when visual studio is in full screen mode, how to bring taskbar “always on top”?

Question

How to bring the taskbar on top of Visual Studio 2008 when in "Full Screen" mode?

I often go full screen, but the task bar will become hidden.

How can I keep the task bar from hiding?

The rationale behind this is: - We use google talk, for our quick communication in our office. So, when I go full screen, I am not able to see the IM notification.

Answer 1

If you're looking for good notifications in your instant messenger, why not give Pidgin a try? It supports more enhanced notifications like Guifications or you can also use Snarl - a growl clone for windows.

Answer 2

Well, according to a blog post by Raymond Chen this is the normal behavior of the task bar. That is, moving out of the way of a fullscreen window. My guess is that you can't do much about it, except not switch VS to fullscreen.

Answer 3

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/accessibility/taskbarontop.mspx

Try that...

Answer 4

You can create two different VS window layouts (one normal, one "full screen") and then create shortcuts to quickly switch between them as described by Sara Ford