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: v5.15.1
Note: The installer can be used to extract a portable version. Refer to the FAQ below for details.
Beta version
7tt_setup_beta.exe (1.79 MB, changelog)
Latest beta version: v5.15.1.2
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
Is there some way to close 7+ Taskbar Tweaker through scripts properly (equivalent to clicking “Exit” on the tray icon menu)? PostMessage of WM_CLOSE and SC_CLOSE obviously will do nothing since they seem to be used to hide the main window, while killing the process will crash explorer.exe because of the hooks.
Post a registered “7 Taskbar Tweaker” message with the parameters 0 (WPARAM) and 1 (LPARAM).
PostMessage(hTweakerWnd, RegisterWindowMessage("7 Taskbar Tweaker"), 0, 1);
That’s not true. The hooks get cleaned up correctly even if the tweaker is terminated. But of course, sending the appropriate message is cleaner and more elegant.
Thank you, that works. 🙂 You were right about the explorer crashes not being caused by Taskbar Tweaker. At least not on its own: I’m running another tool called StartKiller that removes the start button and to do this also seems to hook into explorer. I didn’t investigate it thoroughly, but when closing both Taskbar Tweaker and StartKiller in rapid succession, explorer.exe tends to crash. I resolved it through waiting till Taskbar Tweaker’s process was really gone before closing StartKiller (through WM_CLOSE in this case – killing StartKiller’s process does crash explorer.exe)
Thumbnail live previews are not always “live”. Many times I get a static picture/preview instead of a live preview.
This thing can be fixed somehow?
This is something the application has control of.
If the thumbnail doesn’t display the correct preview image, it has to be fixed in the application.
It seems with the latest version on a couple of PC’s I look after that if the option “Standard Windows Menu” is selected in the latest version, there is no menu at all on right clicking taskbar items.
(Jump List works fine, but it’s not what the people in question want!)
You’re not the first one to report the issue.
http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker/comment-page-9#comment-1714
I constantly use the standard menu, and have never encountered any issues with it.
Basically, it’s a Windows feature that can be activated by holding the Shift button while right clicking a taskbar button. The tweaker merely makes explorer think that the Shift button is always pressed when a taskbar button is right-clicked.
You might want to try closing the tweaker and Shift+Right-clicking a taskbar button. If that doesn’t work, the issue is not in the tweaker but somewhere else.
Yes, thanks, that was it. Very odd – I rebooted and the functionality came back immediately.
If I see it again I’ll try and track down the cause.
Hallo,
ich bin sehr begeistert von dem 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
Nun hätte ich noch eine Frage: Ich benutze den NetSpeedMonitor und die FreeLaunchBar und die Taskbar in doppelter Höhe. Nun ist NSM und der Ordner von FLB immer noch nebeneinander. Gibt es eine Möglichkeit beides übereinander zu ordnen um Platz zu sparen? Ein Foto könnte ich nachreichen.
Viele Grüße
André
Google Translator:
Hello,
I am very excited about the 7 + Taskbar Tweaker.
Now I have a question: I use the NetSpeedMonitor and FreeLaunchBar and the taskbar double height. Well NSM and the folder of FLB is still next to each other. Is there a way both to rule over one another to save space? A photo I could resubmit.
regards
André
Hi,
I’m not familiar with NetSpeedMonitor and FreeLaunchBar.
A screenshot might help.
Hi RaMMicHaeL,
Is this could be a feature?
Closing windows in Ctrl+Alt+Tab by Middle Click.
Can I ask it in UserEcho? or This is not related to 7TT.
It’s not related to 7TT, and is not planned in general.
You can create a ticket in the tracker, but I’m afraid it won’t have much effect.
Could you do something to allow the taskbar to be thin in vertical mode?
http://www.eightforums.com/customization/27837-thin-vertical-taskbar.html
This short hack works in Windows 7, although you have to repeat it once in a while, but apparently it doesn’t work in Windows 8. Is a workaround possible, even one that makes it permanent?
I’ve looked at the issue.
Please see my reply here:
http://tweaker.userecho.com/topic/148026-remove-vertical-taskbar-minimum-width-restriction/
Hi!
How about support for Windows 8.1?
Hi,
There’s an experimental version available:
http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-experimental-version-with-partial-windows-8-1-preview-support
Wow, thank you very much!
