7+ Taskbar Tweaker
7+ Taskbar Tweaker allows you to configure various aspects of the Windows taskbar.
Most of the configuration options it provides can’t be tweaked using the taskbar properties or the registry.
The tweaker is designed for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.
Download
7tt_setup.exe (1.77 MB, changelog)
Latest version: v5.14.1
Note: The installer can be used to extract a portable version. Refer to the FAQ below for details.
Beta version
7tt_setup_beta.exe (1.77 MB, changelog)
Latest beta version: v5.14.1.1
More info about beta versions.
✖
Windows 11 Support Status
- 7+ Taskbar Tweaker doesn’t support the Windows 11 taskbar, and probably never will. See this blog post for more details.
- Some of the tweaks are available in Windows 11 as Windhawk mods. See here for the list of mods, and vote for missing mods that you’d like to see implemented. Read more about Windhawk here.
- 7+ Taskbar Tweaker works on Windows 11 with the old taskbar which can be restored with third party tools. See this blog post for more details.
Demo video
Here is a video that demonstrates some of the tweaks:
Source code
https://github.com/m417z/7-Taskbar-Tweaker
FAQ
Q: Which registry keys does 7+ Taskbar Tweaker modify? I don’t need extra processes in my system.
A: The only registry keys the tweaker modifies are its own settings. There are no registry keys for the options it provides. The tweaker does that by injecting a DLL to explorer, hooking/subclassing/some other methods of the dark side.
As for extra processes, the tweaker is a native program, and is very lightweight. It shouldn’t slow down your system, and uses an extremely small amount of memory. Also, you can hide the tray icon if you want.
In case you want to remove the tweaker’s settings from the registry, look for them here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\7 Taskbar Tweaker
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run (“7 Taskbar Tweaker” value)
P.S. if you’re a programmer, you might want to take a look at the 7+ Taskbar Tweaking Library.
Q: My antivirus complains about 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
A: It’s a false positive. I guarantee that the tweaker binaries (and any other files on this site, unless specifically noted) are 100% clean.
Also remember that the tweaker injects into explorer and modifies its memory, which is indeed suspicious.
Q: Can I Group/Combine/Label only some of the items on the taskbar?
A: Yes, use Taskbar Inspector.
Q: May I use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker in a commercial environment?
A: Yes, feel free to use it wherever you want.
Q: Where is the portable version?
A: When installing the tweaker, choose the Portable type of install, as shown on the image below.
The portable version will be extracted to the selected folder.
Note: If the tweaker is already installed on your computer, the option won’t be visible. You can launch the setup with the /portable command line switch to force a portable installation.
Q: I want to report a bug/suggest a feature! What is the best way to do it?
A: Post it on the UserEcho page.
Q: I want to translate 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to my language.
A: The archive below contains the files needed to be translated.
Please read readme.txt before proceeding.
7tt_translate.zip (758.63 kB)
If you are brave enough to translate the help file, contact me for the required software and files.
Tags: 7+ taskbar tweaker
Can you add an option to start 7+ Taskbar Tweaker with minimized (toTray) Options dialog window?
You can use the “-hidewnd” command line option. It should be added automatically if you choose to start the tweaker on startup when installing or in the settings. Perhaps you configured it manually.
Can you add option to remove “unpin from taskbar” item in context menu?
AVAST is blocking, V5.14. – says it contains IDP.generic. False Pos?
On Windows Ver 10.0.19043
Yes, it’s a false positive. Note that Avast doesn’t detect it on VirusTotal, so perhaps the detection was already removed.
See also my reply here:
https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-tweaker/comment-page-51#comment-13213
So, of the three approaches, you were tossing up here…
https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-and-a-first-look-at-windows-11
Have you essentially gone with #2, which is what Windhawk is?
Or do you still plan to do a dedicated Win 11+ [Tskbr] Tweaker?
Sorry, still green & getting up to speed with the modern ‘Win Twk’ community.
I was more clued up many years ago, when I was much younger!
