PowerShell calculate pixel height of Start Bar

Question

I want to place windows on my screen at various positions. I can calculate the dimensions of the screen as below (these are arrays if have multi-display setups):

$widths = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_DesktopMonitor | Select-Object ScreenWidth).ScreenWidth
$heights = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_DesktopMonitor | Select-Object ScreenHeight).ScreenHeight

To properly place windows, I need to also calculate the height of the Start bar. Does anyone know how to programmatically collect the Start bar height using PowerShell?

I would also like to know how to caculate the position of the Start bar (so that I know if it is placed at the top, bottom, left, right of the screen) if possible?

Answer 1

Instead of using WMI, you should be safe using the $Screen.WorkingArea you can retrieve using for instance [System.Windows.Forms.Screen]::PrimaryScreen.

Having said that, the function below will get you the dimensions and position of the TaskBar for a certain screen:

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms

function Get-TaskBarDimensions {
    param (
        [System.Windows.Forms.Screen]$Screen = [System.Windows.Forms.Screen]::PrimaryScreen
    )        

    $device = ($Screen.DeviceName -split '\\')[-1]
    if ($Screen.Primary) { $device += ' (Primary Screen)' }

    if ($Screen.Bounds.Equals($Screen.WorkingArea)) {
        Write-Warning "Taskbar is hidden on device $device or moved to another screen."
        return
    }


    # calculate heights and widths for the possible positions (left, top, right and bottom)
    $ScreenRect  = $Screen.Bounds
    $workingArea = $Screen.WorkingArea
    $left        = [Math]::Abs([Math]::Abs($ScreenRect.Left) - [Math]::Abs($WorkingArea.Left))
    $top         = [Math]::Abs([Math]::Abs($ScreenRect.Top) - [Math]::Abs($workingArea.Top))
    $right       = ($ScreenRect.Width - $left) - $workingArea.Width
    $bottom      = ($ScreenRect.Height - $top) - $workingArea.Height

    if ($bottom -gt 0) {
        # TaskBar is docked to the bottom
        return [PsCustomObject]@{
            X        = $workingArea.Left
            Y        = $workingArea.Bottom
            Width    = $workingArea.Width
            Height   = $bottom
            Position = 'Bottom'
            Device   = $device
        }
    }
    if ($left -gt 0) {
        # TaskBar is docked to the left
        return [PsCustomObject]@{
            X        = $ScreenRect.Left
            Y        = $ScreenRect.Top
            Width    = $left
            Height   = $ScreenRect.Height
            Position = 'Left'
            Device   = $device
        }
    }
    if ($top -gt 0) {
        # TaskBar is docked to the top
        return [PsCustomObject]@{
            X        = $workingArea.Left
            Y        = $ScreenRect.Top
            Width    = $workingArea.Width
            Height   = $top
            Position = 'Top'
            Device   = $device
        }
    }
    if ($right -gt 0) {
        # TaskBar is docked to the right
        return [PsCustomObject]@{
            X        = $workingArea.Right
            Y        = $ScreenRect.Top
            Width    = $right
            Height   = $ScreenRect.Height
            Position = 'Right'
            Device   = $device
        }
    }
}

To get the TaskBar dimensions for the Primary screen only:

Get-TaskBarDimensions

To get the TaskBar dimensions for all connected screens:

[System.Windows.Forms.Screen]::AllScreens | ForEach-Object {
    Get-TaskBarDimensions $_
}

This will return an object with the following properties:

X        : 0
Y        : 1160
Width    : 1920
Height   : 40
Position : Bottom
Device   : DISPLAY1 (Primary Screen)

Or -in case the taskbar is hidden or not present on that screen- a warning like:

Taskbar is hidden on device DISPLAY2 or moved to another screen.