The Windows 11 taskbar takes up a thick line of space on your screen. Most people don't mindbut there are valid reasons to want it gone. You might want to take advantage of that little bit of extra screen real estateor focus more completely on your current task without seeing the timewidgetsor icons for other applications.
Whatever your reasonit's not particularly difficult to hide the taskbar. There's a simple way to do this built right into Windowsor you can use a third party application if you want to prevent the taskbar from popping up randomly when you move your mouse to the bottom of the screen.
Hide your taskbar using Windows' settings
To hide your taskbar using the built-in Windows settingsimply right-click an empty place on the taskbarthen click Taskbar Settings. Scroll down until you see Taskbar behaviors and click it. Check the option labeled Automatically hide the taskbar.
This will hide your Windows taskbar with one exception: It will show up if you move your mouse to the bottom of the screen.
Hide your Windows taskbar completely
For most peoplethe above is going to work perfectlybut not for all. This canfor exampleget annoying if an application you're using has buttons at the bottom of the screen that you need to access regularly. As isit's a little too easy to trigger the taskbar and cover what you're trying to click.
This is where Buttery Taskbar comes in. Launch this applicationand the taskbar will disappear. It won't show again if you move your mouse to the bottom of the screenmeaning it will never accidentally cover up something you're working on. It's not gonethough: You can hit the Windows key to open the Start menuwhich will also reveal the taskbaror you can move your mouse to the bottom of the screen and scroll up with the scroll wheel.
There is a taskbar icon you can use to configure the scrolling option and quit the application. I prefer launching this application specifically when I want to work without the taskbarbut you can also set it up to launch with Windows' built-in Task Scheduler if you want. Just open the utilitywhich you can find in the Start menuand create a new task. For the triggerchoose "When I log on;" for the actionchoose "Start a program," and point it toward Buttery Smooth. Make sure "Run with highest privileges" is checked on the Buttery tab.
From hereyou can basically ignore the taskbar until you specifically want to use itwhich I like. This is particularly great if you're already using PowerToys Run to launch software instead of the Start menu.
