A lightweight Windows 10/11 application to hide/show the taskbar with system tray and CLI control.
- 🎯 Hide/Show Windows 10/11 Taskbar - Complete control over taskbar visibility
- 🖱️ System Tray Icon - Easy access from system tray with menu
- ⌨️ CLI Support - Command-line interface for automation
- 🔒 Single Instance - Prevents multiple instances from running
- 🎨 YASB Compatible - Works with YASB and other custom status bars
- ⚡ Lightweight - ~600 KB, minimal resource usage
- 🚀 No Dependencies - Self-contained executable with static CRT linking
- 💻 Multi-Architecture - Available for x64 and ARM64 Windows
Get the latest release from the Releases page.
- MSI Installer (Recommended) - Installs to Program Files and adds to PATH automatically
- Portable ZIP - Standalone package with executable, LICENSE, and README - no installation needed
- x64 - For Intel/AMD 64-bit systems (most common)
- ARM64 - For ARM-based Windows devices (e.g., Surface Pro X, Snapdragon PCs)
- Download
thide-x64.msiorthide-arm64.msifrom the Releases page - Double-click the MSI file and follow the installation wizard
- The application will be installed to
C:\Program Files\thide\bin\ - PATH is configured automatically - you can run
thidefrom any command prompt/PowerShell window - Start menu shortcut is created automatically
Uninstall: Use "Add or Remove Programs" in Windows Settings
- Download
thide-x64-portable.ziporthide-arm64-portable.zipfrom the Releases page - Extract the ZIP file to any location on your system (e.g.,
C:\Tools\thide\) - Run
thide.exefrom the extracted folder - no installation required! - The ZIP includes:
thide.exe- The applicationLICENSE.txt- License informationREADME-PORTABLE.txt- Quick start guide
- (Optional) Add the folder to your PATH to use CLI commands globally
Double-click thide.exe to run in system tray mode:
- The app will hide the taskbar and run in the background
- Look for the icon in your system tray
- Right-click the tray icon to access the menu:
- Show Taskbar - Make taskbar visible
- Hide Taskbar - Hide the taskbar
- Quit - Exit and restore taskbar
Control the running app from the command line:
# If installed via MSI, you can run from anywhere:
thide start
# If using portable exe, run from the directory or add to PATH:
.\thide.exe start
# Show the taskbar (if app is running)
thide show
# Hide the taskbar (if app is running)
thide hide
# Stop the app and restore taskbar
thide stop
# Enable autostart on Windows login
thide enable-autostart
# Disable autostart
thide disable-autostart
# Show help
thide helpNotes:
- MSI users: The
thidecommand works from any location (added to PATH automatically) - Portable users: Run
.\thide.exefrom the directory, or add the folder to your PATH manually - The
startcommand launches THide in GUI mode if it's not already running - Control commands (show/hide/stop) require the GUI app to be running
- Autostart commands use Windows registry
Use the built-in CLI command to add THide to Windows startup:
# Enable autostart (adds registry entry)
.\thide.exe enable-autostart
# Disable autostart (removes registry entry)
.\thide.exe disable-autostartThis adds an entry to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run.
- Rust (stable toolchain)
- Windows 10/11
- (Optional) WiX Toolset for building MSI installers
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/amnweb/thide.git
cd thide
cargo build --release# Add ARM64 target
rustup target add aarch64-pc-windows-msvc
# Build for ARM64
cargo build --release --target aarch64-pc-windows-msvc
# The executable will be at: target\aarch64-pc-windows-msvc\release\thide.exe- ✅ Windows 11 (Primary target)
- ✅ Windows 10 (Should work)
- ✅ Windows on ARM64 (Native ARM64 builds available)
- ✅ YASB (Yet Another Status Bar)
- ✅ Other custom status bars using
Shell_TrayWndclass name
- Ensure you're running the latest version
- Check if another taskbar tool is interfering
- Try running as administrator (usually not needed)
- Check system tray - the app might already be running
- Kill any existing
thide.exeprocesses in Task Manager
- This should NOT happen - the app filters by process name
- Please report as a bug with details