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 (1.78 MB, changelog)
Latest beta version: v5.15.2.2
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
Hi!
I saw there is an option named “disable_taskbar_transparency” in advanced options.
I wonder is there some way to make the taskbar transparent 100%? Could you do some little updates? Thanks very much!!
Is it currently broken? Mine has just stopped working.
Open the interface and everything is light grey, cannot click anything.
Original settings are not working, ie. scroll sound volume and enlarge the show window space (bottom right)
Thanks.
Please scrub this question, just force closed using task manager and reloaded and its working again.
Thanks
Hi, Ram
7+ tweaker has stopped working properly for me on latest windows update 20H2 (KB4592438). While it hides windows button, taskbar does not become slimmer when PC is restarted.
Please make sure that the taskbar is locked, that it’s not set to auto hide, and that you don’t have extra toolbars like here.
Hi Ram –
I downloaded the latest version on my new computer, a Dell Inspiron 7000 and the jump list is not working. I’m still seeing all my documents in little boxes instead of list form.
Tried uninstalling and reinstalling, rebooting, etc.
Thank you for this awesome app! Been using for many years.
Hi Deb,
I’m not sure what you exactly mean (a screenshot would help), but perhaps you’re looking for this option.
Ah yes. That’s it. Thanks!
7tt_setupp__bete.exe download blocked on both google chrome and ms edge report said that this file may contain vrius?
Please see my reply below.
Windows Anti-virus detected a virus in the beta version setup file.
and deleted it.
Detected: Trojan:Win32/Wacatac.DD
Status: Removed
A threat or app was removed from this device.
why it is detected as trojan ?
That’s probably a false positive detection. False positives are unfortunately common for beta versions which are less commonly used. Please see the FAQ here and this blog post.
Feel free to submit it to Microsoft. The incorrect detection is usually removed after a couple of days.
Win+D causes the taskbar to disappear when disable_topmost is set to 2. Is there a way to fix this?
THank you
That’s a known limitation. See the discussion here.
Hi RaMMicHaeL,
I’ve used your taskbar tweaker for years. It’s a default on every fresh install and I can not recommend it enough so thank you for that.
I know have a company laptop which is being managed by the organisation. I DO have a local administrator account and I can run applications with Admin rights. However I get the following message when running the app:
7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not load library (1)
Explorer failed to run the library loading code.
I assume this has something to do with a certain policy / right issue. I am able to override them all but not sure which one could play a part in this. Running taskbar tweaker as administrator btw. 🙂
Any tips maybe? Otherwise I’ll just accept my non-freedom taskbar lol. I’m using the latest beta.
Hi Jesse,
First of all, you don’t need admin rights to use the tweaker. Running it as admin shouldn’t hurt, but it’s not necessary.
Regarding the message, “Could not load library (1)”, that’s the first time I encounter this error code. Error code 1 means that even though the new thread to be run inside explorer was successfully created, it didn’t actually run. I can’t think of an explanation for that except for, perhaps, a security program which “lies” to the tweaker that the injection was successful, while actually it was prevented as a security measure. If you have such a security program, try adding the tweaker to the exclusions list, perhaps it will help.
Does explorer crash once you run the tweaker and get the error?
Also, what are the chances that the laptop has an ARM processor? The tweaker doesn’t support Windows on ARM, and I never had the chance to even check what happens if you try to run it in such an environment.
I also experienced the same exact error and figured out that it was because of a security Windows 10 update beyond the date of Nov 15 2020 (KB4586786).
I was so outraged by this error that even if you had eventually corrected the problem, we would always end up playing a cat and mouse game with Microsoft and so I finally succeeded in completely disabling Windows 10 update !
When I go into the Windows Update main screen it displays the message “Your organization has turned off automatic updates”. What a comfort to be able to regain control for something I bought and paid for without being forced to allow Microsoft to just walk into my PC and snoop around anytime it feels like it.
I have been using Windows since the 80’s and never had the need to extent the updates beyond a certain reasonable period of time. Never once did that ever created a serious problem on my PC.
In fact the only time I was never able to recover my PC is just after a certain Windows 10 update on my LENOVO laptop due to a serious misconfiguration of their own update on one of my machine’s processor.