Hi, have been using 7TT since the beginning. Keep up the great work!
I’ve got a feature request; an option to set (increase) the amount of recent and pinned items in the jump lists (taskbar right-click menu).
thnx.
ps. your comment form mail & url are reversed…
http://bit.ly/1b6KEhV 😉
That’s an antispam measure 🙂
I feel dump. Thnx.
Yep, 7TT rocks.
Great features. Pretty much just what I wanted, which is rare to find.
One wish-list item?
It would be great to allow _some_ programs to group+collapse, while leaving other un-grouped.
Eg, If I have Instant Message with my colleagues all over the place, it would be nice if I could group+collapse just these, leaving all other items as normal.
I have lots of windows open all the time (38 right this minute), and although I LOVE 7TT since it can keep my windows in chronologically opened order, there are some things (like Instant Messages) that are better collapsed.
Love your work, either way.
Use Taskbar Inspector 🙂
http://rammichael.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Taskbar-Inspector.png
Holy cow! I didn’t know that was there.
You really have thought of everything I could want!
I think I have donated before, but you can have another $10 of my money. Donation completed.
Thanks again.
Thank you for the support!
That is the probably best thing I have seen in Windows since windows! I’ve only used it five minutes but that’s more than enough to justify a donation.
Maybe you want to write about the Inspector in the text of the post above? (I can’t watch the video from here.)
Also, it would be really great if there were a faster way of (un)grouping, like a checkbox column in the Inspector or an extra entry on the hover or right-click menu.
Anyway, great stuff!
Thanks!
I’ve added it to the FAQ.
There’s an option to decombine on hover.
To quickly detach an item from a group, you can use the “Drag within/between groups using right mouse button” option – just drag the item with your right mouse button out of the taskbar.
> just drag the item with your right mouse button out of the taskbar.
Ah, excellent! This and the ad-hoc groups with random names (which I only noticed after my first comment) are really useful!
Thank you; it works! 🙂 ungroups Windows 7 taskbar similar multiple windows.
I’m getting this message on explorer restart:
7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not open explorer’s process
Somehow Tweaker is no longer auto loaded on the start-up of windows (windows 7 64 Professional).
When I try to run it from main configuration window, I’m getting this message: “Not injected into explorer”
I don’t have an anti-virus running. What setting of windows could prevent a tweaker from launching?
For some reason, the tweaker fails to open the explorer process.
Here’s a version (portable) that shows a more detailed error message when it fails to open the process:
http://ge.tt/api/1/files/8d3pQFo/0/blob?download
Post the message it outputs for you.
I’m getting 2 popup messages on start of “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe”
But no alert on explorer strart-up.
“OpenProcess() of PID 3484 failed with error 0x00000005”
“7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not open explorer’s process”
Do I need to check some permission? Registry?
0x00000005 is an access denied error, which means Windows doesn’t allow the tweaker to access the explorer’s process.
I don’t know what might be the cause. Sometimes security software, such as antiviruses, cause the issue, but you’ve said you don’t have an antivirus.
You might want to try running the tweaker as administrator and see whether it changes anything.
Also, PID is the processor ID. You might want to verify it against the value in Task Manager (“Details” tab), although I don’t believe that’s the problem.
I already checked process 3484, and it is in fact regular explorer.exe process.
I did try to run Tweaker as Admin, but it didn’t change anything.
Is there some file permission I can check?
Does explorer usually run under admin permission? I think it does when I restart it under task manager.
Windows 7 is driving me crazy without your tool. Please help me out to figure out what is going on.
That shouldn’t be about files, the tweaker tries to open the process in memory.
No.
I don’t know what can be the issue.
Try this one, it attempts to open the explorer’s process with different access parameters:
http://ge.tt/api/1/files/68FFTGo/0/blob?download
Archive above seems to be broken, I cannot get any files out of it
Sorry, here it is again:
http://ge.tt/api/1/files/4xwgkJo/0/blob?download
I’m getting this on start up:
Access: 0x0010047A, error: 0x00000005
Access: 0x00100478, error: 0x00000005
Access: 0x00100438, error: 0x00000005
Access: 0x00000438, error: 0x00000005
Access: 0x00000430, error: 0x00000005
Access: 0x00000410, error: 0x00000005
Access: 0x00000400, error: 0x00000005
OK, that means the tweaker can’t open the process even with the most basic rights – PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION (0x400).
