VLC player on Win10 just wont go full screen

[mbedford]

Hi, This problem started 2 months ago and I dont know what triggered it but i've given up trying to ignore it now.

VLC player on Win10 x64 just wont go full screen! The windows 10 taskbar remains along the bottom. All other apps with a full screen option go full screen no issues with the Windows 10 taskbar not showing.

I have all Windows 10 updates installed, my on-board graphics is Intel UHD Graphics 630, latest driver installed. latest update of VLC player installed.

Im not interested in the workarounds of closing 'explorer.exe' or 'hiding the task bar'. I just want VLC player to go full screen with no Windows task bar showing like it used to please.

Someone please help.

[mbedford]

What so no-one likes to help on this forum?
Isnt that what this forum is for?

[tranle]

It work fine for me if you choose button 'Toggle the video in fullscreen' accelerator key 'f'

[unidan]

Hi, did you try resetting the preferences (save it if you want before) ?

[mbedford]

Hi, did you try resetting the preferences (save it if you want before) ?

No didnt help.

Here you can see, the Windows taskbar just wont disappear in fullscreen mode, i've tried uninstalling, reinstalling, resetting all settings, it just wont go away. Other full screen apps all work ok. I have latest version of Windows 10 and latest Intel graphics UHD 630 display driver.

[url]https://pasteboard.co/IgUYHTm.jpg[/url]
https://pasteboard.co/IgUYHTm.jpg

and im not sure if its related, but all the interface text has scaling issues when using 4k resolutions.

[url]https://pasteboard.co/IgUZ78N.jpg[/url]
https://pasteboard.co/IgUZ78N.jpg

[unidan]

Hi

So you're in 4K display, were you with a 4K display before ? I tested with 8K TV just before and it was working so it might take some time to understand and reproduce your issue.

and im not sure if its related, but all the interface text has scaling issues when using 4k resolutions.

Unrelated and known, but I thought it only affects 4.0-dev version, thank you.

[mbedford]

Yes I had 4k TV before, and this issue has been for months. All other apps work full screen and taskbar goes away e.g the built in windows 10 video player.

I'm not using dev releases of VLC, I'm using latest stable releases.

[Martin III]

I'm having the same problem. Tried resetting preferences, and no change.

In fact, I can't even manually hide the taskbar when VLC Player is running; when I selected "automatically hide taskbar in desktop mode", the taskbar stayed up the entire hour and a half that I was using VLC, then disappeared shortly after I closed VLC.

[ddmf]

I believe I have the same issue, i.e. taskbar present during fullscreen.

Windows 10 Home 64 bits 1903
Intel NUC (i7-7567U with 16 GB RAM and Intel Iris Plus Graphics 650), latest drivers/BIOS/firmware
VLC 3.0.8
UHD TV (4096x2160 no HD Colour/HDR)

I do not know when the behavior started since I am a new user of VLC.

I tried reaching fullscreen mode by pressing "f", double-clicking video, and using menu. All led to the same result: almost fullscreen with taskbar at the bottom. The workaround of hiding the taskbar is undesirable because there are always taskbar pixels shown (some with different color, such as active window and search-box--related). Restarting explorer does not help.

I tried resetting settings, re-instaling, playing with settings (VLC's, Windows's, Graphic Card's): no change.

Oddly, I get proper fullscreen if I use skinned VLC, the issue then becomes everything is so tiny in my screen. Next I will try to find a 4k/UHD skin, I could live with this workaround.

edit: tried nightly build (vlc-4.0.0-20191021-0249-dev-win32.zip) and fullscreem is working there. It did not work with the latest 3 (vlc-3.0.9-20191021-0306-win32).

[ddmf]

Same behavior with a clean (Windows) install on similar hardware (Windows 10 Home 64 bits 1903, Intel NUC i3-8109U with 16 GB RAM and Intel Iris Plus 655, VLC 3.0.8, UHD TV), latest drivers/BIOS/firmware.

If TV is set to 1080p resolution, fullscreen on VLC works fine. If resolution is set to 4096x2160, fullscreen has Windows taskbar at the bottom.

POSSIBLE WORKAROUND: (it is working for me)
Right-click "VLC media player" shortcut on C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\VideoLAN and click "Properties"
Go to "Compatibility" tab
Click "Change high DPI settings"
Tick "Override high DPI scaling behaviour" and set "Scaling perfomed by:" to "System"
Fullscreen now works nicely. Caveat: interface text of VLC looks a bit bad (does not affect subtitles).

Another possibility is, on "Display Settings" of Windows, set the scale to 100%.
But this only works for human beings with ultra-super-vision to read the tiny text from far away.

[todopertin]

I have had this problem numerous times. The solution that worked for me every time is unchecking the Fullscreen Interface from View in the menu bar.

[jono__]

What works for me isn't exactly a permanent solution, but easy enough for me to do every time this bug happens to me.

