change taskbar properties from an app or regedit import?

[Jeff]

If you right-click on the taskbar, you can get to the Taskbar and Start Menu
Properties dialog and change various settings.

Is there some way to change these settings from a C++ (preferably) or VB
program?

Alternatively, is there a way to change these settings with a registry
import? I've looked through the registry and haven't found where they are
stored.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Jeff]

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StartMenu

The StartPanel subkey is probably what you are looking for.
I think that the Policy subkeys under the StartMenu\StartMenu key are
empty until you
define the corresponding entry in gpedit.

When the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog comes up, it has things
like "Lock the taskbar", "Auto-hide the taskbar", etc. I haven't been able
to find those settings anywhere in the registry, including in the subtree
you suggested.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

When the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog comes up, it has
things like "Lock the taskbar", "Auto-hide the taskbar", etc. I
haven't been able to find those settings anywhere in the registry,
including in the subtree you suggested.

The setting for Lock the taskbar is in the key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Setting TaskbarSizeMove to DWORD 0 will lock the Taskbar and a value of
1 will unlock it.

Auto-hide the taskbar is a lot more complicated. Although the setting
is in

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects2

in a setting called Settings, the value is a REG_Binary type that is
bitmapped for a number of settings so you have to figure out which bit
controlls the setting. Even worse, the setting is only written to the
registry during a logoff making it more difficult to figure out which
bit is the right one. A bigger problem is that Explorer only reads the
"stuckrects2" registry entry when it starts and it overwrites the entry
again when it exits, so you have to figure out how to change it before
Explorer starts (so between machine start and user logon).

I ended up not doing anything with it because of that problem, but if
you do want to proceed, here's what I found out. Maybe it will save you
some work. There may be (probably is?) a way to change this
programatically without tweaking the registry directly, but I don't know
how to. You might check in a programming group for your preferred
compiler/language if you want to go that route.

The value looks like this for me:

"Settings"=hex:28,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,02,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,6b,00,00,00,3c,\
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,c4,03,00,00,00,05,00,00,00,04,00,00

Look at the 9th hexadecimal number pair (in my case 02). Using the
chart below, you can figure out what the setting currently is (in my
case, Always on Top and Show Clock), and what to set it to for your
particular needs. I found this chart on the web, so I can't guarantee
the accuracy

SINGLE OPTIONS:
---------------
08 = No Settings Enabled
09 = Auto Hide
00 = Show Clock
0A = Always on Top
0C = Show small icons in Start Menu

MULTIPLE OPTIONS:
-----------------
01 = Auto Hide and Show Clock
02 = Always on Top and Show Clock
03 = Always on Top and Auto Hide and Show Clock
04 = Show small icons in Start Menu and Show Clock
0E = Always on Top and Show small icons in Start Menu
0F = Always on Top and Auto Hide and Show small icons in Start Menu
06 = Always on Top and Show small icons in Start Menu and Show Clock
07 = All Options Enabled
0B = Always on Top and Auto Hide
0D = Auto Hide and Show small icons in Start Menu

Hope this helps.

 

[Jeff]

Thanks a bunch, Zaphod!!! That is really helpful.

 

[Jeff]

And as a result, I have decided to use SendMessage to effect these changes:
WM_RBUTTONxxx to the taskbar, mouse or menu messages to the menu, BM_CLICK
and WM_KEYDOWN to the properties dialog.

 

[frjufrjufrju]

mouse or menu messages to the [taskbar pop-up] menu
As it turned out, I couldn't get either of these messages to work.
Instead, I used WM_KEYDOWN to send VK_DOWN and VK_RETURN to this pop-
up window. In any case, I was able to change the taskbar settings.