Microsoft has gone to far with their updates because we are the ones who end up having to repair the damages caused by some of their updates that are often based on misinformation about our own PCs.
Believe me I have WASTED so much time trying to figure out how to work around many of the problems that were caused by this foolish attempt from Microsoft to constantly improving their version of Windows.
Hi RaMMicHaeL,
Thanks for the thorough response! I assume it is indeed the security program on my laptop which I can not control unfortunately. Never thought they would be that intrusive to ‘lie’ about the injection but as a developer myself I can not really think of another reason as well.
Sorry for the late response, completely forgot of the comment!
Also, forgot to add: explorer does not crash at all. It’s and amd ryzen cpu so no ARM. Also I’m unable to remove the KB4586786 update due to policies so that might be it as well..
Hi RaMMicHaeL
Its so sad that how such a beautiful taskbar program can be totally undermined by Microsoft. This is a company with a reputation of having gone through so many lawsuits in the past just to prevent competition from other gifted programmers such as yourself !
On my machine it was the update just AFTER KB4586786 which upon removing it brought back my original taskbar setting. Anyone should be able to remove an update because Microsoft is aware that some updates can create problems and so has relaxed all security access to removing updates.
Go to “Update & Security”, “View update history” and finally “Uninstall Updates”.
Also, the internet contains enough information to help you understand how to prevent any new Windows 10 updates from taking place inside your machine.
Small request:
Recently, after upgrading to Windows 7 “my app” randomly stops working. 7+ Taskbar Tweaker replaced most of it taskbar functions, but something is still missing and it could be very useful for others, too.
While my mouse cursor is over Taskbar (Shell_TrayWnd) and I press x1click all my windows get minimized and when I press x2click only active window is minimized.
Basically I am asking for new:
1. Target element: Taskbar (taskbaritems+emty space)
2. Command: Minimize all
I hope you will consider it. Thank you for all your work.
Figured it out. Workaround is:
taskbaritem|x1lclick – 1
emptyspace|x1lclick – 1
Thank you so much for this great app.
Spoke too fast.
taskbaritem doesn’t support “Show desktop” command.
I hope you will consider it.
Thanks a lot man! this little program saved me from putting up with this annoying stupid text. I guess the guys at Microsoft never use their own software, bunch of idiots
Middle click – Close is not working
Please provide more options. What happens when you middle click? Do other tweaker options work? Did it work before, and if so, can you remember what changed? Did you try restarting your computer?
The “drag to reorder” and “open last window if inactive” settings solve two of my biggest usability complaints with Windows. Thank you.
Hi,
there is a chance to add the ability to activate toolbar on second monitor in windows 10? I mean, the toolbar with option “show desktop” now is only on one screen. Will be great to add that’s option. I can search solution this problem in other apps.
Still great jobs guys, this app is brilliant! 😉
Hi,
Thanks for the feedback. As for your request, maybe one day, but it’s not trivial to implement and I don’t plan to look at it in the near future. Also see these topics on UserEcho: one, two.
If what you’re missing is the “show desktop” option, you can try using the double/middle click on the empty space to trigger the “show desktop” functionality.
Hi,
Are you thinking about an option, that would allow to move the icon from Taskbar to the system bar or just hide it in Taskbar?
Hi,
I assume that by “system bar” you mean the notification area (also known as the tray)?
Such an option is not planned. Please see my reply here.
Hi,
Please tell me how to adjust the step of volume control? The default value is 2%, how to change it?
Thanks.
Hi,
Currently, that’s not possible. See also this topic, and feel free to vote for it.
hello, thanks for this awesome app. love it! could we please have an option to hide the notification icon on the taskbar as well? every piece on the task bar is precious ;). Thank you very much!
Hi Tony,
Check out the settings 🙂
+7 taskbar tweaker no support for WIN10 21H1 Taskbar Tweaker Crashes
Can you help and fix this Problem ?
Greats
Rob
Hi Rob,
Have you tried the beta version of the tweaker with the experimental support for insider builds? Windows 10 version 21H1 wasn’t officially released yet, and it makes sense that it’s not supported by the tweaker – it’s still a moving target – but the beta version might have some, or most, of the options working.
