I am playing Starcraft 2 and ever since the most recent patch, if I play starcraft 2 in full screen windowed mode, I can't get the start bar to disappear anymore. This is especially frustrating since I can't scroll downwards anymore while playing in this mode.

Here is a screenshot of the issue:
http://i56.tinypic.com/6nv3ap.jpg

I basically can't play starcraft anymore. Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I'd prefer not to remove my start bar or change it to autohide. I want it back like it used to be, when starcraft 2 was my active window, it was above the start bar. Does anyone know how to solve this issue?

ReketSomething

United States6012 Posts

January 25 2011 06:23 GMT

Perhaps start bar always on top became somehow checked? Not sure though, that would be what my guess would be.

good luck!

Boblhead

United States2577 Posts

January 25 2011 06:31 GMT

simply just have the bar on autohide if it messes with you, or try and alt tab.

MurderMan

United States47 Posts

January 25 2011 06:38 GMT

I've tried alt tabbing and there's no feature that puts start bar always on top.

I'd prefer not to hide the task bar because the autohide feature annoys me when I get messages in skype and it doesn't blink at me b/c it's hidden. I wouldn't want to put autohide on just for starcraft.

AyameStarcraft

United Kingdom192 Posts

January 25 2011 06:56 GMT

What's wrong with leaving it fullscreen non windowed? Does that remove the issue? I'll do a google trip later and if noone has answered by then I'll post my findings

MurderMan

United States47 Posts

January 25 2011 07:07 GMT

On January 25 2011 15:56 AyameStarcraft wrote:
What's wrong with leaving it fullscreen non windowed? Does that remove the issue? I'll do a google trip later and if noone has answered by then I'll post my findings

Full screen non-windowed causes massive lag issues when I alt tab. Since it reloads the graphics and causes black flashes as it transitions in and out of the sc2 window.

MurderMan

United States47 Posts

January 26 2011 17:18 GMT

anyone have any idea how to fix this yet?

timestep

Canada73 Posts

January 26 2011 17:29 GMT

I'm pretty sure thats the ways its supposed to be.

It's in windowed mode so the start bar will show up.
The only way to rectify it would be to go full screen.

Sorry but its that or a clean reinstall or sc2.

Stropheum

United States1124 Posts

January 26 2011 19:03 GMT

Have you tried changing the sc2 settings to full screened then back to windowed full screen?
Might just be a glitch where the SC2 interface isn't recognizing the bar for whatever reason. Reapplying the settings might fix it.

vicariouscheese

United States589 Posts

January 26 2011 19:03 GMT

#10

On January 27 2011 02:29 timestep wrote:
I'm pretty sure thats the ways its supposed to be.

It's in windowed mode so the start bar will show up.
The only way to rectify it would be to go full screen.

Sorry but its that or a clean reinstall or sc2.

if you watch any of the tons of sc2 streams, there are many players who play fullscreen windowed, and this is not an issue.

blue`

United Kingdom119 Posts

January 26 2011 19:05 GMT

#11

Try unlocking it and dragging it to the side, then back to the bottom and locking it again. Aside from that I can't seem to recreate the issue

GoldenH

1115 Posts

January 26 2011 19:39 GMT

#12

This tends to happen when you have a program blinking or something in the system tray demanding attention. My suggestion is to close everything possible before starting Starcraft 2.

Dugrok

Canada377 Posts

January 26 2011 19:43 GMT

#13

On January 25 2011 15:38 MurderMan wrote:
I've tried alt tabbing and there's no feature that puts start bar always on top.

I'd prefer not to hide the task bar because the autohide feature annoys me when I get messages in skype and it doesn't blink at me b/c it's hidden. I wouldn't want to put autohide on just for starcraft.

There's no feature for SC, but there is a feature for Windows. Just making sure, because the suggested wasn't entirely clear. That said, mine is enabled and when I run SC, everything works normally. /shrug

MurderMan

United States47 Posts

January 26 2011 21:08 GMT

#14

Perhaps start bar always on top became somehow checked? Not sure though, that would be what my guess would be.

I did some research and found out that this feature was removed in windows 7.

Have you tried changing the sc2 settings to full screened then back to windowed full screen?

Tried it, doesn't work.

This tends to happen when you have a program blinking or something in the system tray demanding attention. My suggestion is to close everything possible before starting Starcraft 2.

Unfortunately, this does not work either.

Try unlocking it and dragging it to the side, then back to the bottom and locking it again. Aside from that I can't seem to recreate the issue

This did not work either, although it had an interesting effect. When I have the task bar on the left right or top panes, when I try to move my mouse to it, it won't let me move my mouse onto the start bar, which somewhat solves the issue of being unable to scroll, however putting it on those panes (left, right, or top) pushes the SC2 window down, left, or right causing the window to extend beyond the area of my screen. Which puts part of my SC2 window off the screen, causing other issues.

I have no idea how all of this happened... It's so frustrating! I'm not sure how to solve this issue and blizzard won't respond in their forums...

GoldenH

1115 Posts

January 27 2011 07:17 GMT

#15

last ditch is to force close explorer.exe from task manager while running sc2. Its a more drastic version of autohide. You could also just resize the task bar to its minimum size, but then you can't scroll in that direction.

Paradice

New Zealand431 Posts

January 27 2011 08:12 GMT

#16

A bit of googling says others have linked the "DPI Settings" Windows setting to this bug appearing in other fullscreen-windowed games, so try tweaking that?

Or else it's not a bug, Windows is trying to tell you something. The notification area is much larger than Windows 7 shows by default - maybe one of those icons actually wants attention (the one with the exclamation point?)

When an app sets Windowed mode, it's telling windows "hey it's ok to interrupt me and share video resources" which is the key difference between that and true fullscreen mode...

MurderMan

United States47 Posts

January 27 2011 19:43 GMT

#17

Tried it, doesn't work. It still won't scroll...

A bit of googling says others have linked the "DPI Settings" Windows setting to this bug appearing in other fullscreen-windowed games, so try tweaking that?

How do I change those settings?

Or else it's not a bug, Windows is trying to tell you something. The notification area is much larger than Windows 7 shows by default - maybe one of those icons actually wants attention (the one with the exclamation point?)

I actually did that already, I updated my windows and downloaded all of those updates (from the exclamation point) and it's still not working

MurderMan

United States47 Posts

January 29 2011 18:09 GMT

#18

Any idea what to do?

MurderMan

United States47 Posts

January 31 2011 17:49 GMT

#19

Bump

MurderMan