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 (1.78 MB, changelog)
Latest version: v5.14.3
Note: The installer can be used to extract a portable version. Refer to the FAQ below for details.
Beta version
7tt_setup_beta.exe (1.78 MB, changelog)
Latest beta version: v5.14.2.1
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
How to hide Taskbar Icons that are located in windows taskbar?
7+ Taskbar Tweaker doesn’t have such functionality.
Can you recommend application that do so?
I don’t use such an application, but I heard of RBTray, you might want to try it.
Doesn’t work on Win11 23H2 new beta build 22631.2129 with StartAllBack v3.6.11
yes, I can confirm this
Do you know whether it’s caused by the new Windows build, 22631.2129, or by this specific version of StartAllBack, v3.6.11?
it caused by the new Windows build, StartAllBack is also updated for new build.
Confirmed:
7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not load library (5)
Library initialization failed, perhaps your Windows version is not
supported.
Please try the newly released beta version, 5.14.1.3. Let me know whether it works for you.
Great! It works now 🙂
Thank you, works again
for a question, On windows 7 I was able to group programs that were not the same, like task manager and resource monitor, but on 10 these wont group, is there any setting or way to get programs like that to group? I have several that I like to keep together but they just wont on 10.
Windows 7 and 10 are similar in this regard. How were you doing this on Windows 7? You should be able to use Taskbar Inspector, or the “Drag within/between groups using right mouse button” option.
Check out this post:
https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-v2-0
I had to move off 7, and since then the drive it was installed on died, so I can’t go back and look, however on 7 I was able to right click task manager, drag it to resource monitor, and it would be its own group, however I can’t get the same to happen on 10, it seems a bit random as to what can and can’t be grouped
for instance, I can combine notepad++ with chrome, with everything, with discord, task manager and resource monitor, but when I try to combine resource monitor with the new task manager/notepad++ group it won’t do it.
I don’t remember having any restrictions on what grouped together on windows 7 beyond there being so many things they no longer make group thumbnails.
I can’t drag taskmanager to notepad++ but I can drag notepad++ to taskmanager
any idea what is causing this restriction and if there is an option to deal with it?
I just remembered that I do have another thing that messes with the task bar installed, openshell, any idea if something there conflicts?
That’s because task manager and resource monitor are running as administrator, so 7+ Taskbar Tweaker can’t affect their grouping. It behaves in the same way in Windows 7, too. One difference is that in Windows 7, task manager doesn’t run as administrator by default, but in Windows 10 it does.
thanks I think that explains everything.
how to keep open tasks to the right without dragging them. for instance I have pinned google chrome in the middle of other taskbar icons, but want to open to the far right whenever I open google chrome.
If you enable “Don’t group pinned items”, Chrome will open on the far right, but the pinned item will stay in the middle. There’s no option in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to move it to the right otherwise.
Useful tool. However, I miss a function to remove the “extra gap” between the SysTray icons. Especially in low resolutions the gap is quite big.
You can do it with the Windows 11 Taskbar Styler mod. Right now it’s not very straightforward, I’m working on making it easier.
Ok, but I have only Windows 10 …
In this case, you can use the tray_icons_padding advanced option. Advanced options can be accessed from the tray icon right click menu of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. Refer to the help file for more details.
Hey,
Great program, very user friendly interface and easy to use.
I would like to know if it’s possible to export the “disable_items_drag”
registry and make it work without running the program, and I’ll eleborate why.
I’m working as an IT technician at a school and I want to prevent students from rearranging the programs I’ve pinned on the taskbar, and the reason why I can’t run the program Is due to the custom antivirus that the municipality implemented on the computers.
I’ve tried showing and explaining to the head of the IT department that the program is safe and doesn’t have any virus but unfortunately no success.
Also I’ve tried all the local group policies to prevent changing settings in the taskbar but nothing works, the option to rearrange the pinned programs still works.