Thanks the Problem is fixed with the beta version.
Great Job RaMMichael
Greats
Rob
Hi RaMMicHaeL
Its so sad that such a beautiful taskbar program can be totally undermined by Microsoft. This is a company with a reputation of having gone through so many lawsuits in the past just to prevent competition from other gifted programmers such as yourself !
The update just AFTER KB4586786 has completely disabled the+7 taskbar tweaker from loading with the error message “Could not load library (1)”. After removing this particular update, it brought back all of my original taskbar settings.
Anyone should be able to remove an update because Microsoft is aware that some of them in the past have created problems. That is why they decided to relax the security on this particular update option.
In case you don’t know how, go to “Update & Security”, “View update history” and finally “Uninstall Updates”. Afterwards go to the specific update you wish to uninstall.
The internet contains enough information to help you understand how to completely turn off Windows 10 updates. This would make it impossible for a security update to disable the+7 taskbar tweaker from loading at boot time.
Make sure you have a good anti virus software and that you regularly clone your Windows 10 operating systems on a separate drive just in case. A small price to pay for enjoying the full and uninterrupted benefits of the+7 taskbar tweaker.
Mike
Hi Mike,
Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to help with the error you’re experiencing. I commented with more details here. I can say, though, that I, and surely many other users, installed update KB4586786, and it didn’t affect the tweaker’s functionality. I also wouldn’t recommend to uninstall security updates like KB4586786.
Would it be possible to order the task windows from the center outwards?
It was suggested on UserEcho. Maybe in one of the future versions.
Thanks for replying RaMMichael,
What you just said is exactly what Microsoft wants to hear by demonstrating your willingness to continuously depend on their regular intrusive updates. When was the last time you received an update that really made a significant difference towards your ability to use Windows 10 ?
Don’t you sense that there are just to many useless updates that Microsoft keeps sending us on a regular basis ?
I always say that as long as you regularly maintain a clone of a good working version of Windows 10 as a backup and use a reputable antivirus software than you really don’t ever need to rely on any more of their updates. Besides you can always catch up on any missing updates should you ever decide to change your mind about permanently turning off Windows update.
Your taskbar program is a real testament in how we can take back what has worked so well in terms of taskbar functionality that was originally introduced in XP.
In fact your design is even better then the original XP version because you provide the additional capability of being able to horizontally shift the position of any of the taskbar component in a different order. I am sure I speak for everyone else that this definitely represents a significant enhancement to Windows 7 through 10.
The last Windows update that is currently on my machine is dated 2020-11-15 (KB4586781) and since then I have not experienced any issues whatever with my PC.
It so happens that Microsoft through one of their updates has
erroneously replaced my HP audio driver with an incompatible version on my HP laptop. This caused severe USB errors and at times not being able to view certain types of videos because of major audio errors.
ITS ONLY BY REINSTALLING THE HP AUDIO DRIVER THAT WAS ORIGINALLY ON MY MACHINE THAT I WAS ABLE TO REGAIN TOTAL CONTROL OF MY ENTIRE AUDIO SYSTEM.
This is living proof on how a single Microsoft update can wreak total havoc on your machine !!
Mike
Thank you for the positive feedback about 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. I’m glad that the work is appreciated.
So here’s my opinion on this: There are bad and annoying updates that break things or make them worse. There are also good updates that fix or improve thing. I don’t feel like there are “too many” bad updates, maybe I’m just lucky. Every time an update breaks the tweaker, I’m getting slightly annoyed since I have to keep adjusting it with new versions, but I understand where it’s coming from.
Having said that, there’s another important aspect of the monthly updates: Patches for security problems. Sometimes, these patches fix critical flaws which enable bad guys to take over your computer and issue attacks such as the WannaCry ransomware attack. Therefore, I would not suggest disabling updates if you want to be sure that your computer is safe from known attacks.
Hi Michael,
What I am concerned about is that one day Microsoft may come up with an update that could make it virtually impossible for the tweeker to ever function properly. This could happen purely by design perhaps as a result of some major new version of Windows 10.
That is why I strongly recommend for everyone reading this post to clone at least one good working version of Windows 10 just for safe keeping.
