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: v5.15.2
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 version 23H2 and older 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
Thank you so much, nice tool.
Hi, nice tool – I looked for reordering grouped apps (browser) as are random after restore. Works fine, but… Using within VirtuaWin (desktop switcher) makes this order only until I switch desktops – after back it backs to initial 🙁 I would appropriate if you can cover it as well 🙂
Hi Martin,
It will likely never be part of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. See my reply here.
Hi, there is already RTM version of Windows 19041.153. But 7+ Taskbar Tweaker doesn’t support it yet.
Hi,
The update wasn’t released yet as far as I know, but for now the beta version of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker should support it.
also hoping to see 19041.172 work so that i can begin to rebuild my own pc fresh
ive tested 19041.172 in vm and 7tt 5.8.0.3 doesnt work with it.
the most important feature im looking for is having taskbar icons without grouping and also without text. in fact –
is there a registry hack for such
Can you provide more details? Do you get an error message? Do all options, or some options don’t work?
Also, do you have an access code?
i dont have access code. is that whats needed? it doesnt hook. says my version isnt supported, some early access program or something.
i did get popup asking continue or quit.
It’s required for experimental support of insider Windows 10 builds, yes. Please see this blog post for details.
Thank you for the support. You can get the access code here. Please let me know if you need more help with it.
Just tested again with 19041.264 (I’m not an insider any more, but installed the supposed RTM 19041.207 and updated on the regular stream).
Beta v5.8.0.4 initially appears to be working, but if I enable virtual_desktop_order_fix it crashes as soon as I try reordering taskbar icons.
I can’t donate because I don’t have any money to do so
ive just sent a donation
I just tried 5.8.0.4 on 19041.207.
Initially it appears to work, but I changed setting to disable grouping, and enabled virtual_desktop_order_fix.
With these settings, if I try to reorder icons, the Taskbar crashes/reloads.
ARM not supported.
Best task bar tweaker to date; makes productivity blown out of the water; love replacing middle click with processhacker taskbar, mouse driven volume control and all the rest; way ahead of microsoft. would love to see an option to change color, windows 10 is limited.
EXCELLENT TWEAKER!!!
You responded to my last question, but when I came here to see it, I couldn’t find it. so I will ask it again.
How long after the next public release of Win10 will TT release a compatible version ? or will the current stable release and / or beta version cover it ?
I installed a preview build to version 2004 and TT broke. So I have rolled back to the last stable public build and TT works again.
Here’s your previous question and my answer.
Depends on the amount of required changes and my spare time. Shouldn’t take long, but there’s no deadline I can or want to commit to.
The beta version has some amount of support, but some options might not work. It’s available to contributors. See my answer to your original question for details.
Hi,
First of all I would like to say that 7TT is one of the best Windows Tweaker programs I have seen so far. Maybe even the best.
Thanks for the development and support!
Is it possible to implement a similar function to “virtual_desktop_order_fix”, except that the order of the windows is kept when the windows are moved between the monitors in a multi-monitor setup?
Best regards
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback.
It should be possible, but it would be less straightforward than “virtual_desktop_order_fix”. With “virtual_desktop_order_fix”, when you switch to a new virtual desktop, the windows of the previous virtual desktop are left behind, and their order is just remembered. When you move a window to a different monitor, it’s gone from the previous one. How should its location be remembered? By the window to the left/right? What if it’s gone or moved? Some “best effort” algorithm can be implemented, but I’m not going to work on it, at least not in the near future, sorry. If you’re into programming, you can try to come up with something by using the 7+ Taskbar Tweaking Library.
Thanks for the information but I have tried to run it the antivirus marks me as a virus, which can be?
It’s probably a false positive. Which antivirus is that? Have you tried contacting the company about it?
Hi,
I’m using 7+ taskbar tweaker to make my left-positioned taskbar as slim as possible (setting “no_width_limit” = 1). However, every time when I connect my laptop to a secondary display and switch it to “extend” or “secondary” display mode, the taskbar will become wider, or worse, become as wide as the default taskbar width. Each time I need to manually adjust the width of the taskbar back to the minimal level. Since I frequently switch between single and multiple displays, this manual adjustment is quiet annoying. Is there a way to solve this problem? My laptop’s OS is Win10.
Thank you!
Adam
Hi Adam,
Does the problem happen only with the main taskbar, or with the secondary taskbar on the connected monitor, too? In any case, I’ll look at it when I have some spare time and a laptop with an external monitor to play with.
