TaskBar Activate – Control Your Windows TaskBar Autohide Features
Posted by: Barry Cleave in Freeware, tags: Freeware, Portable Application, Portable Freeware, PortableApps, Programs, Software, Utilities, Windows, Windows XPReading a gHacks post earlier today reminded me that I have been using TaskBar Activate for quite some time on my main home PC. It is so unobtrusive that I had almost forgotten that it is there.
What Is It?
TaskBar Activate is a small utility that controls the autohide timing of the windows TaskBar. It is a simple utility last updated in 1999 but it still fulfills a very useful function in preventing the Windows taskbar appearing instantly every time your mouse pointer hits the bottom of the screen. It also provides similar functionality for other windows taskbars that are docked to any edge of the screen plus a couple of other useful features.
Why Would You Want It?
To help control the Windows Taskbar autohide actions, in particular it can be annoying when the taskbar inadvertently appears when you drag the mouse to the bottom of the screen(or other edge, depending on how you have windows bars set up) .
What Does It Do – The Essentials?
Summary:
- Delays the appearance of Windows autohidden taskbars
Pros: What’s Good?
- Freeware
- Portable (Installer also available)
- Simple to Use
- Unobtrusive
Cons:What’s Not So Good?
- Update to version 2.5 advertised but not available
- Not updated since 1999 (Version 2.5 says 2003 but cannot be found)
However it should be noted that despite not being update for abou9 years it still does a useful job
More About What it Does in Detail:
The developer, Pierre-Marie DEVIGNE provides some information on his website in French and English on TaskBar Activate.
Don’t let programs decide whether you can get access to the taskbar!
Don’t let the taskbar hide your applications because you have gone close to the edge of the screen with your mouse!Taskbar Activate manages activation and deactivation of the Windows taskbar. It is specialy usefull for accessing the taskbar with special applications running (full screen windows, always on top windows, …). It also prevents an inopportune taskbar window appearing over your application when the mouse goes close to the screen border.
Your screen is never enough large. So, you’d like to use full screen applications to see something else than the title, menu, status bars.
But, if so, it is quite impossible to switch between applications because you have no access to the taskbar. The taskbar is completely hidden by your full screen application.Sure, it is possible to use ALT+TAB or CTRL+ESC or even the Windows key of your new keyboard (is it here only for this bug?).
TaskBar Activate awakes your taskbar when it is hidden by a full screen window and it has not agree to do this itself when the mouse come.
The site indicates a later version than the 2.4 tested but I could not find this. The French part of the website gives links to download version 2.5 in French and English but the actual downloads only contain the 2.4 executable so don’t waste your time (I’ve already done it for you 
).
It is really a very simple “One Trick Pony” application but it does the job well with a few useful options.
System Tray Icon
Left clicking on the (optional) system tray icon toggles the activation/deactivation of TaskBar Activate. The icon changes from colour to grayed out.
Right clicking on the systray icon brings up the following menu:
These are all self evident.
The menu can also be shown by right clicking on the TaskBar Activate Highlight line/bar on the edge of the screen. The following screenshot shows this at the bottom edge but exactly the same effect is available on all edges of the screen where a Windows bar is docked. The colour of the bar can be set in the options, in this case I have shown it in red so that it stands out in the screenshot.
Settings Screen Options
As can be seen this is set out as 3 tab screens
Bars Management Tab
This provides options for
- Delay time
- Highlight colour
- Delay time for “Other” Windows bars
Activation Tab
Here you can set
- Always on Top priority
- Background bar behaviour
- Systray Icon shown
- Suspend TaskBar Activate
Advanced Tab
Here there are four checkboxes to set options to disable certain bars depending on which edge of the screen they are on.
There is also an option to delay the time before the TaskBar hides after the first time it appears following system startup.
What are the Technical Details & Compatibility?
| Name | JkDefrag Options GUI |
| Software Version | 2.4 |
| Release Date | September 1999 |
| Compatibility | Windows 98/2000/XP |
| Homepage | website |
| Download | TAonly.zip |
| Download Size | 30KB |
| OS Reviewed On | Windows XP Pro |
| Size on Disk | 77KB |
| Memory Use (Base) | 5,880K |
| Review Date | March 2008 |
What is the My Free Review Experience?
This is a useful little program that is so unobtrusive you forget that it is there. I originally searched for this several years ago because I became so frustrated with the autohidden taskbar popping up every time the mouse cursor hit the bottom of the screen when using an application. As I also use other Windows bars docked on other screen edges it’s usefulness became even more evident.
Personally I rate this very highly as:
Very Useful -Simple – Stable – Useful options
What Could Make it be Better?
- Hotkey to turn on and off
- Hotkey to prevent bar showing at all
- Hotkey to show Taskbar
What Other Posts are Relevant?
Why You Want to Use Portable Freeware Applications
Why I decided to Write This Blog
What are the Tags?
Technorati Tags: Freeware, My Free Review, Portable Freeware, Portable Application, Pro Reviewer, Programs, Software, Utilities, Windows, Windows XP
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April 23rd, 2008 at 2:04 pm - Edit
Nice little post. I’ve been using it for a while too, but I think it’s causing my system problems. What is happening for me is that when I go to delete something from the taskbar start list or even the quicklaunch list it hangs explorer.exe. I have to kill explorer and start it again. I also suspect it of causing other stability issues. It would be great if someone could code something better.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:12 pm - Edit
steven – thanks for the comment. Interesting that you think it may be causing problems with explorer. I load quite a few different explorer add-ons/plugins and also have experienced stability issues. I have put this down to the usual MS OS experience when lots of different utilities have been installed and uninstalled. If you have any more info I would be very interested.
Barry Cleave
August 11th, 2008 at 4:44 pm - Edit
I didn tknow you can share a mouse on your network?
I have just bought the new illuminated keyboard, lights the room up in the evening.
January 23rd, 2009 at 9:03 pm - Edit
I find TaskBar Activate the best bang for the (non-existent) buck out there. I use a wide taskbar (6 small toolbar icons wide) attached to the left edge of the display. Without TBA, every time the mouse brushes the edge of the screen, the bar pops out, and takes a second or so to disappear again. With TBA, it doesn’t even start counting the delay until the mouse pointer is stationary. The 200ms (default) delay is then unnoticeable.
Best thing, as mentioned in the article, hasn’t changed since 1999, but works in all versions of Windows, including Win7 (beta).
IMHO, this should be an automatic feature provided in Windows itself (and I’ve provided feedback through the Win7 Beta asking for it).
BTW, I have never had any problems with it working with Explorer as mentioned in a couple of the comments above.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:02 am - Edit
Working with Windows 7 except the Start Button logo is always visible. I use my taskbar at the top and so in MS Office 2007 I can not get to the Main Menu.
February 25th, 2010 at 2:35 am - Edit
I also have had problems with some explorer.exe conflicts and/or side effects, but since it’s the only thing I can find that serves this purpose, I still use it.
The biggest problem I have with it is that, at least on my WinXP SP3 system, I cannot get it to work with any toolbars docked to other edges of the screen. It works pretty well with the taskbar, but not with any other toolbars.
I’m pretty surprised that no one else has ever written a similar program.
Has anyone ever been able to get in touch with the PM Devigne regarding the status of this and what happened to ver. 2.5? I tried but got no response.