AppBar overlay on Windows

[eljeffeg]

I have an issue where most of my machines are running an AppBar.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/134206

Sometimes this causes an issue as it tries to breakthrough, making buttons and stuff under the AppBar unresponsive. Is there any way to "turn off" such app bars at startup and turn them back on after, just as we do with the Apple menu?

Thanks! Jeff

[eljeffeg]

This might also be helpful
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb762108%28VS.85%29.aspx

[eljeffeg]

When a full-screen application is started or when the last full-screen application is closed, an appbar receives the ABN_FULLSCREENAPP notification message. The lParam parameter indicates whether the full-screen application is opening or closing. If it is opening, the appbar must drop to the bottom of the z-order. The appbar should restore its z-order position when the last full-screen application has closed.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb787965.aspx

[kritzikratzi]

hm... not certain,
maybe we could iterate over all open windows, figure out the highest z-index and just assign a higher value to our window.
but i have practically zero experience coding with windows gui toolkits. have you ever done something like this before?

[eljeffeg]

From what I've read, we need to set the ABN_FULLSCREENAPP notification to TRUE when we go fullscreen, then set it to FALSE, when we come out. ABN_FULLSCREENAPP is a function of the Windows UI shell. So I'm thinking it may need to be another JNI that calls the Windows "Shell32".

[eljeffeg]

According to this.. I'm not sure if we have to tell it or if Windows is suppose to know.
https://www.microsoft.com/msj/archive/s274.aspx

Was a change made to remove 1 row of pixels for that framerate issue?

The ABN_FULLSCREENAPP notification is sent when a fullscreen application window is opened or closed. A window is fullscreen when its client area occupies the entire screen. Always-on-top appbars should take themselves out of the topmost z-order so that they do not cover the fullscreen window.

I'm not sure if that means it's automatic or if it has to be issued.

[kritzikratzi]

the one pixel thing: yes, but that should only occur on windows.
ABN_FULLSCREENAPP sounds great. i've never used shell32, but shouldn't be too hard :)