Toggle Win Taskbar (AutoHotkey)

A tiny AutoHotkey script to quickly hide/show the Windows taskbar on Windows 10/11.

I wrote this because I always wanted to completely remove/hide the Windows taskbar and tried multiple apps (including Buttery Taskbar 2). They were buggy: right-click stopped working, they crashed randomly, or just stopped working after a while. So I ended up writing my own solution in AutoHotkey.

This script doesn’t try to hack the shell too aggressively. Instead, it toggles the taskbar’s auto-hide state and makes it fully transparent when hidden, so it feels like the taskbar is gone, but without breaking basic functionality.

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Features

• Toggles taskbar auto-hide on/off with a hotkey
• Makes the taskbar fully transparent while hidden
• Works on primary and secondary taskbars (multi-monitor)
• Lightweight: just a single .ahk file
• Shows a small tooltip so you know whether it’s ON or OFF

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Requirements

• Windows 10 or Windows 11
• AutoHotkey v2 (64-bit) This script uses v2 syntax and won’t run on v1.

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Installation

1. Install AutoHotkey v2 (64-bit) from the official website.
2. Download or clone this repository:
   • Download: click Code → Download ZIP, then extract.
   • Or with Git: git clone https://github.com/azinsharaf/Toggle_Win_Taskbar.git
3. Make sure the file Toggle_Win_Taskbar.ahk is on your system.

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Usage

1. Double-click Toggle_Win_Taskbar.ahk to run it.

2. The script will sit in your tray (AutoHotkey icon).

3. Use the hotkey to toggle the taskbar:

   • Hotkey: Ctrl + Alt + T

4. Behavior:

   • When you press Ctrl + Alt + T:
     • The script flips an internal toggle.
     • It calls the Windows shell (SHAppBarMessage) to change the taskbar state.
     • If hiding:
       • Taskbar is set to auto-hide.
       • Taskbar windows are set to fully transparent.
       • You’ll see a tooltip: Taskbar auto-hide ON.
     • If showing:
       • Taskbar is set to always-on-top (no auto-hide).
       • Taskbar transparency is turned back to normal.
       • You’ll see a tooltip: Taskbar auto-hide OFF.

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How it works technically

The core logic lives in the HideShowTaskbar(hide) function inside Toggle_Win_Taskbar.ahk.

• It prepares an APPBARDATA structure in memory and calls the SHAppBarMessage function from Shell32.dll with the ABM_SETSTATE message.
• When hide is rue, it sets the taskbar state to ABS_AUTOHIDE. When hide is alse, it sets it to ABS_ALWAYSONTOP.
• The script finds the taskbar windows using their window classes:
  • Primary taskbar: Shell_TrayWnd
  • Secondary taskbars (multi-monitor): Shell_SecondaryTrayWnd
• For each of these windows, it uses AutoHotkey’s WinSetTransparent to control opacity:
  • When hiding, transparency is set to On (fully transparent).
  • When showing, transparency is set to Off (normal/opaque again).

This approach keeps the taskbar logic inside Windows itself (auto-hide vs always-on-top), while using transparency to make the taskbar effectively invisible when hidden. That means far fewer crashes or weird side effects compared to heavier third-party hacks.

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Run at Startup (Optional)

If you like it and want it always available:

• Press Win + R, type shell:startup, and press Enter.
• Place a shortcut to Toggle_Win_Taskbar.ahk (or a compiled .exe if you make one) in that folder.

Windows will then start the script automatically when you log in.