I really don’t know how to investigate it further. I’ve seen a similar issue with ZoneAlarm. Other than that, I don’t have any clue about what’s happening.
I got it:
Permission on explorer.exe file were set to full rights. Once I set those permissions to read & execute only (for admins), The process didn’t require similar permissions to be injected into and worked as expected.
Thank you for you help.
Seems to me that removing extra gap between unopened items is not working when taskbar is pinned to the side of the screen, instead of the bottom.
Yes, the option has no effect when the taskbar is vertical.
I probably should mention this in the help file.
After every turning on of pc. Only one pinned item has problem with labels. In Taskbar Inspector program Vlc has random_group_(number that changes at every turning on of pc). http://i.imgur.com/zLaEufm.jpg
It’s not big problem. I need only change labels to hidden every time. But if is there an easy fix I will do it. (I already tried unpin/pin, installed new version of vlc – always the same)
Try unpinning the icon, then restarting VLC.
What does Taskbar Inspector show?
It’s the same. Only after restart or off/on random_group number changes.
After unpinning, check the following folder for VLC shortcuts:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
It had 2 vlc shortcuts. Unpined vlc and deleted both shortcuts. Pinned again and after restart, everything is fine 😀 Weird problem solved :/
11/10 for user support
Is there a way to start the program so it automatic’ly minimizes to the system tray? Because I suspect it has been causing a problem with my win8 os, I have it set up as a scheduled task 1 minute after log-on. But then it goes to the taskbar with an open window. I would like it to open straight into the icon tray without any window to close. Would command line arguments like /mininized, /min. or /systray work? Thanks for helping disable win8 stupidty on the taskbar!
Use the -hidewnd command line switch.
hi there, i think you have figured this out but i cant seem to do it on the taskbar tweaker…
When i open something – say IE, then i want it to be the last icon in the task bar but instead its going next to the other IE opened icons. How using the taskbar tweaker can i do this?
thanks
its ok ive done it! thanks !!!
http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker
In that link – how did you get the “flatness” around the maximize, minimize and close buttons in that picture?
It’s Windows 8.
Can you please add an option for “Don’t focus on window” on when I right click on a task bar item?
I remember trying to implement such an option, but it didn’t work. If the focusing is disabled, the menu just won’t show up.
Great program. I finally can hide the Show Desktop button that I never used to save some space in my small laptop screen!
Another feature, I was thinking that would be a good addition, is to hide the AM/PM in the clock in 12-hour time. What I found to work is change the “Long time” format to “h:mm” and the “Short date” format to “M/dd” in the settings (when the task bar is set to “Use small icons”, the date format affects the white space even though it’s not shown). However, when I adjust that, it affects all the other display of time and date (e.g. folder showing date/time is affected) while I only want the clock (current time) to not show AM/PM.
You think this is a good and feasible feature to add?
There’s a suggestion for that in the tracker:
http://tweaker.userecho.com/topic/164567-custom-date-format/
Currently such option is not planned.
I checked out the other program in that comment … it seems to work but with bugs — the rendering is different from the system; and when the hour changes from single digit to double digits, the whole task bar re-adjusts :/
This should have been a reply to the top comment …
I’m not familiar with TClockEx, but using a third party tool is probably the only solution for now if you don’t want to change the time format globally.
7+ Taskbar Tweaker is a so cool thing! Just what I’ve so long been looking for after getting Windows 8. Many thanks to the author! Just installed — works well by now. Just one small suggestion: It would be good to have item “7+ Taskbar Tweaker” in the task bar context menu.
I don’t think so. The tweaker is a tool that needs to be configured only once.
Love this tool and donated too. Unfortunately however, after I upgraded to Windows 8.1 Preview, the program no longer works. Here’s what I’m talking about:
http://snag.gy/OnZw9.jpg
Any plans on supporting Windows 8.1?
Thank you for the donation!
Currently Windows 8.1 is not officially supported. An experimental version for Windows 8.1 Preview is available, which you might want to try out: http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-experimental-version-with-partial-windows-8-1-preview-support
Small suggestion:
A click on the tray icon opens the Taskbar Inspector.