Hi,
The problem happens with the main taskbar (both main taskbar with single display and with multiple displays). I didn’t use secondary taskbar often but I just test and it seems that the width limitation works fine with the secondary taskbar when I switch from “PC Screen Only” to “Extend”. The scale of my primary display is set to 150% and the one of my secondary display 100%. May this information be helpful.
Thank you!
Adam
This tweaker is excellent, I find it extra useful and definitely a way to go.
There’s just this small little thing: I use Windows Gadgets (on Windows 10) when I doubleclick the taskbar to show the desktop (as I’ve configured it to) the Gadgets disappear too. It’d be nice if it didn’t do that, everything else’s perfect.
The “show desktop” functionality is provided by Windows. You can activate it without the tweaker by using the button on the bottom right of the taskbar or by using the Win+D shortcut. The tweaker merely provides a couple of extra ways to activate it.
Right then. Must be a Win10 flaw since Gadgets wasn’t designed for it in the first place. Cheers!
Hello, on W7 even if the start button was hidden I could still open it by clicking on the corner of my screen. I just updated to W10 and this functionality seems to be gone. Is it possible to make it work like it did in W7?
Hi,
Check out the “no_start_btn_spacing” advanced option. Refer to the help file for more details.
Hey,
Until some time ago this worked flawlessly, however now a double click seems to be required to open the start menu. If the start menu button is visible, just one click works.
Afaik I haven’t changed any settings. Do you know the cause of this?
Hi,
As far as I remember, it can happen when the taskbar is unlocked, and it can also happen on a secondary monitor. Does one of these two cases match your setup?
It appears my taskbar has come loose and locking it fixed the issue. You are the best!
Great Service. Well Done
Ridiculously AMAZING tool. Thank you. It’s crazy that NO other page or person is covering how simple it is to eliminate the spaces between icons in a taskbar … in Windows 10 … with this tool! I searched high and low then hit an obscure help site where a user had posted this link. That page, even after jpining, would not allow me to thank that user for posting. Well, thank YOU for offering this.
Thanks for the feedback. Tip for the future: SuperUser is a great platform for such questions. I’m sure you’d get an answer quickly. In fact, there’s such a question already, and the answer indeed mentions 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
Michael, just an FYI the latest Windows Home Insider Preview installed today broke 7+ Tweaker Beta. v5.8.0.3 survived countless updates until today. Here’s what I’m running now:
Windows 10 Home Insider Preview
Version 2004
OS Build 19608.1000
Just thought I’d let you know in case you haven’t heard yet.
Thanks for letting me know, I’ll look at it in the following days. By the way, I believe this build doesn’t count as version 2004, latest 2004 build is 19041 as far as I know.
Confirmed here as well
Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview
Version 2004 (as reported by Settings -> About)
OS build: 19608.1000
Same here 🙁
Installed on 20/04/2020
OS Build 19608.1006
Been fine until today
Will happily donate again if can get this working for me – this tool has proved invaluable!
Should be fixed in the newly released beta version, 5.8.0.4. Please try it.
Michael, here’s a screenshot of my system specs. Should I be getting my Windows specs from somewhere else?
https://imgur.com/6xEEbOI
That’s the place. Perhaps they left it as 2004 since there’s no new version number yet. In any case, that’s just a formality, the build number is what’s important.
Ahh Okay, that’s all I’ll post in the future. Had another update yesterday so now I’m on:
OS build: 19608.1006
I’m on the RP channel, version is 19041.207
Hello, I’m in version W10 2004 19041.207
If I make a donation will I get the unlock code and of course and the application works with this code under W10 2004?
Thank you
Hi Yves,
Thanks for considering a donation.
Yes, according to users, most options work on Windows 10 version 2004 with the beta version of the tweaker.
donation ok 🙂 strongly the code
My Windows version is “Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview. Build 19608.rs_prerelease.2004410-1438”
i got error msg
“7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not load library (5)”
“Library initialization failed, perhaps your Windows version is not supported.”
How to fix it?
Getting the same error here. Hoping there’s an update soon 🙂
Should be fixed in the newly released beta version, 5.8.0.4. Please try it.
Yessir, she’s working! That was a very fast turn around…thanks so much.
You Made My Taskbar Great Again!
It works!
FYR, Windows Insider Preview 19613 is coming >.<
OS build 19041.207 here.
Taskbar 5.8.0.4
I get “unsupported build” / “could not load library (107)”.
