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Dock gets hidden when clicking “Show desktop” / Win+D #4

@CodebyGPT

Description

@CodebyGPT

Issue description:

When the native Windows taskbar’s “Show desktop” button (or Win+D) is pressed, the whole dock disappears together with all other windows. This forces users to press Win+D a second time or click an empty area to bring the dock back, which breaks the “always visible” workflow that most docks aim for.

Expected behavior:

The dock should remain on screen exactly like the native taskbar does, i.e. it should be treated as an “app-bar” or a top-most, non-minimisable window that lives on the desktop layer.

Possible solutions / hints:

Handle WM_SIZE / WM_SYSCOMMAND and reject SC_MINIMIZE when the lParam corresponds to “show desktop”.
Create the window with the WS_EX_TOOLWINDOW + WS_EX_TOPMOST extended styles and never activate owner.
Implement SHAppBarMessage/ABM_NEW to register the dock as an official app-bar so that the shell keeps it on the desktop work-area.
Listen for the DBT_MSG broadcast when Explorer re-calculates the work-area and re-apply z-order.

Environment:

OS: Windows 11 24H2 (build 26100.7623)
App version: Version 1.0

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