Another Click should close it.
(Like Battery/Speakers/Net Tray Icons)
Done in v4.3.
Thank You. It works very well.
hi, 7tt not work in win8.1
Hi,
Please see my reply above:
http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker/comment-page-15#comment-3115
Howdy,
Love 7TT! However, I can’t find a decent virtual desktop that works with it. Is there a version of VirtuaWin that should work with it? V4.4 doesn’t for me. The only two that preserve the taskbar order when switching desktops are WinVMD and Sondle Virtual Desktop Assist, but neither of them can move windows between desktops or allow a window to exist in all desktops. Besides those, I’ve tried these, which don’t maintain taskbar order: Virtual Dimension, Dexpot, gekko, Deskspace, CubeDeskTop. I’m running Windows 7 Pro 64bit and also TrueXMouse. Is there some trick to the configuration to make that work or am I just out of luck?
Thanks!
Tom
Hi Tom,
First of all, preserving the taskbar order has nothing to do with 7TT.
VirtuaWin 4.4 should preserve taskbar order (they call this feature “dynamic taskbar”), as well as Dexpot.
But as far as I know, the support is limited to Windows 7. Perhaps you have Windows 8, and that’s why it doesn’t work for you.
Howdy,
Actually it’s Windows 7 Enterprise Service Pack 1 (from Control Panel->System). True X-Mouse Gizmo is version 1.4.
VirtuaWin v4.4 still has this disclaimer in its Help (under Setup Dialog, Expert Tab, Advanced Options, “On desktop change preserve”):
“Note: The dynamic taskbar feature is not currently supported in Windows 7.”
The SourceForge VirtuaWin discussion is old and confused on this issue, but regardless, is unresponsive to my question. Some people seem to have made it work with some version of VirtuaWin (I have tried other versions as well). Is there some configuration detail or trick I may be missing to make that work? Anybody?
Tom
Well, the changelog says it’s supported:
http://virtuawin.sourceforge.net/?page_id=2
“Added dynamic taskbar support for Win7”
So the message is probably obsolete.
I’m not using VirtuaWin myself, so I can’t verify how well, if at all, the feature works.
Can you please set your tool as Open Source in http://sourceforge.net/ ?
Would be very useful for other
any word on an update for windows 8.1 rtm ?? it wont work on it, says it’s designed for windows 7/8
I’m aware that Windows 8.1 RTM is available, but I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet.
From a quick glance I had the impression that it’s not too different from Windows 8.1 Preview.
For now, an experimental version for Windows 8.1 Preview is available, which appears to work equally well on Windows 8.1 RTM:
http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-experimental-version-with-partial-windows-8-1-preview-support
thanks a mill !! will let you know if there’s any problems
Hi, I have new Windows 8 corporate laptop and I can’t hide ‘Show Desktop’ button. The clock and date and icons from tray move to the right, but the button itself still persists. Grouping and other things work OK.
Hi,
I’ve never encountered such an issue.
Can you specify the exact version of your OS?
C:\Users\lszczepa>ver
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
The only thing I changed is modifield themeux for Win7 style buttons, and I installed ‘StartIsBack’ program, to have a Start button again with Win7 style start menu. Under this url you can see my desktop without and with ‘show desktop’ button “hidden”:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/rsz78564glnjald/hiddenshowdesktop2.jpg
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1r1wktvb8b3jm15/nohiddenshowdesktop1.jpg
I couldn’t reproduce the issue with StartIsBack. Perhaps the theme causes this.
Is the button clickable?
It was theme indeed. I changed theme to oryginal Win8 and button disappeared according to selected option ‘hide show desktop’. Sorry for inconvience. I have to download some better theme.
Now under Windows 8 there are two taskbars, as I have two monitors. It would be good to have separate options for that second taskbar.
What options would you like to control selectively?
Option to separate settings on both taskbars. For example – grouping on first one, and no grouping on the second.
For now, such functionality is not planned.
Hi RaMMicHaeL,
many thanks for this great tool, would there be a possibility to implement “Close all windows” group function for the mouse middle click? That would make the tool perfect for me, thanks!
Hi Alex,
Such feature is not planned.
Currently you can use Taskbar Inspector to quickly close a group: double click the AppID to select the group items, right click and choose “Close”.