Thank you,
J HS L
Yes. Windhawk is not quite “11 Taskbar Tweaker”, it’s a more general Windows modding platform, but it can be a viable alternative to 7+ Taskbar Tweaker for Windows 11, and for some aspects it already is.
As I mentioned in a couple of places, that’s unlikely to happen.
Sure thing. If you have more feedback and would like to be more involved, you’re welcome to join Windhawk’s Discord channel.
Are there are any plans to add an option to scale the taskbar? My QuadHD monitor makes the taskbar look absolutely microscopic.
Author, you are just a god
Dear developer, I use your software, so I would like to ask about the feature improvements.
Will you add the ability to automatically switch Windows by placing the mouse on the working column?(Available on many browsers.The classic example is Centbrowers.)
This function is a very labor-saving tool
https://github.com/luetage/vivaldi_modding/blob/master/activate-tab-on-hover.js
Thanks for the suggestion, but it’s unlikely to be added to 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. It might be implemented as a Windhawk mod one day, by me or by somebody else, if there’s enough demand.
It don’t seem to work with Start All back classic taskbar.
There’s no official support for Start All Back and similar third party customization tools. If there’s a conflict that I know of that’s easy to fix on my side, I try to fix it, but from what I hear from users, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker and Start All Back mostly work together, except for maybe a couple of conflicting options.
I installed the ExplorerPatcher and then installed the beta version of 7+.
It is finally the same as my w10 taskbar (entirely to the left and with no limit width to make it reaaaally small to the left). Thanks so much <3
7+ broke on my windows 10 installation the other day. I installed 5.14 today and tabs are still grouped by type and I can’t reorder within a group (e.g. explorers). Did I miss something?
Are you getting any error message when the tweaker starts? Perhaps something went wrong during installation, try to re-install the latest version, preferably after logging out or restarting the computer. Let me know if you still have issues.
I did get an error message. I think it pointed me to this page and weren’t any installation issues.
I tracked the problem to the installation of the Windows 22H2 update. I rolled that update back and turned off automatic updates for 7 days and it works now.
As far as I know, currently 7+ Taskbar Tweaker supports all Windows 10 updates. If you encounter this again, please post the exact error message you’re getting.
Windows re-installed 22H2 and it has worked since. Thanks.
Hey,
I am on Win11 22H2 and I am using 7+ Taskbar Tweaker 5.15 with ExplorerPatcher 22621.
Controlling the volume when the mouse is over the taskbar or the notification area is buggy.
When I am scrolling over, I am experiencing a little lag and an annoying blipping noise can be heard.
Is there a way it can be fixed?
Thank you
Hi Jed,
I’m not sure why you’re experiencing the issue, but you can try using the classic volume control. Go to advanced options (right click on the tray icon and choose “Advanced options”), then change sndvol_classic to 1. Refer to the help file for more info. You also might want to try the sndvol_tooltip advanced option.
I checked this and the problem also occurs even if I change sndvol_classic to 1
It happens on two of my devices.
Actually, I now remember that there was a similar bug report around July 2020 via email. I can post parts of the conversation if you’re interested. I thought I fixed it back then, not sure if what you’re seeing is related.
In any case, I’m busy with other stuff and don’t have time to look into it in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, sorry. I have some idea about a possible fix, and I can try it with the Taskbar Volume Control Windhawk mod which provides the same functionality. Let me know if you’re interested.
Hey,
Yes, I am interested – if you could forward the conversation to me, that would be great.
Thank you.
I have been 7+Taskbar for a few years and I love it. I am currently running Win10 with Brave, Chrome, or Firefox (it doesn’t matter for the purposes of this email). Once I have all my windows open, I order them in alphabetical order (that would be a nice feature).
When I am ready to shut down the browser, I just “Exit” it. Upon return, I have it set to “restore all windows.” It does that, but it screws with the order of the Windows in the Taskbar. Is this a function of the browser or 7+Taskbar? If it IS the latter, would this be a bug? If it is not part of 7+Taskbar, could it be added as a feature? I often have something like 60 windows open, each with multiple tabs and it takes me about 10 minutes to alphabetize my windows.
