You can also set up an extended screen. If you place the second screen above the first, then you can move your windows up higher in order to see the bottom buttons. It gets a little tricky because then you have to find the grab-bar (which is off the screen that you can see) so then you can move the bar back down again. I have 1280x800, and I've the same problem.
And yeah, definitely autohide the taskbar.