The download link returns the message “Download does not exist!”
Is it still available?
Works for me.
Can you paste the URL where you see this message?
Same problem on the page http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker with download link. Found a solution.
Download link points to http://rammichael.com/downloads/7tt_setup.exe which gave the same “Download does not exist!” message.
Changed the link to http://rammichael.com/downloads/7tt_setup.exe?download at FF address bar and got the file.
Thanks for the info.
I believe the issue was caused by a caching plugin I use.
I added the downloads directory to the excluded list, which hopefully fixed the issue.
Please tell me in case you encounter the issue again.
Hey RaMMicHaeL,
Although your Taskbar Tweaker already works wonders for me, i still (after 4 years on win 7) can’t get used to the left alignment of icons on the taskbar. I think centering the icons would help me alot (similar to dock in Mac OSX), could you consider that for future releases? Thanks in advance, George
Hi George,
Such feature was suggested before:
http://tweaker.userecho.com/topic/142218-center-superbar-icons-windows-78/
Currently I don’t have plans about implementing it.
For the time being, vote for the suggestion to reflect it’s interest.
Thanks anyway 😉
And by the way, did you ever encounter flashing icons on the taskbar (when a window wants to steal keyboard focus while typing and windows prevents it), which is great if done in a non distractive way, there’s gotta be a way for icons to just be highlighted instead of flashing.
Best regards, George
That never bothered me, but here’s the first solution Google provided:
http://superuser.com/questions/316879/how-can-i-disable-flashing-icons-on-windows-7-taskbar
Hello,
One feature I think would be very useful is the ability to press ctrl and select multiple windows in the taskbar. This used to be a feature in XP and Vista, but was apparently removed in Windows 7. This feature would be useful to those people who do not group/combine windows. Please let me know if you can implement such a feature (and no, grouping items is not the solution). Here’s an image of what I’m talking about:
http://cdn.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/taskbar4.png
Hi,
Such feature is not planned.
Currently you can use Taskbar Inspector to control multiple windows.
But it seems like a simple feature to implement, as it was on previous versions of Windows. Just something like a checkbox with “ctrl to select windows” on it or something. The reason I’m asking for it is because there’s no other third party programs with that capability. I’d download one if there was one but there isn’t. It seems like such a no-brainer feature to have with this program. Please consider it, as I think many people would find it useful.
Unfortunately, it’s not a simple feature to implement.
The taskbar was completely reworked in Windows 7, and this feature simply doesn’t exist.
Hello and a huge thank you for the tweaker 🙂 Having used Ubuntu’s Unity Launcer, this is definitely something that helps me get back to using W7 because programs I need are not supported on Ubuntu. There is still one thing missing though, actually I ran into your tweaker while searching for a solution to this specific issue.
Are you familiar with the Unity Launcher?
Basically what I’m looking for is similar scroll-on-icon behaviour as in the UL. What this tweaker is lacking:
1. Ability to use the wheel on a combined icon so that first the windows are brought to front one by one, then browsing through the open windows of said stack.
2. Ability to switch the wheel directions. I’d prefer wheel down as “maximize/bring to front/browse combined open” abd wheel up for minimizing.
Nope.
I didn’t completely understand, what’s the difference between “brought to front one by one” and “browsing through”?
The browsing is done through some other interface?
Anyhow, I guess the closest you can get is by using the option “Cycle through windows”.
The direction is hardcoded, and is reversed when the taskbar is on the top.
I can add a registry option to reverse it.
You’re welcome 🙂
Thank you for your reply and excuse my language, I’m not a native English speaker so my thoughts might not always come through as intended. I’ll try to explain the first part better and more simply for myself 🙂 However if you’d like to try the launcher, you can easily make a bootable USB drive with Ubuntu 13.04. You are then able to try it via the stick without having to install it on a hard drive.
By “icon” I mean what is on the taskbar, thumbnails pop up on hover.
On the UL
If the window is minimized
– scrolling on the icon brings it up and front
– if there are more instances and they are minimized, scrolling on the icon brings them up one by one
If the window is on the screen
– scrolling on the icon brings it to front
If there are more instances (tricky part)
– Scrolling brings the windows to front one by one
– There is no interface
(- It seems that if there are for example A1, A2 and B1 where letter=program, number=instance, in an order [B1,A1,A2] from front to back, scrolling on A icon once makes the order [A1,B1,A2] and scrolling once more it is [A2,B1,A1] so basically it returns back to where it was brought to front. So tricky to explain!)