Not working.
It should be (at least partially) supported with an access code. For details please see this blog post.
Hi, any chance to get an update?
Vertical taskbar width tweak (no_width_limit) is not working in W1909 (18363.778) even in beta version.
Thanks!
To clarify: the setting works, the taskbar in vertical can be reduced to a very thin size. The problem is when you restart the PC: the size is back to normal and you need to manually resize the taskbar.
Ty!
Hi Rodrigo,
It should work. Do you have the tweaker configured to run at startup? It should be launched after every reboot to restore the taskbar width again.
Also, are you using an external monitor?
Thank for your reply!
The app is set to run at startup and that works, but at normal width.
My monitor is conected directly to the monitor but since I have a receiver, the audio is sent to that device and is “like” I have 2 monitors but is actually one.
This setup was working without problems before Windows updated to 1909
Ty!
Can you post a screenshot of your vertical taskbar after a reboot?
The tweaker saves the taskbar width in the registry in this branch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\7 Taskbar Tweakerunder the value:
last_taskbar_width. Can you check the value you have?Also, see the discussion here, perhaps your problem is similar.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to all of us.
I just find what was the problem!
I was using the autohide taskbar setting in Windows, so the taskbar was hidden in the original size before the tweaker was loaded (I guess thats the main problem).
I disabled the autohide setting and voilá, the minimal width worked again.
Good job on finding it, and thanks for posting back your insights! That’s probably what happened to the other guy, too, but he stopped replying at some point.
I’ve never checked this scenario. I’ll see if I can add support for a taskbar which is set to auto-hide when I have some spare time for it.
As I said before, thank YOU for taking time to reply and support us.
Have a great day!
Hi, thanks for this wonder. However scrolling over the taskbar doesn’t seem to work, it only works over the notification area even if I check the Taskbar option. This is my config https://photos.app.goo.gl/2ByTzA3MQRnChyQv8
Hi,
This can happen if you have the “multipage_wheel_scroll” advanced option turned on. Please check whether you enabled it. With the option enabled, you can still control the volume e.g. when scrolling over the start button, but scrolling at the middle of the taskbar switches between taskbar rows.
Hey, I’d love if there was an option to minimize all the instances of a specific program with a middle click. The middle click to minimize feature only works if there’s just one instance of the program open.
Thanks for the software regardless 🙂
Hi,
It’s possible with the advanced options. Please refer to the help file for more information. Specifically, look for “Minimize all group items” under “Advanced options” -> “Mouse Button Control”.
Hi! is there any way to reverse the taskbar? like instead of having the notification area at the bottom of the vertical taskbar, it’ll be at the top?
Hi Jiny,
No, there’s no way to do that currently. There’s a topic about it here on UserEcho.
Oh. Hope you consider adding it to this program’s features. 🙂
Thank you so much for this great app, by the way!
Hi, How are things going there?
is it possible to add an “always_hide_startup_tooltip” just to the tooptip on the start menu? that “startup ballom”.
Thanks and take care
Hi,
I’m not sure I understand what you’re talking about. This tooltip?
Hi.. Thanks the answer
Yes 🙂 only that tooltip… keeping the rest tooltips, it’s possible? i found others tools for that but doesnt work anymore.
“always on top” for window at taskbar inspector will be very nice.. for a group or each program
thank you
No, not currently with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. It’s not a very popular request, so I’m not sure I’ll ever implement it in the tweaker.
Thanks for the suggestion. Maybe in one of the future versions 🙂
You are a god among men, being able to shuffle programs around on the taskbar has been driving me nuts for years!
7TaskbarTweaker stop working with windows 10 version 2004 update.
Hope you can fix it 🙂
Best regards
Tnx for all the work on 7TT – it has become an essential tool for me.
I’m running 7TT beta v5.8.0.4 on Windows 10 2004 (19041.208) and the “virtual_desktop_order_fix” doesn’t seem to be working.
I have tried all the standard things:
– disabled/(re)enabled “virtual_desktop_order_fix”
– play around with grouping options
– tried turning it off and then back on again
Theres a bug with your app. Every time it opens, or you update a setting, like with grouping, the icons on the taskbar get out of order.
The tweaker tries to maintain the order, but there are cases where it’s not supported, some of which are tricky.
