Hide Specific Taskbar Icons

[Bross9132]

The code below is how you hide Taskbar icons but how do you hide specific icons?

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WinHide, % "ahk_id " DllCall("GetTaskmanWindow")

[RickC]

If you mean in Windows 10 then it looks like it may depend on what version you are using. The following should work:

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; Taskbar - Show/hide Store icon (0=Enable/Show / 1=Disable/Hide)
; Thanks to WindowsITPro.com (see http://windowsitpro.com/active-directory/microsoft-august-updates-secret-new-gpo-setting-unpin-store-icon-revealed)
RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer, NoPinningStoreToTaskbar, 1

; Taskbar - Show/hide Mail icon (0=Enable/Show / 1=Disable/Hide)
RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer, NoPinningMailToTaskbar, 1

; Taskbar - Show/hide TaskView icon (1=Enable/Show / 0=Disable/Hide)
RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, ShowTaskViewButton, 0

; Taskbar - Show/hide People icon (1=Enable/Show / 0=Disable/Hide)
RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\People, PeopleBand, 1

Note that you will need to run these elevated even though they're writing to the CURRENT_USER hive AND refresh the desktop afterwards for the changes to take effect. You may also need to use SetRegView depending on the 'bitness' of your AHK install vs OS install.

So, for example, if I'm using a 32-bit install of AHK and want to hide the People icon of a Win 10 x64 taskbar then I use the following:

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; Only allow one instance of the script to run at a time
#SingleInstance,Force

; Prompt to 'Run as administrator', i.e. show UAC dialog
If Not A_IsAdmin
{
   Run *RunAs "%A_ScriptFullPath%"  ; Requires v1.0.92.01+
   ExitApp
}

; Taskbar - Show/hide People icon (1=Enable/Show / 0=Disable/Hide)
SetRegView, 64
RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\People, PeopleBand, 0
SetRegView, Default

run, taskkill /f /im explorer.exe,, Hide
sleep, 1000
run, explorer.exe

ExitApp

No doubt there's a DLL call that's a neater way of refreshing the desktop but I don't know it.

Hope this helps...

[RickC]

I've been playing around with refreshing the desktop and have found that instead of using run, taskkill /f /im explorer.exe,, Hide the following works well because it restarts Explorer automatically:

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psScript =
(
   kill -n explorer
)
Run PowerShell.exe -Command %psScript%,, hide

Alternatively, you can use:

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psScript =
(
   Stop-Process -ProcessName explorer
)
Run PowerShell.exe -Command %psScript%,, hide

Hope this helps...

[Bross9132]

Thank you for the replies. What about a running windows app such as calculator or camera? The taskbar icon does not hide with winhide the only solution I can come up with is to hide all of the taskbar icons...

[burque505]

Hi Bross9132, this link _might_ help, sort of: Pin an invisible icon.
I guess your script would have to create a desktop shortcut for the program; change the icon to a transparent one as shown; pin the shortcut to the taskbar; and delete the desktop version of the shortcut.
I'll give it a try myself and see if I can do it.

Edit: Check out this link also. Several different ways to do it.
Regards,
burque505