– It’s almost like “Cycle through windows” but for one icon at a time. Cycle through windows doesn’t feel as intuitive, for myself that is.
However this is of course only my pursuit of the perfect combination of Windows and Ubuntu. If there is only one instance of some program open, the tweaker’s options are perfect but if there are more, I’ll have to wait for the thumbnails to come up, move my mouse and click/scroll on it. On UL this all can be done on one move so it’s much more intuitive.
Neither am I, no need to worry about it 🙂
So it remembers the Z-order before bringing the window to front, and restores it before bringing up the next window.
Windows doesn’t work that way. When a window is brought to the foreground, it’s Z-order changes, and the previous value is forgotten.
Probably the closest thing Windows provides is the Aero Peek, where you can temporary look at a window, even if it’s behind other windows (or minimized), without changing the Z-order.
If you choose to use it, it’s probably better to not enable the “Cycle through windows” option. By default, a single click on a combined button will bring up the thumbnails, which you can hover over to activate the Aero Peek.
It’s possible since v4.3 with a registry option.
Love this tool, it does not seem to be working under Windows 8.1
Currently Windows 8.1 is not officially supported. An experimental version for Windows 8.1 Preview is available, which you might want to try out: http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-experimental-version-with-partial-windows-8-1-preview-support
I was wondering if it was possible to utilize the “Don’t group” option for the system tray icons. What I mean by this is that normally, when you open a taskbar item and if there was previously an equivalent taskbar item already on the taskbar, the newly launched taskbar item is placed somewhere near the previously equivalent taskbar item.
The “Don’t group” option seems to disable that behavior. However, it does not seem to apply to the system tray. Is there any way to make it so that it does?
With that being said, this is great software. I’m not sure if I would be able to stomach windows 7 without it. :Shrugs:
As far as I know, that’s not possible.
Yes, the “Don’t group” option was designed to affect only the task list.
Note that tray icon “grouping” is quite different from taskbar item grouping.
I wouldn’t call it “grouping”, but rather “position remembering”.
In most cases, a single application doesn’t create more than one tray icon, and the “position remembering” feature allows you to reorder the icons once, and Windows will keep that order for you, no matter which application was launched first.
In case your app creates more than one tray icon, it can be argued that the app is badly designed.
In any case, I’m not familiar with a way to disable the feature, neither do I plan to implement it in the tweaker.
But you can create a suggestion in the tracker, so people could vote for it:
http://tweaker.userecho.com/
I see. However I don’t think that as the most important part of what I’ve described, it’s mostly a neat bonus for otherwise working system.
I think the best solution in this case would be an alternative for “Cycle through windows”, that being “Cycle through group”. Yet again, personal preference, but the more options the merrier, eh? 🙂
I think you’re confusing “Cycle between taskbar buttons” with “Cycle through windows”.
http://i.imgur.com/ufUqFQv.png
“Cycle through windows” is actually “Cycle through group”.
Except for the Z-order stuff, it differs from the desired behavior in the fact that it activates with a left click instead of a wheel scroll.
I was wondering if it was possible to have a feature to disable the dynamic color running programs get when moused over. The colors are based of the icon of the running program. See http://i.msdn.microsoft.com/dynimg/IC294974.png to see what I mean.
I’m not aware of a way to turn it off.
I think I found a bug, whenI check the option “Minimize/restore when mouse is over” and then “Taskbar buttons” nothing happens when I hover my mouse top of the taskbar buttons, I’m not sure if this is a bug or not but I think that this feature has never worked yet.
Works for me.
http://i.imgur.com/d3nxasP.png
1. What OS do you have? Windows 7/8/8.1 32/64-bit.
2. Is it the only option that doesn’t work? e.g. does “Minimize/restore when mouse is over” – “Thumbnails” work?
1. Windows 7 Professional N x64 SP1
2. I don’t use thumbnails at all, so I’m not sure if it’s the only option which is not working.
Works for me on Windows 7 x64 too.
Could you check it please?
