Taskbar being resized at game launch

Hi all.

I actually remember this bug from way back during beta, but I remember it being fixed. When the game starts, for some reason, it will resize the Windows Taskbar down to the smallest it can be.

Little back info:
I have dual monitors with the taskbar on the righthand side on the secondary monitor.

I searched and didn't get anything back for this. Any thoughts?

Is your desktop resolution the same as your game resolution? That's the only thing I can think of that might do that. I haven't heard of this bug myself, but maybe someone else can think of something else that might be causing it. You should probably post a CoH Helper and HijackThis so that the tech heads here can take a look for you.

I know having two monitors can confuse this game a bit but I've never heard of that problem. I'm not sure what it even means! Is your task bar set to be extra tall or something?

Ok, what I mean is this:
Normal - http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...sue/normal.jpg
Resized when game launches - http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q...ue/resized.jpg

Had to do links since I apparently can't post images yet.

Here's the info from the CoH Helper program:
---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.1.1.7---

DxDiag gathered at July 26, 2009 15:10 (-05:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7100) (7100.winmain_win7rc.090421-1700)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Central Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5600+ (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
Memory: 4096MB
.Net Memory Report: 1159MB out of 4094MB available
Page File: 4094MB (4092MB currently in use)
C Drive: (NVIDIA STRIPE 465.76G) 146560MB out of 238591MB (61%) free
D Drive: (NVIDIA STRIPE 465.76G) 468708MB out of 476937MB (98%) free
E Drive: (NVIDIA STRIPE 931.51G) 646335MB out of 953866MB (67%) free
F Drive: (NVIDIA STRIPE 465.76G) 190022MB out of 238345MB (79%) free
G Drive: (_NEC DVD_RW ND-2510A ATA Device) zero-size drive
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7100.0000 (64-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.

No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 8600 GTS
Video Memory: 2288 MB
Driver Version: 8.15.11.9038
Driver Date: 7/14/2009 1:54:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GTS
Manufacturer / Chip: NVIDIA / GeForce 8600 GTS
Video Memory: 2288 MB
Driver Version: 8.15.11.9038
Driver Date: 7/14/2009 1:54:00 PM
Driver Language: English

Sound Device Description: Speakers (SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio)
Driver File: ADIHdAud.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.0002.6400
Driver Date: 9/2/2008 10:43:44 AM

Sound Device Description: SPDIF Interface (SoundMAX Integrated Digital HD Audio)
Driver File: ADIHdAud.sys
Driver Version: 6.10.0002.6400
Driver Date: 9/2/2008 10:43:44 AM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: CROSSHAIR
Motherboard Version: 1.XX
BIOS Manufacturer: Phoenix Technologies, LTD
BIOS Name: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS Version: Nvidia - 42302e31
BIOS Release: 20070102000000.000000+000

Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1680x1050
3D Resolution: 1680x1050 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 60Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes

Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No

Anti-aliasing: None
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: High Quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: High

World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: Very High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: Yes
Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of Extra Player FX Enabled: No
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: Yes
FX Sound Volume: 0.035
Music Sound Volume: 0.000

Show Advanced Graphics Options: Yes
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.600
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: Unknown bytes/second
Current Game Version: 19.20090702.5T2
Installation Directory: C:\Program Files (x86)\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

Am I mistaken, or is that Windows 7? Also, as Darkfaith mentioned, posting your HiJackThis and CoH Helper logs will help us be able to figure out what's going on... right now we'd basically have to take complete shots in the dark.

Edit: Bah! Too slow

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Ah! I know exactly what that is! I didn't realize you were running on Win 7. Okay, for some reason on most cards (nVidia cards especially) the system doesn't like to run City and Aero at the same time, so when you kick up City it'll turn Aero off and kick Windows into basic display mode so that it lessens the strain on your video card. That's perfectly normal, and actually there really isn't anything you can do to change that given the card you're running on.

Edit: Mine does exactly the same thing, so I'm very, very sure of this.

From what I've read, it'll only do that if you're running the application fullscreen (which the OP is). You might be able to avoid that by running CoX in Windowed mode (you'll also avoid a potential resolution change which could also be triggering the resizing of the taskbar).

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

This is true about the windowed mode....I forgot about that. I never run in windowed mode myself. With the way that taskbar is turning an opaque light blue though, it's definitely because it's a conflict with Aero so Windows is disabling Aero.

IIRC, that's actually working as intended. Aero's advanced features are disabled when it detects a full screen application like a game to give it the maximum performance.

We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.

Yeah, I knew about the disabling of Aero, but I didn't think it would resize the taskbar. That's what my main problem is. I remember it doing this also when Vista first came out, but there was a way to keep the game from resizing the taskbar.

I didn't know if anyone remembered or knew the fix for it. I've been out of the game for nearly 4 years now and can't remember it, myself.

Also, yes, I do run in fullscreen mode. I haven't tried running in windowed mode yet, but I will.