Don’t wait until its to late otherwise you may one day have to reinstall Windows 10 entirely from scratch which for me would take months to do because of the complexity of my entire existing network system.
This is exactly what happens when large corporations are allowed to expand their business free of any major competitions. The US government should prevent this from ever happening by imposing stiff regulations in order to allow other software companies to compete fairly with Microsoft.
太强了, 非常好用的一个软件, 谢谢作者 :p (from china)
can you add touchpad two finger swipe work as mouse wheel to control volume on taskbar?
I’m familiar with the problem. It was also reported here. I just posted a reply there. The short answer is that I don’t know how to make it work, unfortunately.
Understood. Maybe touchpad scrolling work like page/arrow up down instead of mouse wheel scrolling.
Greetings Michael!!
Long time no talk! Oops MSFT Did it Again, Update and Break! Lucky for us, Mr. Chaser will Chase them down and get things working again soon. Here are the details.
I’m running 7+ TT v5.10.0.2 Beta and got the following startup error after an update:
“7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not load library (5)”
I just upgraded to the following Windows Home Insider Preview build:
Windows 10 Home Insider Preview
Version Dev
Installed Mar 18, 2021
OS Build 21337.1000
Good Luck with the Chase Mr. Chaser! We believe in you!
Hope you’ve been doing well. Thank you sir.
Hi,
Please try this version. I did several quick fixes, but didn’t test it thoroughly yet.
Back in business good sir! Thanks so much for fixing!
Great, thanks for confirming!
Hi Michael,
Same error I had but in my case only as a result of a specific update.
I think by now you will have to come up with a new strategy in determining why this error occurred on my machine and why it seems now that more and more people are also starting to receive the same error.
If you need any information about my PC to help you diagnosed the problem then you have it … just ask !
I wonder if its a hardware oriented security problem which would explain why not everyone gets it.
I have an HP laptop and the BIOS does having security options to choose from.
Mike
Hi Mike,
Are you referring to the error message “Could not load library (1)”? If yes, then my answer here hasn’t changed, unfortunately. I don’t think that more and more people are starting to receive the same error, why do you think that’s the case?
If you were referring to a different error, please let me know.
Hardware shouldn’t affect the tweaker in any way, it doesn’t install a driver and doesn’t integrate so deeply into the system.
Here is a piece of advice about “Cycle between taskbar buttons”：if it could open one window at a time instead of opening all that have opened when I move my mouse wheel，it would be better 。
That’s how it should already work. Perhaps you have a mouse wheel which is more sensitive than the common setup, and so by scrolling it a bit, explorer gets a burst of mouse wheel events.
Hi
Lovely utility that made Adobe Reader usable again; thank you.
I only installed it yesterday – and all was fine until this morning (after PC slept during the night) when the Start Menu no longer appeared.
Guessing TT might be related I quit it and the start menu returned, but when I tried to restart TT I also got “Could not load library” but (6) instead of (5) – settings appear, task bar icon appears, advanced settings are accessible but it’s not doing it’s thing.
Setup: Win 10 64-bit, 20H2, fully up to date; TT setup file 5.10.0.0. Further info available on request.
Hope that helps (& thanks)
Julian
Hi Julian,
Error code 6 means that the tweaker is already loaded. I’m not sure why that’s the case, perhaps something prevented it from unloading. Restarting explorer or the computer should fix it.
You were right – but the issue persists.
I didn’t find the process beforehand because it is indeed called “7 + …”, but after looking harder I found it and killed the process tree – but get exactly the same error when I restart, which is very odd.
Maybe a log off/on will cure it… will have to wait till the weekend now.
Will advise when I know – thx!
Try to restart explorer with Task Manager like this:
https://i.imgur.com/a61iCJh.png
Hi Michael,
If only the same error message had occurred on your PC then I am sure that based on your programming expertise this would have provided an excellent opportunity for you to really find out why such an error message can occur in the first place.
I would suggest to remain in contact with a single user that has experienced such an error message and by remote control attempt to diagnose and find a solution to the problem. This will no doubt provide you with very valuable experience in an effort to make your software even more robust.
