I mentioned earlier that application notifications may prevent the taskbar from hiding on the Windows machine. Now that you have checked the most common reasons why the Windows 10 taskbar is not hiding, you need to dig deeper if this did not resolve the issue. Before you troubleshoot other possible causes, this is the one thing that you should verify just to make sure. While it seems unlikely that preferences may change on their own, this may happen after Windows upgrades for instance. Second thing you may want to do if the Windows 10 taskbar is not hiding anymore automatically, is to verify that the preferences are still set to hide the taskbar automatically. Also, make sure the mouse cursor is not on the taskbar, as it won't hide in this case either. The taskbar may remain visible in some cases until you do something, and clicking anywhere on the desktop is one of the easier things in this case.

The first thing you may want to do is try and click anywhere on the desktop (a blank spot there), to see if the taskbar hides automatically when you do.

Use the keyboard shortcut Windows + R to open the runbox.

You may kill and restart Explorer from the command line as well if you prefer that (or want to create a script out of it for even faster access).

Click on the restart button to restart the process.

Locate the Windows Explorer process under processes, and click on it with the left mouse button.

If you see only the basic interface, click on more details.

Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Esc to open the Windows Task Manager.

Quick FixĪ reliable option when it comes to hiding issues of the Windows 10 taskbar is to restart the Explorer process. These issues are resolved easily, but there are situations where the taskbar remains visible even if programs or apps stay silent and don't demand your attention. This happens mostly when the background application changes its icon, for instance to change the number of new messages.

It is usually enough to click on the program or application icon to confirm that you have taken note of it, and the taskbar should hide again afterwards automatically.īackground apps, those that run in the background for the most part, may also require your attention.

Taskbar not hiding when fullscreen