Is a second taskbar possible on the desktop in win 10 ?

I would like to have my games out of view but not in map or gathered under a link in the main taskbar. Preferably hidden until you move the mouse over the edge of the screen.

So you don't want virtual desktops and I have no idea if the taskbar is resizable in WIndows 10 anymore.

Is that right?

Well, it`s absolutely possible to enlarge the taskbar, just unlock it and hover over the edge of it until the mouse pointer becames the pull smbol. You can pull it up to half of the screen height.

Create a folder, put your shortcuts in there, then pin the folder to the taskbar. Haven’t tried it, but should work.

Stardock has some tools for this, and you can probably find FLOSS to do it too. Note that Stardock's software has DRM. I don't know about current stuff, but the old editions I had were "one time ever" activation (so long as you remember to back up your key file).

Object Dock can definitely do this (https://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/)

Fences (which I still can't believe is not in Windows by default! It's a *killer* feature) can also be used for it. Fences brings back Windows 3.x style "program manager" groups for your icons on the desktop that you can arrange and move around, but also set to hide automatically until you point to it. https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

EDIT: AlternativeTo's page for Object Dock, set to open source: https://alternativeto.net/software/objectdock/?license=opensource&platform=windows. There's sadly nothing out there in the FLOSS space like Fences (at least for Windows).

Hello Zimerius!

I know exactly what you mean. For years, I am using Dell's free "Docking Station" (a Stardock Corporation product) for this purpose! Sofar I had no issues installing and running it on Windows 10, too.

It can be configured to collapse and appear only on mouse hover near the chosen screen edge, or stay visible all the time. The docking stations allows for a lot of amount of freedom in organising, arranging, and sorting my (desktop shortcuts and the like), but is a bit more restricted than for instance in more recent Linux desktop solutions.
You can select from a small range of icons, add Windows icons or your icons, rename each category

See the attached screenshots for example:
I grouped the majority of my currently installed games (both from GOG and retail) in the marked "Games" category (think of it as of a regular folder/directory), and have other groups and categories for various purposes.

If you want to know more, here is the download link for the small application:
Dell Dock download
[EDIT:]
[This official site and download for Dell's Dock application from both Dell and Stardock Corporation has been discontinued or expired around 2015! Hence, the formerly free application is currently not available anymore. (Interested ones might want to search on the internet for alternative sources or applications.)]


Kind regards,
foxgog

[Edit: updated information on the download link.]

I second Fences. It works wonderfully.

virtual desktops ? i'm not sure what you mean with a virtual desktop, its not that i have a vr set ? ah, the virtual desktop was a second desktop, no that won't do ? though i should try it i guess to be certain....

the whole 2d bar idea is what i'm set on atm Object dock seem to come closest to what i had in mind, thank you for those suggestions... it is silly though, since somewhere near the beginning of the vista period i used stardocks organizer for a lot of things, i guess galciv kinda killed the interest for their line of products for me Hey, lot of thanks for pointing me towards this wonderful solution oke, well at least i will give it a try

*look, i mean

You do you. Myself I would use a second desktop as I have done on my mobile where switching between them is easy. In Linux it would be easy to add a 2nd bar, eg on top, and have it automatically hide. Good to have so many different solutions available.

https://www.howtogeek.com/688174/how-to-quickly-switch-between-virtual-desktops-on-windows-10/

Hello Zimerius!

I am sorry for the little inconvenience! But I did not checked yesterday, whether the official site (www.delldock.com) and download link for Dell's Dock application were still accessible or not. (I just copied the link from my backup folder.) And guess what, the site is down since somewhat after 2015 according to a brief search with the wayback machine (see the pictures).
Since there is also no mentioning of their Dock application for Dell on Stardock's own homepage, I have to assume that both Dell and Stardock discontinued supporting or at least offfering it.

My last re-download of the installer file was around June 2015, when I had to re-install my former Dell notebook from scratch due to a mechanical HDD failure. In 2019 I installed this Dock application on my current Windows 10 64-Bit computer without encountering any issues! The corresponding installer file is:
=> DellDock16a_setup_ENG.exe (12.8 MB)

Googling directly for the file name gave two results of which the one from "lo4d.com" seem to download properly. A brief file comparison with the one from my backup shows no difference. However, it would not hurt to do an online file check at "virustotal.com", in case you get the dock application installer from that source. (I do not know the "lo4d" site, nor if their downloads are legit. Hence, I did not posted the complete link.)

I was looking multiple times in the past for a similar software solution including in the open source sector, but have not found anything comparable to Stardock's Dock application for Dell notebooks from my time with Windows Vista & 7.

Kind regards,
foxgog

Let me try in your native tongue.

Windows 10 heeft een functie toegevoegd waarmee u uw bureaublad kunt vervangen door meerdere instanties van zichzelf.

Dit werd "virtueel bureaublad" genoemd en was weer een functie die was overgenomen van Unix.

Ah, ja, oke .... nee dit is dan helemaal duidelijk..... dat Engels ook, daar raak je soms helemaal in de war van als je het niet veel gebruikt :-/

En hé, ik kan niet echt zeggen dat Microsoft een goede staat van dienst heeft met internationalisering.

Iemand die echt gefocust is op een globaal product zou kunnen zeggen, "Dit is een taakbalk", en iedereen zou knikken en zeggen, "Ja, ja dat is het!"

You can resize it to nearty half the screen size. A little more than I think is practical.