Right now I can’t give you the exact code because I do not want to reactivate the update process just to verify it. I am very happy with the way things are and don’t want to start meddling with my machine just for experimenting with Windows update.
Concerning hardware issues I tend to disagree with you because of my experience with the sound audio driver on my HP laptop. Obviously Microsoft had not really understood the exact configuration of the hardware responsible for generating sound on my PC.
They mistakenly updated the driver through one of their update that caused complete instability of the sound which resulted in major USB errors and receiving a number of audio error messages when playing certain videos. Its only when I had reinstated the original HP audio driver that all of the problems disappear. Unfortunately Microsoft is not being made aware of this and thus will continue to download the same problematic drivers over and over again !
The tweaker has nothing to do with the problem. Instead it is all due to Microsoft updates that they keep shoving down our throats.
“Shoot first and NEVER ask questions later” appears to be their motto.
Mike
When I move an application from another virtual desktop, it might becomes the first application on target virtual desktop.
Could it be changed to always appear at the end?
Thanks.
My setting is “Don’t group”.
Thanks for the suggestion. I’m aware of that behavior, but because moving between virtual desktops is not a common operation, I decided that it’s not worth the effort. I might get back to it one day, but it’s not a priority.
I have a bug report: recently(ish) win10 started muting when volume is set to zero. 7TT should, when volume is zero and muted, automatically unmute when setting volume to a non-zero value
Thanks for the report, should be fixed in v5.10.0.4 beta. By the way, it looks like the system behaved this way since the first Windows 10 version.
Hi Michael
I just installed your 7TT program on my windows 10 laptop, specifically because I wanted to “Drag within groups using the right mouse button” but some it’s not working.
I have already restarted the pc, to check if that’s the issue.
Just to test if its “active” I enabled the volume control when mousing over the taskbar, and that works, although I also experienced robhol’s issue, as per his post above.
Otherwise, compliments on providing a tool that addresses a solution to a very annoying issue on Windows.
Hi Andrew,
Please make sure that you’re using the option correctly. See the video here:
https://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-v2-0
Also note that there’s the option “Thumbnails” -> “Drag to reorder” which provides similar functionality.
Thank you Michael! Much appreciated.
Hi, I was wondering if 7+TT has an option somewhere to hide all of the taskbar icons and also, is there something like ‘dissable_topmost’ that forces the taskbar to the bottom, rather than just preventing topmost?
Thanks.
Hi Neil,
Sorry, but there’s no option for the two things you mentioned. Regarding the first item, I found that somebody posted a way to do that with winapiexec back in 2016 😉
The command on that page doesn’t work, perhaps it was truncated or something. The correct command to hide the icons would be:
winapiexec.exe u@ShowWindow ( u@FindWindowExW ( u@FindWindowExW ( u@FindWindowExW ( u@FindWindowW Shell_TrayWnd 0 ) 0 ReBarWindow32 0 ) 0 MSTaskSwWClass 0 ) 0 MSTaskListWClass 0 ) 0To show them again, replace the last
0with5.Wow, thanks! You’d think someone might remember knowing something a few years ago 😛
v5.10.0.4 (April 2, 2021)
Volume scrolling: Mute when volume reaches 0% and unmute when it’s set to a non-0% value, for consistency with Windows.
The mouse wheel scroll require one more step after reaching 0 to turn Mute. It should turn mute in the same time when reach 0.
Perhaps the volume is very close to zero, but is not zero. On my computer I don’t see this problem. You can run this program which prints the exact volume level every second. Can you say what number it shows when the volume reach zero, but is still not muted?
6.95551217e-09 (0x1.ddfaaa0000000p-28)
Yes, looks like it’s very close to, but not quite exactly, zero. Please try v5.10.0.5 beta.
It’s working. Thank you very much.
Hi, This application is amazing. I love it! Thx for all your doing!!
May I ask, if it possible make the win10 taskbar be transparent 100%?
Thank you for the feedback.
No, not with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
Please add support for dev 21354 for the beta version
Please try v5.10.0.6.
The version in the link is 5.10.0.5. Please fix it. Thank you.
It was probably cached by your browser. Try downloading in incognito mode.
When I changed my browser, everything was fine. Thank you for your work.