Hi John,
Unfortunately, that’s not possible, as it’s not a registry configuration. From the FAQ above:
v5.14.1.4 is doesn’t work on Win11 Beta Channel but v5.14.1.3 is still work
The preview channel builds are a moving target. Use whatever works for you. I believe that with the next update, v5.14.1.4 will be the version that works.
Can confirm this and couldn’t find a place to re-download 5.14.1.3.
Here, I uploaded the most recent beta version files:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/ypnlsg4303xr94uc3oasl/h?rlkey=r661ljn28zwiylha5r403a8kr&dl=0
Thanks
Hey man, I was wondering if there’s a toggle that hides the taskbar only on desktop?
Hi, do you mean, making the taskbar visible only if any other window is visible? There’s no such option in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
Oof okay, will there be any plans on updating the app and adding it as a feature? I’m sure many would want this one. Thank you!
No plans, sorry. If it’s very important to you and you’d like to sponsor it, contact me.
Hey, bro! In the latest version of Windows 11 (22631.2265), it seems to have become ineffective.
Hi, 22631.2265 is a preview build. Have you tried the beta version of the tweaker?
Yes, I understand that both the latest beta version v5.14.1.4 and the latest stable version v5.14.2 of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker have been tested for installation, and neither of them supports 22631.2265.
I just published v5.14.2.1 beta, please try it.
Thank you very much! It now runs perfectly on Windows 11 version 22631.2265.
NEW ERROR: “Taskbar wasn’t found (903)” – this FAIL popup happens even with NEW version 5.14.2 … anyone else having this happen?
I am using Portable version if that matters. (Windows 10 Version 22H2 OS Build 19045.3086)
PS: years ago that “$PLUGINSDIR” folder was required to work — it had some DLL files), but it is no longer included in recent versions — could something like that possibly help? Some patch with missing DLLs that Windows Update maybe overwrote?
Thanks for this amazing product!
That error means that 7+ Taskbar Tweaker couldn’t identify your taskbar. Are you using any other customization tools that might be interfering with it?
Regarding the “$PLUGINSDIR” folder, I’m not sure what you mean. See the FAQ for properly extracting the portable version of the tweaker.
No customizations; turns out my Windows 10 was being flaky, so I essentially “rebooted” — killed all instances of EXPLORER.EXE from Task Manager and then told it it Run a new one — and voila it now could “see” the Taskbar.
Whew!
Thanks for the speedy reply, I really appreciate your enduring support of this important product! And I hope over the years many others have donated to show gratitude. Peace. 🙏
I have a problem with taskbar windows. I never group windows into a taskbar. I usually have several browser windows open (I use Brave and Firefox) and I am used to having something in the first window (several tabs in one topic), in the second window I have another topic (again several tabs), etc. Unfortunately, after closing the browsers and opening them again when you open the windows, they are arranged in a random order – the first one jumps to the 3rd place, etc. (windows from one application are still next to each other on the taskbar, but mixed). I have to rearrange the order every time. Unfortunately, this also happens when I switch to the second desktop (Win+Tab) – after returning to the first desktop, the windows are already mixed.
Is there any way to do this? Is it possible to somehow permanently assign the order of windows within one application?
Unfortunately there’s no general solution for that. For Firefox, you can try this extension.
You can use the virtual_desktop_order_fix advanced options. Refer to the help file for details.
Unfortunately, it’s incompatible with build 22621.2283 (today’s cumulative Windows update).
Should be fixed in the newly released v5.14.3.
It is! Thank you!
Where I can download the previous version? After updating 7++ task bar tweaker to version 5.14.3 it stopped working with the error: “Could not load library (102)”. The previous version worked.
I am using Windows 11 (10.0.22621 Build 22621) with old task bar.
Error 102 means that the exe and the dll versions don’t match. Reinstalling the tweaker should help.
It actually start working after I installed latest beta version: v5.14.2.1 and then installed latest 5.14.3 version over the beta.
