Hi, Is it possible to make the dock doesn't disappear then reappear when show desktop (win+D)? It's a small thing, but would boost the experience by a lot. Maybe also do the same for when use 4 finger virtual desktop switch on windows 10 anniv.

There is a setting under "Dock Properties" on the "Behavior" tab
bottom left. Check the box for "Keep this dock visible when pressing WIN+D (Show Desktop)"

I think he means the small delay between pressing WIN+D, the desktop coming forward (which covers the dock) and the dock reappearing over the desktop again.

That being so, Nikolas, no, unfortunately there is no way to totally eliminate it and you can thank Microsoft for that.

When you press WIN+D, what Windows does is basically raise the z-order of the Desktop window (i.e.; it puts it *on top* of all other application windows). It does this without any warning or notification to the other windows, so they are completely oblivious to the fact that they are no longer visible.

Microsoft, in their typical 'we know better than you' attitude, made sure not only that there is no notification, as it did not provide a way to override this behavior (i.e.; did not add a way to make sure your application remains visible if you press WIN+D).

While I understand where they're coming from (some 3rd party software developers would abuse this system otherwise) I personally do not agree that doing it this way is the answer, because it also prevents applications with *legitimate* reasons to stay visible from doing so. If an application abuses the system, I think it should be up to the user to choose whether he wants to run that particular application or not.

Anyway, since there is no notification whatsoever, the dock must regularly try to detect if WIN+D is currently active. This check is made once a second (which is why you see that small delay). To make matters worse, the dock can sometimes, under very specific conditions, think WIN+D is currently active when in reality it isn't - this can lead to other problems.

When the dock detects WIN+D is active, the only way to become visible again is by temporarily making the dock a child window of the Desktop. This is how the old Windows 7 Sidebar application (and Gadgets) remained visible when WIN+D was pressed, all gadgets were *permanent* child windows of the Desktop (so when the desktop window was raised, they came up along with it).

So why not make the dock a permanent child of the Desktop window as the Windows gadgets were? Because that wouldn't work either: the Desktop and all its child windows are normally (i.e.; when WIN+D has not been pressed) *always* behind all other windows. Making a dock a permanent child window of the Desktop would prevent it from ever appearing above other windows when WIN+D is NOT active - it would be the equivalent of having the dock's Z-order set to 'Always on Bottom'.

So, what we currently have to solve the 'Keep this dock visible when pressing WIN+D' problem is really a kludge, and has the drawback of the dock briefly flickering in and out of view when you press WIN+D. Unfortunately it's the best I can do at this time.

As far as I know, all other docks simply disappear when you press WIN+D (at least I'm sure RocketDock does). If you don't want this to happen, you must press WIN+M instead.

Wow, thank you very much for your reply. Windows is a d***

I think you will be happy to know that I figured out a way to make the dock respond much faster (almost seamlessly) to a WIN+D event.

WOW, when's the new update coming!?
By the way, I was just wondering if it's possible to make the window limit to be the dock except when the window is in full screen. just like in macOS

Go to the Advanced tab in Preferences, enable 'Notify me of beta (test) versions' then click the 'Check for Updates' button.

Also, read THIS POST. I think I haven't fully cracked it yet after all, but you be the judge - reply to that thread please.



Open the dock's Properties panel, go to the Position tab and enable 'Prevent maximized windows from overlapping the dock'.

Note that normal, non-maximized, windows can still be made to overlap the dock. That is normal behavior under Windows since you can make them overlap the Windows taskbar too.

That's kind of the opposite of what I was thinking, but thanks anyway