Hey! Is it possible to modify the Windows notification settings so that notifications would pop up on both displays if you’re using a dual monitor setup?
Hi Mikko,
I’m not familiar with a way to do that, sorry.
Hi,
Wondering if you can make an option for disabling taskbar transparency when ANY window is maximized? Is such a thing possible? (Like how it is in WinVista)
Thanks
Hi! I really love the 7+ Taskbar Tweaker! It’s awesome!
I only found one issue with the tool. Some taskbar icons always disappear while switching virtual desktops. (https://imgur.com/a/wK4H4Qp)
They are gone during the animation and appear when the animation has finished. When I use a touch-pad gesture to switch desktops, the icons are not visible until I release the touch-pad. That’s why the issue is more noticeable on a notebook in my opinion.
My taskbar icons are grouped but not combined. They don’t have a label. I noticed that for some programs the combined group icon looks different from the window icons of a non-combined group. Exactly these icons from a non-combined group of windows disappear while switching desktops.
For example, when I open Windows Explorer once, I can see the yellow icon with the rectangular blue thingy. The icon changes to the standard yellow empty folder icon when I open another window. This is because my taskbar icons don’t combine.
In the first case with one window open the group icon is shown. This one doesn’t disappear. In the second case with two windows open, the non-combined window icons will disappear.
I would be really great if it was possible to address this issue.
Is it feasible to fix this one?
Nonetheless, thanks a lot for a great tool and all your effort!
Hi Nathan, Thank you for the feedback.
Regarding the disappearing icons, I see this issue too from time to time, but I was never sure whether it’s the tweaker’s fault or does it work that way out of the box, and if that’s the tweaker, which options cause it. It never bothered me enough to check.
There was a related problem with the virtual_desktop_order_fix advanced option which made the icons invisible until you hover on each of the icons. It was much more annoying, and it’s now fixed, I believe.
In your case, I assume that the only option to blame can be “Don’t combine grouped buttons”. Did you try turning it off (going back to “Use taskbar settings (default)”)? Does it fix the disappearing icons for you?
You are right, the taskbar icons stop disappearing when I deactivate the “Don’t combine grouped buttons” setting. But this option is one of the main reasons why I love 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. I wouldn’t like to turn it off permanently.
It’s true that the “Don’t combine grouped buttons” option causes certain icons to disappear. Whenever the taskbar buttons are not combined their icons disappear while switching desktops and they stay when the buttons are combined. But I don’t think that inconsistent behavior is intended.
I have noticed that only certain icons disappear, even if the don’t combine option is active. If you look closely, there are two different icons for this window: First the icon on the taskbar and the window preview, and second the icon in the left corner of the window’s title bar. This is how it looks with combined taskbar buttons:
1. https://postimg.cc/WFhV157w
2. https://postimg.cc/RJtzcqy3
It’s a different story when taskbar buttons are not combined. There are two cases:
1. https://postimg.cc/K43FXsjZ
If only one window is open, the icon on the taskbar is the same as when buttons are combined.
2. https://postimg.cc/Vrp8rXGQ
If more than one window is open, multiple (non-combined) taskbar buttons are displayed and their icon is different. Now it’s the same icon as in the title bar of the window. And these icons are the ones that disappear.
All screenshots: https://postimg.cc/gallery/2qFHmDj
A more visible example would be a group of folders. When not combined, each folder shows its icon. Otherwise, the icon of explorer.exe (the yellow folder with the blue thing) is shown.
Perhaps this can be fixed by making the don’t-combine option work more similarly to the “Never combine” native taskbar option (for which labels are shown).
In fact, you can try the following, perhaps it will fix the problem for you:
1. Reset the combining option back to the system default.
2. In taskbar properties, choose “Never combine”.
3. In the tweaker’s advanced options, set show_labels to 1.
Thanks for your reply! I know this is a small problem, but do you think it’s possible to fix the issue that certain icons disappear while switching desktops? I tried to provide some more detail in my second comment. I hope it is somehow helpful.
7+ Taskbar Tweaker stopped working when we switched antivirus to Cylance (Blackberry). What can we do?
Please see my reply here. The short answer is that, unfortunately, I can’t do much about it.