Great program and it does what i need to do but i’m not sure if i’m missing a button somewhere , but it doesn’t seem to remember that certain apps are part of a group. If i close the apps and re-open them they do not get re-assigned to the group and i need to re-assign them manually each time. Is there a way to save the “Group Template” ? So if i close the apps down they go back in their group when i open them again ?
Groups are indeed not remembered. See my answer here:
https://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/99-group-id-memory
Hello there,
first of all, thanks a bunch for your work.
After updating to v5.14.3 (I’m using W7) I get a notification once or twice a day on my PC. It says that the explorer.exe has to be restarted. As a consequence, the task bar disappears for a moment, and reappears again with items in a different order.
It’s not a super big deal, but a bit annoying.
Any chance to look into it, or any way to (for now) downloads v5.14.2?
Thanks a lot.
Michael
Hi Michael,
Seems like a crash. Can you please provide the details of the crash report? You can find the crash report in the Event Viewer. Look here for instructions: How do I find event logs when a program crashes?
Also, do you have other customization programs that may conflict with the tweaker?
Hi Michael,
here are the logs. The fist log is from the message that appears, the second one is from the crash report (event view error log). Sorry, it’ll be in German.
Explorer.exe stopped working:
Problemsignatur:
Problemereignisname: APPCRASH
Anwendungsname: Explorer.EXE
Anwendungsversion: 6.1.7601.23537
Anwendungszeitstempel: 57c44efe
Fehlermodulname: KERNELBASE.dll
Fehlermodulversion: 6.1.7601.24545
Fehlermodulzeitstempel: 5e0eb6bd
Ausnahmecode: e06d7363
Ausnahmeoffset: 000000000000b87d
Betriebsystemversion: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Gebietsschema-ID: 1031
Zusatzinformation 1: 8719
Zusatzinformation 2: 871917f7984f281de5dab5dd6604cbc9
Zusatzinformation 3: d59d
Zusatzinformation 4: d59dbb2eee77ea8ae8486e5ba12b2cbe
Event Viewer Error/Crash Report:
Name der fehlerhaften Anwendung: Explorer.EXE, Version: 6.1.7601.23537, Zeitstempel: 0x57c44efe
Name des fehlerhaften Moduls: KERNELBASE.dll, Version: 6.1.7601.24545, Zeitstempel: 0x5e0eb6bd
Ausnahmecode: 0xe06d7363
Fehleroffset: 0x000000000000b87d
ID des fehlerhaften Prozesses: 0xd44
Startzeit der fehlerhaften Anwendung: 0x01d9ed1ec1eb37c0
Pfad der fehlerhaften Anwendung: C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
Pfad des fehlerhaften Moduls: C:\Windows\system32\KERNELBASE.dll
Berichtskennung: 2a5ce0f4-5945-11ee-8512-7085c247c210
Hope that helps. Best,
Michael
Unfortunately the report doesn’t have enough information to diagnose the issue. All I can deduce is that the crash happens because
RaiseExceptionis called, which means that some code bails off explicitly. The tweaker’s code doesn’t do that, but it might cause this if it corrupts some state.To gather more info, can you create a crash dump and send it to me?
You can use ProcDump. Run
procdump64.exe -mp -e explorer.exeand trigger the crash. The dump will be written to a file, the details will be printed in the ProcDump console window.Also, have you tried using your computer without the tweaker? Could it be that the crashes are unrelated?
Hello,
absolutely!
I installed procdump and tried, but in the cmd it says it doesn’t recognize the command procdump.
Cheers
What steps did you take? Try the following:
C:\procdump.cd /d "C:\procdump"(or whatever folder you used).procdump64.exe -mp -e explorer.exe.Wow, it’s messed up in the message.
I uploaded the entire report as an image: https://imgur.com/a/N4pMjsI
Best,
Michael
Regarding v5.14.2, you can get old versions of the tweaker here, but I’d rather fix the problem.