The primary reason I use 7+Taskbar is to see the name of each window in a button on the taskbar. When you get to have more than a few windows open, it is important to have some convention for ordering the buttons. I like to alphabetize them, but I hate restarting the browser because I have to go through the alphabetizing process each time.
Keeping the windows in order and/or providing an alphabetizing function would save me tons of time. The Window name function is available by right-clicking on the window title and choosing “Name window…” An extension (FireTitle) must be used in Firefox.
Hi Jonathan,
7+ Taskbar Tweaker has an option to sort the windows by name. There are two ways to use it:
1. From Taskbar Inspector.
2. With advanced options (right click on the tray icon and choose “Advanced options”). See this discussin and the help file for more details.
It’s neither.
The browser has no control over it since Windows doesn’t provide any way to query or control the order of Windows.
7+ Taskbar Tweaker, on the other hand, doesn’t have enough information to uniquely identify the browser windows before and after the relaunch. It can try and use titles, but that’s not a 100% solution since the title can change after relaunch, and multiple windows can have the same title.
For Firefox, there’s an extension that allows to restore the order of windows after relaunch:
https://github.com/pragacz/window-arranger-webext#readme
Hello! In windows explorer I use “List” view. If the filename doesn’t fit and I click on that file, the explorer automatically scrolls to the right side. Is there any way to stop it?
Hi, I don’t know, but that’s not a feature for 7+ Taskbar Tweaker since it’s not related to the taskbar. It might be a nice idea for Windhawk.
Hi guys – I mainly downloaded the Tweaker to stop all grouping of taskbar items so I can rearrange them like I could on XP, for example.
There is a problem though in that in the alt+tab selector (and win+tab) the order does not change.
Is there any way around this?
Alt+tab windows are ordered according to recent usage. So, for example, you can always click alt+tab repeatedly to switch between the two most recent windows. 7+ Taskbar Tweaker doesn’t have an option to change that, and it’s also out of scope since it’s not related to the taskbar.
Oh yeah you’re right! I didn’t spot that. I guess that’s fine then!
Also I get what you mean about it being kind of unrelated to the taskbar.
Thanks for the great app anyways! It’s nice to have more control of the taskbar on these more recent Windows releases as I do find them a bit more kind of clunky and limiting than the older ones.
For the last couple of days the start at start-up setting is not retained and Tweaker does not start at start-up, a short cut in the start-up folder gets deleted with every boot. Does anybody have any ideas how to fix this one?
Thanks in advance.
I think I may have solved this myself, I will share this in case it helps anybody else . . . as a last resort I set up a task in the task Scheduler to start Taskbar Tweaker at start-up, I also set the program to run in compatibly mode with windows 8 (I am running the latest version of Windows 10). Currently, fingers crossed, its working and Taskbar Tweaker is running at start-up once again.
It should just work – if you installed the standard version, it should run at startup unless you chose not to run it at startup the last time you exited. Make sure that the checkbox to run the tweaker at startup is enabled in the settings, and that the startup item is not disabled in Task Manager (the Startup tab).
One of the user reported that he had a similar problem caused by his antivirus silently removing the startup items. You might want to check that.
Also, maybe these links can help:
https://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/120-i-have-run-at-startup-checked-but-it-doesnt-is-this-a-bug-should-i-put-a-shortcut-in-the-startup
https://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/146-run-at-startup-does-not-work-win7-x6
Hi,
Is there a way to obtain a bigger font in the taskbar inspector?
That would make the tweaker so useful to me, that I would use it instead of the Windows 10 Task View to get an overview of what is open.
Thank you very much
Hi,
No, there’s no way to configure the font size. I might add it in the future if there’s enough demand for it.
Thanks for the program. Allowed me to disable annoying taskbar hover tooltips on Windows 10
Hi,
Is it possible to have a single app on the taskbar shows the label when mouse hovered/window focused? Currently the option 7tt provides is showing label on grouped app.
