suppressing an app's taskbar "witness" altogether ?

[Czerno]

Hi ! Posted to the "Windows XP" forum section for lack of a better suited one, although really the question would possibly apply to other versions of the Windows (4, and later) GUI :

Given a running Windows application, having its main window restored (non-minimized), can someone provide help, a tool or method, that either will remove the application's "witness" from the standard Windows "task bar" (without closing the owner app, of course) - or alternatively a tool or method to prevent Windows from even creating said "witness" the moment the app is launched ?

I'm especially in want of such a tool or method which would work for "Win16" apps also (running in "NTVDM").

Now to make things absolutely clear, I'm not asking to hide or remove the task bar itself nor to close its owning "explorer" process/thread. Neither for the "witness" to just become "hidden and/or "inactive"!

! I want a specific window NOT TO have a respective taskbar witness at all ! How come neither Microsoft nor, it seems, authors of tweak-all-things type of desktop utilities seem to provide for this simple wish ?

[Glenn9999]

2 hours ago, Czerno said:

Given a running Windows application, having its main window restored (non-minimized), can someone provide help, a tool or method, that either will remove the application's "witness" from the standard Windows "task bar" (without closing the owner app, of course) - or alternatively a tool or method to prevent Windows from even creating said "witness" the moment the app is launched ?

You may want to clarify what you are talking about when you say "witness".  Do you mean the regular taskbar entry for the application?  Or something else?

[Czerno]

1 hour ago, Glenn9999 said:

 ... you say "witness".  Do you mean the regular taskbar entry for the application? 

Indeed, the regular taskbar entry.

[Glenn9999]

4 hours ago, Czerno said:

How come neither Microsoft nor, it seems, authors of tweak-all-things type of desktop utilities seem to provide for this simple wish ?

8 minutes ago, Czerno said:

Indeed, the regular taskbar entry.

Okay, now that I know what you're talking about . . . this is indeed quite doable from code.   Programs that work from the notification area do it habitually.  The problem is, you take away the end-user's means to control the application when you just indiscriminately remove the taskbar entry, and the user minimizes the application.  Once that is done, all you can do is go through task manager, either hope you can get the app back, or simply kill it.  Now there are tweaks that will pull any application from the taskbar to the notification area, but the problem with any approach like this is that there always needs to be a "controlling application" of some kind to handle when the window of the application isn't visible.

So, a lot of the answer to this is "it depends on what you want to do and how you're wanting to get there".

[Czerno]

1 hour ago, Glenn9999 said:

Okay, now that I know what you're talking about . . . this is indeed quite doable from code.   Programs that work from the notification area do it habitually.  The problem is, you take away the end-user's means to control the application when you just indiscriminately remove the taskbar entry, and the user minimizes the application.  Once that is done, all you can do is go through task manager, either hope you can get the app back, or simply kill it. 

I am fully aware of this. But as said in the initial post, apps which I don't want to have a taskbar "witness" are ones whose main window will be always on top, and never minimized anyway. For this kind of applications, a taskbar entry is not needed and is but a nuisance. 

1 hour ago, Glenn9999 said:

 Now there are tweaks that will pull any application from the taskbar to the notification area, but the problem with any approach like this is that there always needs to be a "controlling application" of some kind to handle when the window of the application isn't visible.

This particular question is nothing to do with the tweaks that capture and send minimized windows to the notification. It is nothing to do with minimizing altogether !

1 hour ago, Glenn9999 said:

So, a lot of the answer to this is "it depends on what you want to do and how you're wanting to get there".

I wish to have a particular app launched with its main window but altogether without a taskbar witness, or alternatively a means to have Windows remove the witness after its created. I promise I won't ever minimze the main window :=) O.K., you seem dubitative, so I'll provide the emblematic example which hopefully will make full sense : app is a desktop clock. I use the round "clock.exe" that Microsoft provided with Windows 95 to show off (then new) non-rectangular windows. With some transparency and always-on style added by a separate "tweaker" (excellent "winroll" freeware by Will Palma), this round clock which can run on 2000/XP is a superior substitute for the Vista/7 clock "gadget" here !

You wrote it should be

Quote

doable from code

- which I agree it must. Question is whether there exist tweakers to this end (or why not ?).

Note : the mentionned "round clock" accessory was written by MS guys as a Win16 application, which may pose a specific problem as NTVDM is a very special and quirky beast...

Edited April 13, 2016 by Czerno