I would like to disable the system taskbar in a specific monitor profile and only in this profile leaving it active on other monitor profiles but i have no idea if it's even posible.

I setup one hotkey to switch monitor profile to active HDTV as main monitor and deactivate my main monitor but when i press a second hotkey who launch steam in big picture mode the system taskbar gets focus highlight the steam icon on it on front of SBP (fullscreen?¿?)!

I know this is a bug related to DPI and windows but when i launch SBP in my default monitor profile (main monitor as primary and HDTV as secondary) the taskbar didn't get the focus and stay hidden.

Disabling DPI on steam shortcut doesn't work because it doesn't want to launch with this option disabled and could "think" its running on XP even if i accept the tradeoff when it's launched the system taskbar doesn't appear but a pop-up "Running Steam will provide a compatibility warning" Press cancel to ignore!!!!

Thank you for your reply and excuse me if this is offtopic but it seems this problem of gaming is very common in windows for users who have multiple monitors and use steam in big picture mode.

I found a small software who is able to disable and enable the windows taskbar via a small gui or via a key combination (Altl+T):

Taskbar Eliminator



Now i "only" need to learn the basic of batch files creation and make one who include all following actions :

- Noecho command?
- switching DF profile via a key combination (sendkey command?)
- Wait command (500) to give time to switch?
- Launch Taskbar Eliminator with the minimized option via run command?
- send key combination (Alt+T) to kill the taskar (sendkey command?)
- Launch SBP via (run command?)

Finally i could assign this bat file to a hotkey and simply press it to solve a problem steam seems (?¿?) unable to solve by itself.

A fixed SBP could be a great step to attract a mass of gamers using consoles who also have their window PC connected to HDTVs in dual monitor profiles and don't use it cause the multiple action needed to start to play.

I can't understand how steam let this possible market unexploited and only rely on SteamOS who only be successfull IF magically all games will be coded on linux!

I found a better option to hide taskbar and explicitely compatible with displayfusion:

http://www.sevenforums.com/free-developer-programs-projects/321184-shybar-automatic-windows-7-taskbar-hider.html

Thanks!

Shybar works flawless and doesn't disable windows key function (start menu appears on press).

The taskbar area sensitivity is fully configurable to mouse pointer "intrusion"to make it reappears ONLY when it's needed remaining hidden when not, it even make dissapear the thin lines on bottom when taskbar is hidden with active processes icons.

Right now only 2 hotkeys press with shybar launched automatically at system startup fires:

- Disable high DPI bug in windows and taskbar.(shybar)
- Change display profile to HDTV as primary (and alone monitor). (displayfusion)
- Switch to HDTV audio device as primary.(displayfusion)
- Launch Steam in Big Picture mode.
- Console (pad) and PC (keyboard/mouse) gaming on couch!

Now it could be easy to "unify" the two hotkeys in one using a macro linked to a hotkey and reduce the whole process to a single key press.

P.S. I think it will be great if you add this taskbar hidden feature to displayfusion for Steam users or people using 3rd party docks/taskbars.

In the time i spent looking for a solution to this problem i saw a lot of open source code who solves it in various ways but certainly Shybar as gui app with config options simplify it for a newbie like me.

- Shybar must be set to start with system.

- The first hotkey or combo (i.e. CTRL+F2) must be assigned in manage monitor profile for the profile we will use to:

- Set HDTV as primary.
- Set audio device we will use (in my case HDTV via HDMI).

- The second hotkey or combo must be assigned to launch Steam in Big Picture Mode:

- via modified shortcut to open steam with " -bigpicture" modif at the end of the command (more options can be added to the command to detect if steam is open or not in normal mode ,ect)

or
- shortcut to steam and tick option inside Steam settings to launch it always in Big Picture mode

or
- map the shortcut to a button in XBOX/PS3 pad

or
- Assign a key to open a file in a programable keyboard like the manticore keyboard i use.

There are many options to reduce the whole process to 2 action but i think the best solution to reduce it to a single action is a script to define a set of linked actions like we could make in batch file using sendkey (?¿) to "press" the hotkey who change the displayfusion profile we previously setup and then a run command to launch shortcut to open steam.

Leaving shybar option to "start with windows" is enough to hide the taskbar always without any user action
.
The batch file could be like this i use:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@echo off
start /wait taskkill /F /IM steam.exe
start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe" -bigpicture

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's not posible to open steam in big picture mode if it's already started in normal mode so the second line kill steam if active to be able to open it in big picture mode with third line.

It could include more options but my knowledge is too short to add command to minimize all windows to taskbar (if any open) and other things.

Working a little bit more on this subject i made it in one .exe.

After setting up the monitor profile and his key combination on displayfusion (in my case CTRL+F2) i made a simple script using AutoIt V3 (SciTE script editor):



File-Save as---(whatever name you like)
And finally Tools-compile

The .exe will have the same name as the .au3 script file.

This .exe could be launched form a hotkey/combokey.

In "Send ("^{F2}")" :

- "^" is CTRL key
- "F2" is obviously F2

Other keys to send to press following the key combination set on manage monitor profiles:

'!' is ALT

'+' is SHIFT

'#' is WIN key

"F1" to "F12" is as is.

The full list of keys is here:

https://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/docs/functions/Send.htm

It works!

But it's funny to make a script who launch an exe via a key combo who launch another key combo (the monitor profile) and some commands.

It will be great if you could add an option to launch an exe/bat after the key combination in manage monitor profiles window, a very basic bat file like this could do the trick for everybody who has Steam installed in default folder:



With the "/MIN" modif i get ride of the first small steam window and no windows are show until the Steam Big Picture Mode one.

I'm still looking for an easy way to minimize all windows (if any is open) from a batch file but i only found something for VBS and a command for poweshell but it seems to run very SLOOOOOW (at least in my computer):



For the other batch i included also the minimize for the first small Steam screen and i think it could be the final version:

Thanks Keith!

The script works fine after changing the strange system path from "J:" to "C:" in the script and also fillin the apropiate multimonitor profile name for TV gaming instead of the generic "Big Picture Profile".

Now this procedure to launch steam in BP mode after switching monitor to TV only need a combo key assignation on DisplayFusion and no need to setup an EXEd batch file, a simple ctrl-F12 and voila!

This is way cleaner and user friendly!

Sure it will be apreciated by other Steam BP users!

In the case of users who have programmable keyboards like me this could be further reduced to an unique key.

P.S.: An additional idea:

Instead of calling the multi-monitor profile from this script to launch Steam in BP it will not be possible to add it as an optional post multi-monitor switch process?

I said this cause BP Mode launch on TV (and monitors off) are in fact (and must be) a post process after a multi-monitor switch from other multi-monitor setups.

Excuse me, English is not my first language.

I mean the script works fine as is simply replacing the generic profile name and setting the right path to Steam exe in it and assigning a key combo.

I understand that the launch of Steam BP mode is closely related to multi.monitor mode switch so integrating the whole Steam BP launch as a post process to a multi monitor profile make sense (at least for me).

You can add the same function the script do as a post process feature in the monitor-profiles edit window asking for (combobox?) Steam exe location path and every time we launch this defined profile Steam BP will be launched.

Sometimes is very difficult to make me understand.