If executables/files can be whitelisted, what should I whitelist? I’m assuming “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe”. Anything else?
It depends on the security software. Perhaps you’ll need to whitelist the inject.dll file as well, and perhaps no whitelisting will make a difference. You’ll have to try it out (or contact the security software support).
Wish list: Could you make it possible to export the list of items on the task bar and displayed by the inspector to a text file?
Thanks if you can!
You can select the items you need and press Ctrl+C to copy them as text. Does that fit your use case?
New phenomenon, which may or may not be caused by 7+ Taskbar Tweaker: After using a program from its taskbar shortcut, that shortcut is mysteriously moved all the way to the right end end of the taskbar, after all the other apps. This started sometime in the last month or so. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
When the tweaker is launched, it rebuilds the taskbar to apply its settings. If at this time the taskbar changes (like the tweaker button that’s being added), it might cause items to be reordered. That’s probably what you experience. I’ll see whether it can be fixed. For now, you can launch the tweaker with the
-hidewndcommand line switch so that it’s launched with a hidden window, only showing a tray icon.I tried, but wasn’t able to reproduce the problem. Do you have exact reproduction steps that can help reproduce the problem as reliably as possible?
All I can say is this: I open Excel from a taskbar shortcut, which is located about a third of the way from the left end of the taskbar. After I work with the file and close it the icon has moved all the way to the right side of the taskbar, just before the tray. This is not true with all programs, but it occurs with Excel, Word, Quicken and Firefox. There may be others that I have not yet discovered. Thanks!
I think I misunderstood the first message. In this case, if you have grouping disabled, perhaps you just close the last window in a different location, like this:
https://imgur.com/a/HmJd6uf
Notice how Paint was first and then becomes last without moving items around.
Not sure I understand what you are illustrating in the video. When I close Excel, I do so from the program itself, not from the taskbar. And that is when it mysteriously moves to the far right. I never close programs from the taskbar.
It doesn’t matter how you close it. Look at the video and pretend that I close Paint by clicking on the red X on the window. My point is that once you close the last window, that’s where the pinned item is left, and if you have grouping disabled, windows after the first one might appear in the far right. That’s just a guess to what might be happening to you.
By the way, if that’s the case, you might want to try the “When not grouping, place new items next to the existing ones” option, or to just enable grouping.
Seems like the advanced option “drag_towards_desktop” stopped working since last Windows update, even on Beta version, or at least it not longer works for me and it was working perfectly fine a couple days before I updated.
Please try the newly released v5.10.0.7 beta.
Hello,
I wanted this program to re-order Firefox windows on the taskbar in Windows 10. But it doesn’t remember order, after Firefox restart 🙁 I don’t see anything in setting to make it remember positions…
Please help.
Hello,
There’s no such functionality. See also this discussion.
Hi,
I also wanted similar functionality and so I wrote a simple Firefox extension to make it happen. It allows restoring the previous order of Firefox windows within a group with a single click of a button.
Unfortunately it’s only possible to be used with the preview versions of Firefox and it’s quite complex to install.
Nevertheless, if you want to try, here’s the instructions:
https://github.com/pragacz/window-arranger-webext
Hello RaMMicHaeL,
I am using this awesome tool for a little while now since it is perfect for putting the taskbar to the background without using the irritating hide/slide function of Windows. Windows is simply missing this important setting… who knows why…
So far it is a very good addition to the Classic Start Menu tool in my case!
Although two things negatively affect me with using Taskbar Tweaker.
The first thing is a feature of 7tt that I really would like to use, the mute audio function, for example when set to double-click on taskbar… it will only mute the default audio device but not all active audio output devices. On my end I use a DAC to listen to music via headset but I still use the onboard soundcard for standard sounds (that I don’t want to route through the DAC) and quick websurfing etc. So not all sound is muted. Which makes the idea behind it, quick muting with a double-click not working in this constellation. So I have to move mouse to taskbar volume control options and manually mute 2 sources as I did prior anyways.
The second is happening under a specific circumstance but it is not a rare or unusual occasion:
– It happens only with Chrome it seems. And Chrome has to be maximized for it to “trigger”.
