BUG - Start 11 Hidden Taskbar and PowerToys FancyZones

I am running into a bug when using Start 11 with PowerToys FancyZones.
Normally I would not report a bug that is not related to either the application itself or its interaction with the main OS. But, considering the userbase here is likely some mix of power users, I figure there is likely an overlap with the userbase having these two apps running at the same time. 

How to reproduce
I run Start 11 with taskbar set to hidden. The windows setting for hidden task bar is of course disabled. This part works as expected.
However because PowerToys FancyZones uses the Windows Taskbar state for hidden being on or off it will always assume the taskbar is visible. This causes a blank space at the bottom of the display where windows snapped into the "fancy zone" will not fill. The really odd part is that it seems to recognize the Start 11 taskbar size. This is easy to tell because I use a XXXLarge taskbar setting since I'm running a 55in display.  So it seems FancyZones detects the size of the Start 11 taskbar, but does not detect its hidden state (at least on boot).

If I turn on hidden taskbar in the windows 11 settings Start 11 does not display correctly and changes to a standard size windows taskbar, but FancyZones then stretches the window to correct full display resolution height, with the task bar in the top z-axis. 

Current work around
I thought at first it was simply that Start 11 used some alternate method for its "hidden taskbar" setting and that FancyZones simply could not detect this state it was an unsolvable problem. However I can force them to work together correctly, but I need to run through the following process on every boot up.

After Bootup and Login:
1. Set at least 1 window into a FancyZone that touches the bottom of the display. 
2. Windows Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Behaviors
3. Check the box for "Automatically Hide Taskbar" (let all the windows resize to full display height)
4. Uncheck the box for "Automatically Hide Taskbar". (wait for Start 11 taskbar to re-render)

FancyZones should now utilize the entire display height and the hidden Start 11 taskbar should correctly order itself to the top of the z-axis when displayed. 

5,399 views 2 replies
Reply #1 Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Need to know more on your issue.

  1. Windows 11 full version and OS Build number. Please use Winver.exe.
  2. Start11 full version number.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 Top

Yes, I have the same problem with Fancy Zones and an auto-hide Start 11 taskbar at the top of the screen. Fancy Zones changes the lower edge of custom zones to leave a taskbar-sized gap at the bottom of the screen.  

My work-around is to leave the system auto-hide taskbar disabled and use the Start 11 taskbar option to only hide the taskbar when a window overlaps it. Fancy Zones then allows zones to stay at the bottom of the screen ¯\_(ツ)_/¯