I went into the task manager, looked for "Windows Explorer" under the Processes tab (not Details), then right clicked on that and clicked restart. After a quick flash it goes back to normal, the taskbar is can be hidden again by other fullscreen apps.

[mikenn05]

I had this issue. Re installed vlc it fixed it .

[johnnynuke]

mbedford, i also had this same issue to a tee. i resolved by going to intel hd graphics control panel and changed Scale Full Screen to Maintain Display Scaling being checked off. i did notice i needed a restart for this change to take effect and voila, Full Screen with no taskbar anymore. hope this helps.

[GaTu]

Hi there guys. Registered just to tell you how to fix this.
It happened to me in the past and it's very annoying. Sorry my poor english.
The problem is related with Windows Explorer (Not internet explorer) and it's just that sometimes it gets stuck.
To fix it, just:
1- Open Task Manager (ctrl + alt + delete)
2 - Find the "Windows Explorer" process (or explorer.exe)
3- Right CLick / reboot

If you are using an old Windows version, like me using Win 7 on the laptop, the process is a bit different:
1- Open Task Manager (ctrl + alt + delete)
2 - Find the "explorer.exe" process under the "processes" tab
3 - right click / finish process (you'll see that the toolbar below, disappear. Don't panic
4- Change to Applications tab
5 - New Task
6- Type explorer.exe and accept
7- You'll see that the explorer "refreshes" and you should be able to fullscreen correctly from now

Hope it helps and also hope you understant my shitty english

Cheers

GaTu

[futuramark40]

You had a perfect software and you had to ruin it VLC..now you have a defected bugged software...I used vlc for over 15 years..it was perfect...why did you have to touch it and ruin it with the updates??? Now the play bar is hidden below the windows taskbar how the.... are we supposed to use your defective software? Why does every perfect software has to be ruined?? This is my question, you have something that is working perfectly..don't touch it...leave it as it is..but you had to ruin it..well done indeed. AT least make it like the old version 2.0 where you can move the bar around.

[futuramark40]

Just go back to VLC 2.0 ..this is how i solved the problem..with 2.0 you can move the bar around as you like...don't use 3.0 it is bugged and defective.

[Hitchhiker]

You had a perfect software and you had to ruin it VLC..now you have a defected bugged software...I used vlc for over 15 years..it was perfect...why did you have to touch it and ruin it with the updates??? Now the play bar is hidden below the windows taskbar how the.... are we supposed to use your defective software? Why does every perfect software has to be ruined?? This is my question, you have something that is working perfectly..don't touch it...leave it as it is..but you had to ruin it..well done indeed. AT least make it like the old version 2.0 where you can move the bar around.

Hit Ctrl + P to open prefs in vlc and in the opening menu checkmark "Resize interface to video size". Save, exit and restart vlc.

Next, launch a video, play a few seconds of it and then click the Stop button. Hit Ctrl + P again and remove the checkmark from "Resize interface to video size". Save and restart again. Open a video and click the button to change to full screen. You should now be able to move the toolbar to wherever you want it. Here's a pix taken in full screen mode with the toolbar moved upwards.

[zevozki]

Dear all

I just registered to give you my best temporary solution until Microsoft fix this.

In VLC menu select View> tick on Always On Top. Done!

one negative side is when you use ALT+TAB to switch between your apps/windows the VLC will always be on top. Just you have to minimize VLC screen


Update: another method worked for me is changing the scale in Windows Display. When you use Highest resolution 4096X2160 windows will automatically scale the text/app to 300% you have to manually reduce it a bit, try something between 250%-290%

Windows Settings >System > Display > Advance Scaling settings.

Good luck

[S1D3KICK181]

I don't know if you guys have already found a solution or not, but i too had the same problem and the solution for me was to right-click on the network icon on the right corner on the taskbar and it just disappears. Then I can enjoy vlc in fullscreen as i normally should.

update: I ran into the same problem with vlc when i updated to windows 11, and the this solution still works.

[Cescante]

Dear all

I just registered to give you my best temporary solution until Microsoft fix this.

In VLC menu select View> tick on Always On Top. Done!

one negative side is when you use ALT+TAB to switch between your apps/windows the VLC will always be on top. Just you have to minimize VLC screen


Update: another method worked for me is changing the scale in Windows Display. When you use Highest resolution 4096X2160 windows will automatically scale the text/app to 300% you have to manually reduce it a bit, try something between 250%-290%

Windows Settings >System > Display > Advance Scaling settings.

Good luck

Can confirm that on a 4k display, changing 300% to 250% made vlc full screen work properly.

[Gorp_eater]

This might be the answer (worked for me anyway):
1.) Press Ctrl + P then under the Video icon, click under Display: "Fullscreen".
2.) This had no effect until I restarted VLC - not until I again did Ctrl + P and,
3.) Right-clicked on the screen to see View. There I clicked "Full screen interface". It went to Full screen. Good luck, I hope this helps.