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I am creating a program that will replace the windows start menu in Python. I have managed to find a way to hide the taskbar as shown below but i can't find a way to hide the start orb(Windows button).

import ctypes
from ctypes import wintypes

FindWindow = ctypes.windll.user32.FindWindowA
FindWindow.restype = wintypes.HWND
FindWindow.argtypes = [
    wintypes.LPCSTR, #lpClassName
    wintypes.LPCSTR, #lpWindowName
]

SetWindowPos = ctypes.windll.user32.SetWindowPos
SetWindowPos.restype = wintypes.BOOL
SetWindowPos.argtypes = [
    wintypes.HWND, #hWnd
    wintypes.HWND, #hWndInsertAfter
    ctypes.c_int,  #X
    ctypes.c_int,  #Y
    ctypes.c_int,  #cx
    ctypes.c_int,  #cy
   ctypes.c_uint, #uFlags
] 

TOGGLE_HIDEWINDOW = 0x80
TOGGLE_UNHIDEWINDOW = 0x40

def hide_taskbar():
    handleW1 = FindWindow(b"Shell_traywnd", b"")
    SetWindowPos(handleW1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, TOGGLE_HIDEWINDOW)

def unhide_taskbar():
    handleW1 = FindWindow(b"Shell_traywnd", b"")
    SetWindowPos(handleW1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, TOGGLE_UNHIDEWINDOW)
user2401653
  • 1

1 Answers1

2

You can get a handle to the start orb using FindWindow with the class atom for the orb, 0xC017. Then use ShowWindow or SetWindowPos to hide the taskbar and the orb. For example:

import ctypes
from ctypes import wintypes

user32 = ctypes.WinDLL("user32")

SW_HIDE = 0
SW_SHOW = 5

START_ATOM = wintypes.LPCWSTR(0xC017) # i.e. MAKEINTATOM(...)

user32.FindWindowW.restype = wintypes.HWND
user32.FindWindowW.argtypes = (
    wintypes.LPCWSTR, # lpClassName
    wintypes.LPCWSTR) # lpWindowName

user32.ShowWindow.argtypes = (
    wintypes.HWND, # hWnd
    ctypes.c_int)  # nCmdShow

def hide_taskbar():
    hWndTray = user32.FindWindowW(u"Shell_traywnd", None)
    user32.ShowWindow(hWndTray, SW_HIDE)
    hWndStart = user32.FindWindowW(START_ATOM, None)
    if hWndStart:
        user32.ShowWindow(hWndStart, SW_HIDE)

def unhide_taskbar():
    hWndTray = user32.FindWindowW(u"Shell_traywnd", None)
    user32.ShowWindow(hWndTray, SW_SHOW)
    hWndStart = user32.FindWindowW(START_ATOM, None)
    if hWndStart:
        user32.ShowWindow(hWndStart, SW_SHOW)
Eryk Sun
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  • tested and confirmed to work. Start button goes away. __However__ I will note that when I originally tested it with Classic Shell and its replacement button, this method did not work. If the user has an alternative start menu, you will have to deal with this separately. – IronManMark20 Mar 04 '15 at 03:23
  • Second note: when using alt-tab, the button appears when showing the desktop. – IronManMark20 Mar 04 '15 at 18:28