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I have tried to resolve this issue with Windows support but they have no solution so far and the months pass by... so I would like to try here and see if some smart member(s) on Superuser can help me out!

I have an Acer laptop with 1 TV and 2 external monitors connected. (4 screens in total, laptop internal, 2 external and TV). The TV is connected directly via the laptops HDMI and the 2 external monitors are connected via an USB hub with its own gfxcard.

enter image description here

I have the internal laptop monitor set to "Disconnect this display" while the others are connected. The internal display is only used when all other monitors are disconnected. So I use 3 screens, the 2 external monitors and the TV. Like in the image below:

These are not my screens, just a pic I found on the web

These are not my screens, just a pic I found on the web to describe the setup.

ISSUE:

I get this popup with error message in Windows 10 every time I turn off or on the TV, I it have connected to my laptop via HDMI.

A toolbar is already hidden on this side of your screen. You can have only one auto-hide toolbar per side.

screenshot

This is what happens:

When I either turn on or off the TV the other monitors flash and I hear the the blip-blop sound of disconnecting a device. Right after it happens the taskbar that I have set to Auto-Hide is suddenly popping up, is visible and does not hide again. This is irritating because I like taskbar to always Auto-hide. But most irritating, a warning sound and a popup appears with the error message:

A toolbar is already hidden on this side of your screen. You can have only one auto-hide toolbar per side.

My TV turns itself off after a while to save energy and PLOPP I get the fricking popup again. Often in the middle of doing something that gets interrupted until I click OK on the popup.

I have tried searching internet for a solution or for someone with same or even a similar problem, but incredibly I could not find anything at all related. The issue is extremely irritating because I turn on and off the TV several times every day. And each time I have to close the popup and then enter taskbar settings and change it back to auto-hide.

To make things even worse the popup with the error message is sometimes showing only on the turned off TV connection so that I have to turn on the TV again and click OK on the popup to be able to access the taskbar at all again.

I got a few replies from a guy at Microsoft with suggestions, but nothing that worked or was even close to work, you can read it here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings/a-toolbar-is-already-hidden-on-this-side-of-your/77239fea-635a-4fea-8c48-2128361303ec?messageId=ca5d7e4b-c274-4932-a236-4e2b3a927483

I would very much appreciate any help in this matter as it is slowly driving me crazy...

Thanks in advance!

EDIT:

(April 2020) The problem disappeared. I can only imagine that a Windows update did something to fix it, but I have not clue what or when. It just stopped happening.

(August 2023) It came back when I bought a new computer. Now Im on Windows 11 and the same issue occurs from time to time with no logical explanation.

(June 2025) Still happens on a brand new laptop with Win 11 from time to time when connected to the TV.

So the issue is still unsolved.

Don King
  • 279

3 Answers3

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"A toolbar is already hidden on this side of your screen. You can only have one auto-hide toolbar per side".This causes intermittent loss of auto-hide of the task bar.

Here is what worked for me in Windows 10: Go to settings and find "Show taskbar on all displays". Swith that to off. (You have a choice which display you want taskbar on, the other(s) will have no taskbar - this is more elegant anyway.) No more idiotic pop up and need to reset auto-hide for the taskbar. I tried every other suggestion on line - none work.

George Prieditis
  • 101
1

Hey mate not sure if you are still looking for a solution.

What helped in my case, was deactivating the "hide taskbar" feature, switching to the Toolbar setting that I initially used to hide it. So in my case for the "Show taskbar on all displays" setting i had to switch to "Main taskbar and taskbars with active windows" then disable the "hide taskbar" feature, then you switch back to "show all taskbars" and reactivate the "hide taskbar" feature.

Hope that helps! If not you then maybe a stranger that stumbles upon this response with the same Problem!

Agorar
  • 11
1

I am thinking this may have something to do with the order in which screens turn on. I have had this issue for a while with my 2 monitors. In my case I don't get this popup when the monitor I use as my 'Main' monitor (as set in Settings>System>Display) is plugged into the highest priority port on my computer. If I flip the ports I get the a toolbar is already hidden popup and the changing of the autohide toolbar setting. Hope this will help.

satan6potato
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