Local Taskbar showing over RDP Sessions

Question

_{Friday, August 17, 2018 10:25 PM}

Hi, I use RDP for the most of my daily work to connect to four other PCs.  My local PC is used for mail and RDP, that's it.  I'm using Windows 10 version 10.0.17134.228

I can use RDP fine for maybe a few hours and then the local taskbar will plant itself over the RDP sessions, making it SO hard to use the RDP sessions that it becomes unusable.  I've tried all the methods that other people have recommended, restarting explorer.exe etc. and making sure that the local machine has no notifications and NOTHING works.

When we use RDP, surely we don't CARE what the local machine is up to, it's just a means to use other machines without interruption?

Is there SERIOUSLY no way of stopping the taskbar in Windows 10 taking over the RDP taskbar? 

Can this be rectified in an update?  I was praying that the Anniversary update would solve this but no :(

Any help to resolve this would be appreciated as this drives me NUTS on a daily basis!

Many thanks!

All replies (11)

_{Monday, August 20, 2018 9:29 AM}

We can try the following methods to see if we can solve our issue:

1. We can try to hide the local taskbar.

2. We can try to work without full screen on RDP.

3. Set the display resolution of the local desktop and the display resolution of the remote desktop to different values, we can try to change the resolution of them.

4. Change the local or remote desktop taskbar to another direction and then lock them.

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_{Monday, August 20, 2018 10:02 PM}

Thanks but those are all work arounds and not a solution to the problem.  When using RDP on a local Windows 7 PC, the local PC became redundant and the Remote PC became the "PC".  Which is how I and everyone I know in this situation expects it to behave.  Is there no way of making it work on Windows 10 the same way?

Thanks

_{Wednesday, August 22, 2018 11:00 AM}

Hi,
In this article,  some people discuss the similar issue as you, most of them used these methods to solve the issue.  We can retry the ways ( maybe the ways are the same as you mentioned ). 
Full screen RDP shows local taskbar in foreground

Try the following ways:

We try to restart explorer.exe (on the host/local machine).
We can do this by opening task manager, killing explorer.exe, and then using file -> run new task -> "explorer.exe"

According to the following description in the above article:
"Thanks Tony, that means a program has raised the MustBeSeen system flag. Typically this is a program that needs your attention, like antivirus or backup program that has some message it's waiting to tell you. It is almost always a program icon near the clock in the notification area. Once you clear the MustBeSeen flag by addressing the program, the taskbar will hide again.

As a best practice suggestion, hit Ctrl+Shift+Escape and disable anything on the Startup tab you don't need autorunning. That limits how many things load there, and lessens how many programs can raise the MustBeSeen flag."

So we can try to close all our apps running in the background with notification icon and see if the problem goes away.

If the above does not work, we can try to use other local machines with Windows 10 operating system to connect the four RDPs, then we go to see if there is same issue. If there is no issue with other local machines, we suggest that we try reinstall the system.

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_{Friday, August 24, 2018 11:18 PM}

Do you know if there will be a fix for this issue in a future update?  I even installed the App version of RDP from the Store which works OK, apart from there is no way to copy and paste text between each RDP session as you are with the old Desktop version, which is what I totally rely on.  What has happened to programmers at Microsoft?  Lazy?  Sloppy?  Because they won't use a function they don't think anyone else will?

Is there a way to get this issue raised to a higher level to be looked at?  Stopping and starting Explorer.exe doesn't work and frankly looks like pumping your faulty tyre up every couple of miles because you can't be bothered to fix it.

What about a Registry change to disable the local Taskbar from displaying notifications and interrupting your RDP session?  Is there such a fix?

_{Monday, August 27, 2018 12:29 PM}

Hi,
The following is the answer for your questions:

Q1:Do you know if there will be a fix for this issue in a future update?
A1:For the content of windows update in the future, we can always pay attention to Microsoft update notifications.

Q2: Is there a way to get this issue raised to a higher level to be looked at?
A2: I suggest we submit a service request to MS Professional tech support service so that a dedicated support professional can further assist you with this request. We can select Professional Email-based Support or Professional Phone-based Support.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-in/gp/contactus81?forceorigin=esmc&Audience=Commercial

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4051701/global-customer-service-phone-numbers

Q3:What about a Registry change to disable the local Taskbar from displaying notifications and interrupting your RDP session?  Is there such a fix?
A3: Whether changing registry can fix the issue, here are two ways to hide notification area on taskbar in Windows 10, we can try to see if it can fix the issue.

How to Add or Remove Notification Area on Taskbar in Windows 10

Note: Before modifying the registry or group policy, we should back up the registry to avoid unnecessary other problems.

Tip: This answer contains the content of a third-party website. Microsoft makes no representations about the content of these websites. We provide this content only for your convenience.

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_{Monday, September 3, 2018 10:12 AM}

Hi,
If this issue has any update or is this issue solved? Also, for the problem, is there any other assistance we could provide?

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_{Wednesday, September 5, 2018 1:57 AM}

Hi, Mr.Tetchy
For your question, we have upgraded to the product team and confirmed that this is a known issue. Please pay attention to the later Windows update. If there is a later Windows update, we will notify you in time.

Thank you for your support and understanding. We wish you a happy work!

Best Regards,
Daisy Zhou

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_{Friday, February 15, 2019 5:15 PM | 1 vote}

Daisy Zhou,

I am having this same issue, and you did not address Mr. Techy's questions, just talked around them. IE:

Q3: What about a Registry change to disable the local Taskbar from displaying notifications and interrupting your RDP session?  Is there such a fix?
A3: Whether changing registry can fix the issue, here are two ways...

No answer, you just say well whether that can work... but forget about that here's a COMPLETELY irrelevant link that talks about how to hide the NOTIFICATION area of a taskbar, not the taskbar itself. So THIS late into the discussion, you don't even have an idea about what the OP is actually asking.

In conclusion, this is a highly annoying issue, and since my PC is all up to date, your useless answer of updates will fix it! hasn't worked yet. Thank you for demonstrating the level of commitment Microsoft gives to helping people with their products.

_{Tuesday, June 11, 2019 4:54 PM}

Hi there,

I just wanted to bump this thread.  I'm getting the same issue on my home PC and it doesn't look like there have been any updates on getting it fixed!

_{Sunday, August 25, 2019 4:57 PM}

Hello, I was having the same problem on my work laptop. I found a solution that worked for me without having to do any kind of work around.

When you go to programs and open remote desktop connection (before you log in to a remote session) there is a "show options" button on the bottom left of the box that pops up. Click the down arrow to open the options. On the "display" tab there is a display configuration section - drag the little marker all the way to the right so that it says full screen underneath. On that same screen, there is a little box which reads "Display the connection bar when I use full screen" - check that box. Once those options have been updated - click connect and proceed normally. This got rid of the local taskbar at the bottom of my screen and instead just has the little connection bar at the top to allow me to toggle between my local desktop and the remote session.

Hope this works for you too!

_{Wednesday, December 11, 2019 11:23 AM}

And in December 2019, a few Microsoft updates later, it is still happening. Just happens, with not warning. One day all is working fine - drag the mouse to the bottom of the screen and the remote taskbar appears, great!

Next day, or later the same day - drag the mouse the bottom of the screen and the local taskbar appears, not great.

Press the Windows key and the remove taskbar appears.

Been going on so long, and no fix.