Hide RDP Connection Bar

A Windhawk mod that permanently hides the floating Remote Desktop connection bar in fullscreen sessions on Windows 11. The native options to keep the bar hidden often fail to persist in Windows 11 — this mod handles it at the process level so it stays gone.

Optionally provides a clean, DPI-aware disconnect button pinned to any corner of the screen, complete with idle-fading, hostname display, and a customizable global hotkey. Fully multi-monitor aware.

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The Problem

The native options to hide the Remote Desktop connection bar are unreliable in Windows 11. Three mechanisms that may not persist between sessions:

• The "Show the connection bar when I use the full screen" toggle in RDP client options
• The pin button on the connection bar itself
• The .rdp file setting displayconnectionbar:i:0

The bar reappears on every connection regardless of these settings.

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How This Mod Works

The mod hooks four Win32 APIs inside mstsc.exe:

• CreateWindowExW — detects when the connection bar window (BBarWindowClass) is created, records the bar and RDP frame handles, and hides it immediately if enabled
• ShowWindow — suppresses any subsequent attempt by mstsc to make the bar visible again
• SetWindowPos — strips the SWP_SHOWWINDOW flag from bar position calls, and detects when the RDP frame moves to a different monitor so the disconnect button can reposition
• SetWindowTextW — detects when mstsc updates its window title (which contains the remote hostname) and refreshes the button label in real time

All original calls are allowed to complete normally — the mod intercepts after the fact rather than blocking. This avoids any risk of destabilizing the RDP client.

The disconnect button is a separate floating window (WS_POPUP | WS_EX_LAYERED | WS_EX_TOPMOST) created on a dedicated helper thread, pinned to whichever corner you choose on the monitor hosting the RDP session.

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Installation

1. Install Windhawk
2. Open Windhawk → Create new mod
3. Copy the contents of hide-rdp-connection-bar.wh.cpp into the editor
4. Click Compile mod

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Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
hideBar	Boolean	true	Hides the native RDP connection bar. Turn off to restore it.
showButton	Boolean	false	Shows a disconnect button on the screen edge. Works with or without Hide. If it does not appear, close and reopen the RDP connection.
buttonPosition	Dropdown	top-right	Which corner of the RDP monitor to place the button.
offsetPreset	Dropdown	medium	How far to nudge the button away from the corner. Use Custom offset to override with an exact value.
offsetCustom	Number	0	Exact pixel offset. Overrides Corner offset when non-zero.
showBorder	Boolean	true	Draws a full outline around the button. Turn off for top-accent-only style.
showHostname	Boolean	true	Displays the remote hostname above the disconnect label, updated live as mstsc resolves it.
fadeWhenIdle	Boolean	false	Fades the button to near-invisible after a few seconds of no hover. Brightens when you move the mouse over it.
enableHotkey	Boolean	false	Keyboard shortcut to disconnect without clicking the button. Provides visual feedback if the hotkey fails to register.
hotkeyModifier	Dropdown	ctrl-alt	Modifier keys held for the hotkey. Only used when hotkey is enabled.
hotkeyKey	Dropdown	d	Key pressed with the modifier. Only used when hotkey is enabled.

To temporarily restore the native bar without uninstalling the mod, open Windhawk, go to the mod's Settings tab, and disable hideBar.

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Known Limitations

• Ctrl+Alt+Home — This keyboard shortcut is hardwired into the RDP client to show a menu accessed through the connection bar. With the mod active the bar is hidden immediately after creation, so it may briefly flash into view before being hidden. This is a cosmetic artifact and does not affect functionality.
• Some settings require reconnect — The disconnect button and hotkey are created when the session starts and cannot be added to an already-running session. All other settings (hide bar, fade, hostname, border) take effect immediately via the Windhawk settings panel.
• Tested on Windows 11 — Behavior on earlier Windows versions or the Windows App (formerly MSRDC) client is untested.
• Hotkey Conflicts — If the chosen hotkey is already used by another application, the mod will silently fail to register it at the OS level, but the button will display "✕ Hotkey Failed" to alert you.

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Links

• Windhawk
• Windhawk mod authoring guide
• Windhawk mods repository
• Mod source

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License

MIT — see LICENSE.