– When watching Youtube video or online streaming services and making the video Fullscreen there will be a ~10 pixel border on top and left side of the fullscreen video. (example screenshot: https://imgur.com/Z5rFC9y )
– To clarify this does not happen when I click the fullscreen button of a video playback when Chrome is in non-maximized mode. But most of the time when browsing I have Chrome fill my whole screen of course. So workaround exists; yet a rather small annoyance.
– What I found out just when I wrote this, since I wanted to submit my 7tt settings as well, it has to do with my setting of “disable_topmost = 2” so I am not sure if this behaviour can even be fixed or if the bug is a trade-off for this advanced setting to work properly. When set to 0 the fullscreen works again even out of maximized Chrome.
Maybe this workaround for Chrome fullscreen video helps others as well at the time being.
Using Chrome 89 and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. All software used in standard configuration and up-to-date versions.
Thank you!
Hi and thank you for the feedback.
If you have a way to mute both devices via command line (perhaps with nircmd or SoundVolumeView), you can follow my answer here to do run that command on a taskbar double-click:
https://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/287-ability-to-run-application-or-even-better-trigger-a-media-button-on-clicking-on-empty-taskbar-space
This helped another user who asked me a similar question a while ago.
Please see my reply here, which addresses other issues with “disable_topmost = 2” but is relevant for your case as well:
https://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker/comment-page-38#comment-9888
And thanks for sharing a workaround, perhaps it will help other users.
Thank you for this super quick response.
A command line workaround seems an elegant fix, that’s a good option for me!
When using w10_large_icons function, icon resolution degrades every time system restart on Dev Build 21376.1.
And can not move taskbar item in group by right click.
v5.10.1 is not compatible with Dev Build 21376.1 is it normal?
Yes, dev builds are only supported by the beta version.
If I try to install 5.10.1 on 21H1 I have to stopp the explorer with the taskmanager.
Can you please provide more details? What exactly happens when you run the tweaker? Do you see any error message? Also, what’s your version of explorer.exe? (You can see it in
C:\Windows\explorer.exefile properties)I tryed to install in Explorer and in Totalcommander. After starting the installer, both programs hang and I need to close them with the taskamanager. No error message.
The problem is not with the tweaker, but with the installer, which is a simple, standard NSIS-based installer. My only guess is that your antivirus causes some troubles because the new version was just released today, and the antivirus is not familiar with it yet so it’s suspicious. You can try adding the setup program to the exclusions list.
My antivirus will not allow the new version 5.10.1 to be installed.
“SONAR.ProcHijackg47 detected”
I had no problem with version 5.10. Please fix this.
I don’t see this detection on VirusTotal. It’s most probably a false positive, and the best thing to do is to contact the antivirus company. Please contact your antivirus company and ask them to remove the false positive detection.
Without Antivirus it was possible to install, but it´s not possible to start under 21H1. Not the old message, only “Library initialisation failed …”
What is the exact message you get?
Libray initialization failed, perhaps your Windows version ist not supported. The “old” message is with the beta.
I mean, the exact message. There should be a number next to the message. Like 1004 here.
Please note that development builds of Windows 10 are only supported by beta versions of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
There is no mesage from the 7+ Taskbar Tweaker
Hello,
I just updated to the latest version of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (v5.10.1), and I noticed that the new feature to auto mute when scrolling to 0 volume does not work consistently with sndvol_classic set to 1. Scrolling down too fast or continuing to scroll down after it auto-mutes makes it so the volume is still enabled.
Also the link to your website in the about page is completely invisible. It just says “By” with a clickable area after
Thanks,
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for the feedback.
That seems to be the behavior of Windows. Regardless of the tweaker, you can run
sndvol -fand see the same effect. At least for scrolling from the taskbar or the notification area, I should be able to fix this, so I’ll take a look.Do you mean in the about box of the tweaker? Looks fine on my computer, can you upload a screenshot of what you’re seeing?
I checked it, and it was like this before the recent update of the tweaker as well. See this recording.
The “Drag within/between groups using RIGHT mouse button” should say left button. Not a big deal just wanted to contribute! This is my favorite UX app for Windows!!
No, it shouldn’t 😉 See the video here. Thanks for the feedback and for trying to help, and I’m glad that you like the tweaker.