Temporary turn on thumbnails, turn on “Minimize/restore when mouse is over” – “Thumbnails”, and see whether scrolling your mouse over thumbnails minimizes/restores the window.
I didn’t know that I had to scroll too, it works.
Well, it’s under the “mouse wheel” category. I thought it’s obvious.
Good to know it works though 🙂
thanks for the great tool.
when i use the option “dont group” it doesnt show the right icon for each button.
for example: open multiple explorer windows with different icons like (desktop explorer and any folder), chose “dont combine grouped buttons”, icons will change . but when you select “dont group” they will all have the same icon.
ps with uncombined buttons you cant move buttons feely as with ungrouped buttons
That’s how Windows works, and is not related to the “Don’t group” option.
With the “Always combine, hide labels” taskbar option, icons of the AppId are shown. With the “Never combine” option, icons of each window are shown.
For example, try opening My Computer as a single item for both options. You’ll see the item has different icons with both taskbar configurations, even if the tweaker is not running.
Excellent program.
My favorite feature is the ability to change the hoovering over the task bar to Tooltip. I think it could be a little better though…
Is it possible to have the normal tooltip text delay for the first item you hover over, but then when hovering over any other items (without leaving the taskbar area) it would be nice to have no delay in the tooltip text? That way you can quickly look through the text for all of the windows if you need to.
Done in v4.3.1.
Awesome! I just donated $15. Thanks for putting that in.
You’re welcome 🙂
Thank you for the donation!
This program is fantastic! Thank you for creating it, and for doing it so well.
I especially love the option to change the volume by scrolling in the notifications area. It’s a simple and brilliant solution, and I cannot imagine doing it any other way. 7TT completes my Windows 7 experience and is well worth a donation.
I have four suggestions:
1) If I have enabled the option to left click to cycle through windows in a combined item, I would like a linked option that would minimise windows that previously were minimised once I cycle past them. That way I won’t end up with all the windows restored when I go looking for just one.
2) Related to point 1 – instead of cycling through by clicking, you could instead hover over a combined item and use the scroll wheel to cycle through the open windows?
3) I keep pretty much all my programs (30) pinned to the taskbar (so being able to hide the ‘Show Desktop’ button and remove the gaps to free up space helps, thanks!).
Having so many pinned items means that when a few unpinned apps are opened, I end up with two rows of items, and I have to cycle between them with the little arrows. It would be useful to be able to scroll between these rows of programs with the mouse wheel or arrows keys when the mouse is over the taskbar
4) related to point 3, it would be awesome if I could choose the pinned programs I don’t necessarily need that much, so that they’ll get pushed to the second row by unpinned programs, keeping the current unpinned apps and my more important apps on the first row.
As a side note, I use another program, ‘StartKiller’ to hide my Start Orb, freeing up yet more space. Perhaps that’s an option you could consider including in future releases of 7TT, as a matter of completeness?
Thanks again, keep up the great work!
You should post these ideas to the Tweaker @ UserEcho page. I know, for one, that there is already a recommendation there for hiding the start button (I’ve already voted in favor of it). + there are many other good ideas that you can vote on.
You’re welcome 🙂
Thank you for the donation.
1) A similar feature was requested a while ago.
Please see my reply here:
http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker/comment-page-15#comment-3176
It might be worth mentioning that Aero Peek can be as well activated from the Alt+Tab window, in addition to the taskbar thumbnails.
2) No, that’s currently not possible.
Again, you could use Aero Peek here.
3) Currently there’s no such option, but it was suggested before.
Please vote to express your interest:
http://tweaker.userecho.com/topic/155520-enable-taskbar-scrolling-multipage-taskbar-by-mouse-wheel/
4) That’s not possible, and is not likely to be implemented in the near future. I can suggest you, though, to try and minimize the amount of your pinned items.
To keep my taskbar clean, I created a folder where I put all my needed shortcuts. Then I used Quick Folder Menu to pin an icon which opens a menu of that folder.
You might as well try using the start menu, which can find and launch apps by typing their first letters, or try another launcher.
This, too, was already suggested:
http://tweaker.userecho.com/topic/253984-please-provide-possibility-to-hide-start-button-in-windows-781/
I’ll consider it for the next versions.
Thanks for your feedback!
First, great. Especially liked the “remove extra gap between items”.