One example is when the options change the constraints. Say you had grouping disabled, and had the following items on the taskbar:
[Notepad] [Firefox] [Notepad]Once you enable grouping, you’ll get:
[Notepad+Notepad] [Firefox]And if you disable grouping again, you’ll get:
[Notepad] [Notepad] [Firefox]There are other similar examples. I don’t think it will ever be fixed, especially since the current behavior might be the desirable one.
Another example is UWP (Store/Modern/Metro) apps. Keeping the order of these apps is not supported. I might fix it one day. Currently, they’re pushed to the left of the taskbar.
Well it’s understandable, but it’s annoying nonetheless
Windows 10 2004 is now available on MSDN to non-insiders.
(See my comments below about issues with Taskbar Tweaker and 2004).
Eeeeh .. I guess that will be above 🙂
Same issue Offza is seeing 2 comments up.
It showed up today when I looked for the may cumulative update. I didn’t know they were already rolling it out. I don’t want to install it until 7+ TT supports it though. I bet you they still haven’t fixed most of the bugs. I know they still aren’t even using their own UI framework, WinUI, yet. Microsoft also still doesn’t want to restyle the non-WinUI controls and yet they continue to develop non-UWP stuff. It’s a clown show over there.
Is there a way to start 7+ Taskbar Tweaker minimized to tray?
You can use the “-hidewnd” command line option. It should be added automatically if you choose to start the tweaker on startup when installing. Perhaps you configured it manually.
Thanks. This is exactly what I wanted. I use the portable version. I do not want It to run at startup, but I want to start it manually (minimized in tray).
Hi! Really love 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. I recently got a new laptop and the tweaker is blurry. Is there any way you could fix that? I think it has to do with the scale being 150%. Is it HiDPI? This laptop has a 1080p screen.
Hi,
That’s a known issue, please see my answer here.
On Windows 10 20H1 May Update build, this Tweaker does not work …
Hi, Michael. Phenomenal work! I love the ability to turn of the taskbar width limit the most but it’s quite buggy. I’m not sure if it’s the beta or the same thing happens with stable versions. When I turn off the limit with my taskbar on the left side of the screen, it doesn’t go all the way to the minimum width in one go until I try 2 or 3 more times. Then today out of curiosity, I made taskbar icons small and was able to go even thinner. When I turned small taskbar icons off, the taskbar let me go down to the thinnest possible length, without the system icons being more on one side or anything. Hopefully you can fix that.
Hi Demi, thanks for the feedback!
The bugs you describe are in the original implementation of the taskbar. All the tweaker does is reducing the width limit. I could try and fix the other issues, but since the resize operation is usually done only once, I didn’t bother.
Alternatively, you can resize slowly, that will work as well.
That’s not a real problem, since you can’t get that narrow with large icons, the icons just won’t fit. In fact, even the minimum you can get with the tweaker is too narrow and screws the icons, you need to adjust it to be a bit wider than that.
I am trying to deploy a Windows Embedded Standard 7 operating system and I want to have the 7+ Taskbar Tweaker installed and configured with the options, without having any intervention to click on anything.
I need to install and configure the 7+ Taskbar Tweaker via the command line.
I see that selecting certain options updates the 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ini file. However, it it does not look like 7TT uses the ini file when you run it. Is there any way for me to setup all the options as I want to on one machine (Windows 7) and then copy those settings to another machine via the command line?
Hi Nash,
First, you need to decide whether you’re willing to use the standard or the portable version. The standard version reads the configuration from the registry, while the portable version reads them from an ini file, and uses a launcher, which does two things: launches the tweaker of the correct architecture (32 or 64-bit) and configures it to be portable.
Once you choose one of the two versions, let me know if you need more information, e.g. about the location of the configuration.
Hi, Michael. I updated my windows 10 to version 2004(build 19041.264), and this tool is not work any more.
Thanks Michael for your avewsome work to keep it working with OS updates.
Works flawlessly under Windows 2004 19041.174 🙂
regards
I posted this once already, but it was overlooked with the new windows 10 2004 update. This bug is aside from that. “There’s a bug with your app. Every time it opens, or you update a setting, like with grouping, the icons on the taskbar get out of order.”
It seems you patched a fix for this in the past with v5.3 “Fixed taskbar items reordering while applying tweaks in several cases.” but this bug has returned. FYI
Hello, it works not with 2004. Itsay after Restart: An unsupported Build of Windows 10 was detected……. Please help, i paid already 10€
Hi Matthias,
Thank you for the donation, I appreciate it. Please make sure that you’re using the beta version, and that you’re using the experimental support code. You can get the experimental support code here. Not all options work in the beta version, but most should work. Let me know if you need more help.