Thank you.
Hi,
No, that’s not possible with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. It was suggested before, but right now there’s no such option. See:
https://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/304-show-labels-on-hoveractive-window-for-non-grouped-items
does this work on windows 10 21h2?
Yes, since v5.12 (October 22, 2021).
Hi,
Having trouble after installing kb5021233 22h2 feature update from 21h2. I’m getting a box that says: “could not load library (107)” and that library initialization failed. v5.14 was working good but this update appears to have hosed it. Is anybody else experiencing this?
Hi, it was a 32-bit-only incompatibility introduced by a recent update of Windows 10. Please try 7+ Taskbar Tweaker v5.14.0.1 beta, I believe that it should fix it.
v5.14.0.1 beta working good again.
Thanks for this excellent software and quick fix.
7+ Taskbar Tweaker doesn’t work on windows 10 21h2
Why?
I had 7+ Taskbar Tweaker 5.13 (October 2022) installed and it was working fine, but when I upgraded to Windows 10 22H2 yesterday, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker 5.13 stopped working. So I came to this page and downloaded the latest version, 5.14. And it doesn’t work either. That is, it installs, but it doesn’t load the program’s option selection library, so it’s not functional.
*It works on Windows 10 21H2. I meant it doesn’t work on Windows 10 22H2, the newest version of that OS .
Hi, as mentioned in a nearby comment, a 32-bit-only incompatibility was introduced by a recent update of Windows 10. Please try 7+ Taskbar Tweaker v5.14.0.1 beta, I believe that it should fix it.
thank for 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, it is very good software.
can i run the installer with the following arguments for portable install? thank you very much!
7tt_setup.exe /S /portable /D=C:\Program Files\7+ Taskbar Tweaker
You’re welcome 🙂
Yes, that should work. Note that you have to run the installer as administrator in order to install 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to the Program Files folder.
in a word：best software! best man!
When the taskbar is in vertical mode, I see quite a lot of “wasted space” above and below the tray clock (Windows 10). It would be great if 7TT could do something in that respect. Thanks a lot for your wonderful software!
7+ Taskbar Tweaker crashes explorer when I try to enable either the beta or the standard version linked above on the latest Windows 11 insider Dev Build (Build 25267). I am using StartAllBack to bring back the legacy windows 10 taskbar in my case. The error is stating the following: Could not load library (5) Library Initialization failed, perhaps your Windows version is not supported. Is there any way to get it to work? I really want to use some of its functionality..
Right now, the latest Windows 11 insider build isn’t supported. I’ll look into adding support for it, which, if added, will be available to contributors. See this blog post for details:
https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-and-windows-10-insider-builds
Thanks so much for the quick response, I didn’t see that blog post before. Thanks so much for considering adding support to the dev build(s). I appreciate all the time you’re taking developing these things! Merry Christmas and happy new year!
I’ve just released v5.14.1.1 beta, you might want to try it. Merry Christmas 🙂
Sorry for the belated response, the beta version is working flawlessly on the latest dev version. Thank you so much for the update! Again, a very merry Christmas and best wishes!
Can we have an option to center the icons in the taskbar, please?
Hi there. I think I might be missing the setting on Taskbar Tweaker. Is there a way to make the width of the taskbar button variable to exactly fit the label text – i.e., no empty space on the button to the right of the text. I’m trying to save space on my taskbar without necessarily needing to group and hide all labels. I don’t need all the taskbar buttons to be the same size. The advanced option no_width_limit isn’t exactly what I am looking for. Thanks so much in advance
Hi. No, there’s no such option in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
Please add an option for windows 10 virtual desktops, to open new application windows in current desktop. By default if another window for an application is already opened, new windows open on the same desktop the previous window was in (in most applications, such as MS office, Voidtools Everything, …).
That’s not really related to the taskbar, so it’s unlikely to be added to 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. It might be possible to create a Windhawk mod for this. I might try to do something like this when I have some spare time.