I would like an option of alt+tab to go to Aero Peek. 😀
Future Updates I would like:
Make the popup notification widow wider
Question:
Is it possible the get notifications in the taskbar (like android) about mail, software updates etc….
Cheers,
😉
What popup notification are you talking about?
Not out of the box, but perhaps there’s software which provides similar functionality.
RaMMicHaeL Wrote:
Not out of the box, but perhaps there’s software which provides similar functionality.
-What is it? can you provide it’s function with taskbar tweaker too.
RaMMicHaeL Wrote:
What popup notification are you talking about?
–
Offtopic: can you decrease the number of replies in one page.
What are you looking for?
There’s no universal notification system for Windows, but there are apps here and there.
e.g. you can Google for “Gmail notifications for windows” – here’s one I found:
http://windows7.gmailnotifier.com/
As for software downloads, usually programs provide a custom mechanism to notify about updates, if at all. But as far as I know there are programs that keep track of all of your software, and notify when there are updates. I don’t use any of them, so I can’t recommend you one specific app.
Currently the limit is 50 comments. I can decrease it, but I prefer not to do so, because it will break all existing links to comments.
Why are you asking? Do the comments slow down the page for you?
Thanks.
The page dont fully open with chrome. Stops mid way.
When I open the comments page in mobile, iit loads two times(same things two times, something must be wrong with the code)
Forgot to mention, there is an image of the notification popup window in my second reply under your question. I used “img src” code. Dont know why it dont show
Works fine for me, both with Firefox and Chrome.
Perhaps the issue is on your side?
Loading this page give me a headache. That’s my problem, just leave it.
Notification popup http://www.uploadking.biz/out.php/i324732_notification.jpg
It would be great if there is an option in 7+TT to resize that window.
That window is automatically resized by the Windows OS. As more icons are placed in there it gets wider (and taller). Overriding the default behavior seems unnecessary, and would most likely lead to a spacial conflict (it’s very close to the screens edge).
Thanks bro ! What a relief…As an ADHDer I must thank you for helping me be able to regain the capacity to put all of the individual WINDOWS (not just apps) in the order I WANT. W7 is frankly a dog and I wish I could return to XP (the search alone would be worth it).
Thanks again!
Can you add a feature to disable start button?
Please vote:
http://tweaker.userecho.com/topic/253984-please-provide-possibility-to-hide-start-button-in-windows-781/
One feature that I really miss is the ability to quickly restart 7tt without having to go to close it from the tray menu, then go back and restart it in the Start Menu. This is particularly annoying when I use the AWESOME advanced options you’ve setup in the registry. It would be nice if we could just right-click on the tray icon and click “Restart” or “Reload”.
This shouldn’t be too difficult to implement.
Hey Chaz,
I created a topic on this exact idea a few days ago.
Go give it a vote @ Reinject or Reload 7TT
Thank you so much for adding the option to remove the Start button in 8.1! Also I agree with chaz’s suggestion, a one-click way to restart so registry changes can be applied would be useful.
Go give a vote @ UserEcho – Reinject or Reload 7TT
Hi RaMMicHaeL,
2 Problems in Update process:
1. When at the first time I click on the arrow of “Changelog”, it stuck, and I need to exit and restart 7TT. Second time it works properly.
This issue was in previous versions too.
2. If I want to ignore this time from been updating, till next time I open my computer (then I need reminder), Why every time I hover 7tt Icon, I get the Update balloon?
Couldn’t reproduce any of the above. Also, similar issues weren’t reported before.
1. Do you mean that the tweaker hangs? I can’t think of an explanation for that, but if you could come up with a way to reproduce it, I’ll look at it.
2. You’re saying that you check the “Don’t notify for this version” checkbox, and after a restart the tweaker shows a notification again? Or did I misunderstood?
1. Sorry, I can’t show it. I’m after “the first time”.
2. I didn’t check the “Don’t notify for this version” checkbox. I want it to notifty me the next TurnOn of computer. But when I close the Update window, the balloon shouldn’t appear again.
2. That’s how it’s supposed to work. To disable the notification you can either update, check to not notify for this version, or disable update checking altogether.
I aware to these possibilities.
I’m just write down, what is acceptable to do, within any other software in the world.. and what I was needed..