Thank you, it works very good, i just didnt know how it works with the support code because didnt read this dialog box completely.
The experimental one doesn’t fully work with Win10 2004.
It installs and runs, and most features work.
But enabling virtual_desktop_order_fix causes it to crash as soon as you reorder icons.
Same problem.
Ich habe leider keine Kreditkarte, sonst wären die 10 Euro schon bezahlt. 🙁
Win10 2004 has been released as of today, but sadly 7TT isn’t working.
Hi, we need an update for the taskbartweaker for win 10 may-update 2020 – it does´nt work anymore……
Thank you soo much from Germany!!
Thomas
Tweaker doesnt work anymore. Windows 10 …..Version 2004 (Build 19041.264)
Is there an solution…? Greetz Roland
Try hexedit it or modify it’s memory somehow , alternatively compile the 7 version and modify its hooks somehow or create a program that tells it that you on 1903 🙂
my version is not experimental….so far. Greetz Roland
Its really annoying. I just need the larger Icons in Taskbar. And every Update the Tweaker wont work anymore. I will make a donation but i dont have any Pay Methods to pay. Now i train my patience to the next version. UUh…DuH…Greetz Roland
Hi, new update for new May 2004 can by when ? 🙂
1) When I click on the taskbar tab for the window in focus, I want to stay in that tab, instead of switching the focus to another tab that I did not select.
2) I want switch the focus to the next open window by hitting a single key.
Thanks!
Nobody knows a workaround?
You should be able to do both via the advanced options. Refer to the help file for more details.
1) Configure the left click to the “switch to” action. If I understand your goal correctly, that should solve it.
2) You can configure a keyboard hotkey for that.
1) I added the key taskbaritem|lclick with a value of 1 in the advanced options menu, and that did the trick, thanks!
2) I have to research how to do it.
You need to pay for a CODE to make it work on untested builds . In a sense startisback is shareware nags you about stuff but it works even on untested builds while 7 taskbar tweaker keeps nagging you and gives you errors all the time , this program has a programmed decay i bet you can trick it that it uses an older version of windows and it will work just fine haha.
Hi,
I’m getting an error popping up on booting Windows 10 Pro, version 2004, build 19041.264 which I just installed 5/30/2020 (yesterday):
7+ Taskbar Tweaker incompatibility warning
(!) An unsupported build of Windows 10 was detected, probably an “insider
build. Proceeding will lead to unexpected results: the tweaker might fail
to load, Windows Explorer can crash or hang. Proceed anyway?
If the tweaker fails to work, try the latest "beta version".
(_) Don’t warn me about incompatibilities in the future Yes No
I downloaded the beta version, uninstalled my current version and tried the beta: same message pops up.
Is there a solution to this?
Thanks!
Hi John,
I’m working on a tweaker version compatible with Windows 10 version 2004. It’s not ready yet, but the latest beta version provides partial compatibility, which requires an access code. See the discussion here.
Im on the latest update of windows version 2004. Im using the beta version of taskbar 7++ and the only issue im experiencing is the combine option. Its keeping each icon in the taskbar separate instead of combining how it used to do on the previous windows version. Is this a known bug? Thanks.,
Please try the newly released beta version, 5.8.0.6. I believe that it should work properly now.
It’s really scummy to hold back the working version to make people pay for the beta. Everyone knows the whole “not everything is working” is just an excuse.
I guess Microsoft is more at fault for creating this frankenstein of an OS.
While I hate having to wait for the releases (can’t afford beta) I totally understand it, the man is giving to a disabled Windows a pair of arms and legs for free, you just gotta wait, not that long actually. And there’s nothing wrong in making a LITTLE bit of profit. BTW this gem is a NEED and Windows should come out of the box with these features.
Take your time, I can wait for the update. 🙂
+1 for support of Windows 10 2004 update (build 19041.264)
Hallo ab heute ist das 7+ nicht mehr funktionstüchtig.01.06.2020 es wurde gestern die neue Windows 10 64bit Version Home 2004 installiert und es kommt nun immer die Fehlermeldung das Taskbar Twecker irgend eine Datei nicht mehr laden kann.. Was nun ? Ich bitte um Hilfe da ich einige der Funktionen dieses Programmes regelmäßig nutze und diese nun nicht mehr zur Verfügung stehen..Danke ..