Taskbar appears while watching fullscreen video

[Pino]

Hi.

When I watch fullscreen video in any application (VLC, WMP, Mediaplayer Classic), the taskbar appears at the bottom of the screen at random times. In other words, it seems like something is taking focus away from the video. I tried Googling this, but could not find any way to solve it.

 

[Pino]

Here, I took a screenshot that shows the problem: imgur: the simple image sharer

 

[Imperfect1]

Few suggestions for VLC:

1. First, in the toolbar at top of VLC screen click on Video, and then check Fullscreen. If that doesn't work, go to steps 2. 3. and 4.

2. First, in your VLC Preferences, enable "Advanced Video Settings" so that they show up in the little VLC Taskbar at the bottom of the screen (when you hover over the Taskbar while watching the video).

3. Then enable the "Fullscreen video output" function. To enable this link, you have to set it up in advance. Go to Tools, Preferences, Advanced Settings, Video, General video settings, and then check: "Fullscreen video output."

4. Then, when starting to watch the video, hover your cursor over the Taskbar, and when it appears, click this box: "Toggle the video out fullscreen." The video should immediately go to full screen.

By the way, another thought is that on most video sites, when watching some videos on line, (like in YouTube), there is usually a 'Full Screen' icon at the bottom-right of the lower taskbar on the screen.

 

[fumjum]

I don't think you understand his problem. The taskbar isn't constantly shown, it will pop up randomly throughout the video and go away without any action. I have the same problem as he does with any video player I use. I cannot find a solution.

 

[Imperfect1]

Hi fumjum, welcome to the forum. You're right, I may not have completely understood the problem, but reflecting on it, I would still suggest trying my suggestions above, under the theory that if you force a 'full screen' display, it may somehow avert the problem.

(And if it doesn't work, then 'no harm, no foul.')

 

[fumjum]

Thanks Imperfect1, But there are no settings like this in Divx Plus Player which is my main video player, but I still get the random taskbar pop ups. The key here is ANY player causes this problem as the OP and I have stated, so a fix that is dedicated to only VLC Player is not going to fix the problem.

 

[fumjum]

Ok, I think I have figured out the problem. I just watched a 21 minute video without the problem (this was impossible before). It seems that Windows Error Reporter or Problem Reporter was reporting a problem with a single application over 1000 times per 24 hours. Every time the problem reporter reported a problem it must have caused the video players to lose full screen focus and pop up the taskbar for a few seconds. I uninstalled the offending application and now it seems to have stopped. (The program was Orb Video Server -- but I doubt that's important).

Here's how to find out what application is causing the problem:
1. Do a search in the Start Menu searchbar for EVENTVWR and open the exe file.
2. In the middle, there should be a section called "Summary of Administrative Events". Click the + box in front of Errors.
3. There should be a large amount of errors reported in the last 24 hours under Application Errors. Double click the Application Errors name
4. Click on any of the Errors and in the grey description it should give a Faulting application name. That is your culprit application. You can either uninstall that application or I'm sure there is a way to turn the problem reporting off if you feel the application is important or is not actually causing errors.

I don't know for sure if Orb was actually erroring or if Windows just said it was since it still worked fine, but uninstalling it did the trick and the problem reporting has stopped and so has the taskbar problem. Hope this helps.

 

[Imperfect1]

Good job fumjum, and thanks for the excellent advice regarding troubleshooting by using the Event Viewer. rep+ to you.

 

[AudunV]

I have the same problem as funjum had, but when I checked in Event viewer I had no such errors during the time I watched video last time and the taskbar appeared. It appears every 5 minutes or so, across different media players. When looking in event viewer I did have quite a few entries under the Information heading, 7 during the last hour for example, all coming from Service Control Manager run by System. I sort of doubt that is the explanation for my problem, but then again I'm no expert.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as this is really annoying!

- Audun

 

[barnabas1969]

Your answer is at the following link. See the 2nd comment by user Nic.

Tough to Find: Taskbar shows in full screen applications

 

[AudunV]

Thanks a lot, I'll try that!

What Nics 2nd comment contains:

I have found your answer! I have been pissed off about this for weeks. Here it is:

Vista and XP handle DPI scaling in different ways. By default, when a program runs it will use whatever is installed. A lot of programs have not migrated to the Vista way. This causes the exclusive fullscreen mode to be less exclsuive than desirable. Here's the fix:

You can either (only do one of these ):
1. Right-click each affected program's executable and go to compatibility tab. Then check the "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings"
2. Globally fix this in the custom DPI setting. Chose the windows XP scaling mode when you set your DPI.

 

[barnabas1969]

I chose option 1. I right-clicked the chrome.exe file, and changed the compatibility settings. Now, full-screen videos on YouTube and other websites work correctly. Previously, I had resorted to hiding the taskbar. However, there was still a white line at the bottom of the screen when the taskbar was hidden. This solution fixes that entirely.