What is your Window Layout like? ...

Depending on your chosen Window Layout, Windows may simply be placing the taskbar over your game window because it feels like it. For example, we see a lot of layouts with 1 main region in the upper section of the screen, and then smaller windows lined up along the bottom. The only reason the taskbar would not be on top of those smaller windows, due to the design of the layout, is because they have "Always On Top" enabled while a game window is foreground. If you put that large window at the bottom of the screen instead of the top, the large window DOES NOT have "Always On Top" enabled, and the taskbar may be placed over the window.

This is just how they designed the shell. I can't find the right terms to google at the moment to give a link for this.

Make your game window the size of the full screen and it'll be on top of the taskbar, make it smaller it'll be under. To avoid this situation make sure that if your window is at he bottom overlapping the taskbar, it either has Always On Top or it is full screen sized.

So from my end I would want to see a screenshot or something here

Apparently, if you have Display Scaling enabled (i.e. set to something other than 100%, this might also cause this problem.
You could also try toggling the graphics settings in game between Full Screen and Windowed (I believe you want to finish on Windowed FuillScreen)
If you have a screen saver, remove it (i.e. set to None -> you'll need to reboot after this too).
There are also suggestions for clearing the %SystemRoot%\Prefetch folder, although that is a related but not quite the same issue so you might not want to do this one (it wont harm anything).

You could also provide a diagnostic for crashes (yes, even though you aren't crashing) and I can see what processes are running to see if anything sticks out.

Okay, I will fumble with all of the above tonight! See what might be of those. I remember changing between Full and Windows messed everything up at some point (the problem I had was before that) but that was due to other things. Will reply in an hour or something as soon as I am infront the PC.

Okay it hasn't been asked.

What is your Window Layout like? ...

Depending on your chosen Window Layout, Windows may simply be placing the taskbar over your game window because it feels like it. For example, we see a lot of layouts with 1 main region in the upper section of the screen, and then smaller windows lined up along the bottom. The only reason the taskbar would not be on top of those smaller windows, due to the design of the layout, is because they have "Always On Top" enabled while a game window is foreground. If you put that large window at the bottom of the screen instead of the top, the large window DOES NOT have "Always On Top" enabled, and the taskbar may be placed over the window.

This is just how they designed the shell. I can't find the right terms to google at the moment to give a link for this.

Make your game window the size of the full screen and it'll be on top of the taskbar, make it smaller it'll be under. To avoid this situation make sure that if your window is at he bottom overlapping the taskbar, it either has Always On Top or it is full screen sized.

So from my end I would want to see a screenshot or something here

Its a single monitor layout but I think this might be it .... as I dual screen my computer, I remember the setting was Montior 1 black on the left and blue DISPLAY on the right yet, WoW shows up on the left screen which is my Main Windows screen. This might be it.

Will check,change and report back in an hour or two.

Okay, switched the setting. I before all, removed from Collections the second monitor which is not used anyway. Chose a Full screen-ish as it says layout and restarted the Slot. Works fine now. So it was this thing then. I think I am gonna just Clear my whole ISBoxer in a day or 2 and roll all again. Still in the beginning so it wont be a pain but now I know what caused this behavior.

Thank you both Bob and Lax.