Thank you Michael (for increasing my comfort), you’re doing a great work.
Thank You for increasing my productivity and comfort over the years <3
This app is great! I have been interested in vertical taskbars for a while, but I was always displeased with the unnecessary width. Now it’s been “fixed”! 🙂
My main gripe is that it still fills from top-to-bottom, i.e. the Start button gets pushed to the top of the screen. Is there any way to change this? I looked around a good bit but no dice yet.
In advanced options, there is a setting called “list_reverse_order”. I thought this might do it, but it didn’t seem to have an effect?
Enjoy 🙂
No, not with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
From the help file:
So yeah, it does something else and only for old Windows versions.
My settings are “group by application id” and “don’t combine grouped buttons”. I like that a lot.
But I have a dozen different games/programs that I would like to combine and group together in addition to the ungrouped buttons of the other programs.
I looked at other third party tools like TaskbarGroups but I did not like them. Is there any way that you or I can tweak this program so I can have my games grouped but everything else ungrouped?
Nevermind. I see that there is a Taskbar Inspector. I will try that.
PS – For the last two or three years, I have wished that the Taskbar Inspector window would stay open until I click a red x button. Can you make future versions do this? I don’t like that it auto closed by itself when I click outside the window.
It behaves that way if you hold Ctrl+Shift while opening it, or if you use the active window tracking Windows option.
No one is going to know to hold down Ctrl + Shift while clicking on the button to keep the window open. Even if you tell them, they might completely forget to do that in a few months or they will forget what keys to hold down. I think that this is a personal preference of yours but millions of other people might not share that preference. But that’s okay, I guess. Because you showed me the “drag within/between groups using right mouse button” option and that means I don’t need the Taskbar Inspector as much anymore. Thank you.
Well, the fact that the Ctrl+Shift option exists is better than nothing, right? 🙂 If there’s a demand for a more convenient way to trigger it, I might add one. For me personally, I find it rarely useful, but in the rare cases when it is, I remember to hold Ctrl+Shift. And it is documented in the help file, but you’re right that not many users read it all.
In any case, it looks that you found a better solution which is great.
I have everything that is pinned on my taskbar ungrouped, except for one game… I used Taskbar Inspector to have that game group always grouped. I then started some other games and I used the Taskbar Inspector to move them to the same group as that first game that I mentioned. But when I close those new games, they are no longer in the same group. The next time that I start the games, they are in their original groups again and I have to repeat all the steps over again. Is there a way to always make those other games always start in the same group?
There’s no way to do that with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
What you can do is to bind a shortcut with a specific Application ID.
One way achieving it is using win7appid:
http://code.google.com/p/win7appid/
You can also use the “Drag within/between groups using right mouse button” option to make it easier to move items between groups.
Is there a way to stack pinned items? Or is it only unpinned items?
Only unpinned items.
I tested Task Inspector earlier and put some games in same group as another game. But even though I later unpinned the games and they are in separate groups now, Task Inspector broke my games. I lost all my game saves (hours and hours of game progress). I lost my mod changes (changes to rename characters and stuff in the game). And I am going to have to reinstall every game and start each game from the beginning. Sheesh.
Sorry to hear that, but Task Inspector only manipulates the taskbar, it doesn’t touch files on the disk, so I find it hard to believe that it’s related.
Yeah, you are probably right. I spent another 20 minutes testing this out. I think the problem was I was editing a certain options.rpy file to rename the game and doing this messes everything up. But if I leave that file alone and just play the game normally, use the mod to rename characters in the game, and use your program to move games to different groups… everything seems to be working great.
Thank you for this awesome app! I recently had to reset windows and lost all of my settings. You had commented somewhere about a way to make the explorer icon stay an icon that opens explorer windows next to it. I can’t find your comment. I believe the setting is in advanced options. Can you post the instructions again?
Sounds like you’re looking for the Don’t group pinned items option. If you want it only for Explorer, you can configure it in Taskbar Inspector.