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
Hi,
I have a feature request I don’t know where to post. I hope this is a good place.
It would be pretty sweet if there was an option to hide windows’ volume slider at the top of sys tray.
Thanks for the awesome program and keeping it updated!
Hi Arash,
I don’t quite understand your feature request. Which volume slider are you referring to, and when do you want to hide it?
Thanks for your reply!
I use mouse wheel in sys tray to change volume. I want to hide the windows volume slider that shows up above sys tray (above time and date) while I change the volume by using mouse wheel.
I hope this explains it.
Thanks!
You can make it so that a tooltip is displayed instead by using the sndvol_tooltip advanced option. Please refer to the help file for more details.
Thanks a lot! Works like a charm! 🙂
Is there perhaps a known conflict between 7+TT and Stardock Fences? Fences has for some time been behaving strangely, as if its configuration has become read-only, and I have finally decided to investigate the cause. I am unable to manage the Desktop “fences” from that application, which AFAIK operates as an Explorer extension; I can neither add, move, or remove fences from the Desktop. I am stuck with the ones I created a long time ago, unable to alter them or add new ones. Its virtual displays of specified directories is also affected, as they no longer refresh automatically and also cannot be managed.
I’m not aware of such a limitation, but I never used Fences myself. I hardly believe that the tweaker can cause all of the problems you described, since they’re not really related to the taskbar. You can try contacting the Fences support about this.
I’ve been using both for years on Windows 7 and haven’t had a problem.
Hello, I like 7tt it very much, especially using it to control grouping. But when I want to center the icon, I have to use StartIsBack’s “taskbar icon center” (I’ve tried many software, and it’s the best in this regard). I hope 7tt it can also be implemented, Thank you!
Hello! Your program is cool! Unfortunately, I found a problem:
When I use multiple desktops (Alt+TAB) and change the screens (desktops), the elements on the taskbar become mixed up, this is very sad.
I please you to fix it. Great Thank you.
Hi Ivan,
The virtual_desktop_order_fix advanced option of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker can help with this. See this blog post, and refer to the tweaker’s help file for more details.
Can this feature be added to 7+ Taskbar Tweaker?
https://github.com/rikka0w0/Taskbar-Context-Menu-Tweaker
Thank you
Thanks for the suggestion. I saw your topic a while ago. Currently it’s not a priority, my top priority at this point is Windows 11. Especially since there is a solution, and adding the functionality to the tweaker is merely for the slight convenience of having a single tweaking app.
Taking into account that for Win11 there will not be a new tweaker, is it possible now to add this feature?
Thank you
Last try.
How much should I donate in order to help you add this feature to 7+ Taskbar Tweaker?
Thank you.
This functionality is unlikely to become part of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. There’s a Windhawk mod which does something similar that you might want to try:
https://windhawk.net/mods/eradicate-immersive-menus
Regarding donations, they’re mainly for saying thanks for the software that’s created and shared freely by me. Of course, it adds motivation to focus on things that donors ask for, but in this case there’re reasons why it’s not a priority – see my comment above.
The feature has been added to Explorer Patcher https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
Hello.
I am not good at English.
Recently, a major update to windows 10 has made it impossible to switch apps from the taskbar with the wheel.
Please update …
Hi,
I’m using the latest version of Windows 10, and I don’t experience this problem. Perhaps it’s about a conflict with another tool? If possible, please provide reproduction steps, so that I can reproduce the issue on my computer. Otherwise, it’s difficult for me to do anything about it.
There seemed to be a conflict with another tool, and it was fixed.
We apologize for the inconvenience. sorry….
Hi Michael,
Just a quick question about Windows 11 :
Ever since I encountered a major problem with the Taskbar Tweaker as a result of a specific Windows 10 update I received about a year ago, I decided to permanently turn off the update process and not accept any new version of Windows on my machine.
My question is with Windows 11 is the functionality of the Microsoft version of the taskbar still the same as with windows 7, 8 and 10 ?
Has Microsoft finally realized the importance of being able to open multiple instances at a time on the taskbar like we are able to do so using your program that behaves very similarly as in Window XP ?
Thanks
Yes. If anything, functionality was removed – it’s no longer possible to place the taskbar vertically, and the built-in grouping option no longer exists. I still hope that Microsoft will revisit and implement them for Windows 11. If not, I’ll try to fill the gap, depending on the effort it entails.
Thanks Michael for your quick response and I hope that all goes well with the Window 11 project.
You have my complete support on this because frankly I cannot live without your Taskbar Tweeter. That is why I am blocking Microsoft from receiving any new version of Windows that is beyond the one which allows your Taskbar Tweeter to function properly on my machine.
Hi, loved your tool. However, I was looking for an additional feature to move clock all the way to the left corner of taskbar. Is this possible (even if I take help from other 3rd party tool or regedit) ? Thanks!
Hi Zameer,
It’s not possible with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, and I’m not familiar with another tool that allows to do what you’re asking for, sorry.
Hi
Just to say thanks a million for this tool. After many many many failed attempts to get rid of the taskbar thumbnail previews from Win 10 servers, I came across this today. It immediately got rid of that annoyance for me, when using multiple monitors and rdp’ing to many Windows servers.
I have always had to configure taskbars to by liking as is old school no grouping, as modern way was to dangerous working on servers as one was never sure if a program was already running when pinned in the taskbar and I see you tool does that also, I look forward to exploring the rest of the options.
sorry I mean the combining there, I do not like pining and like to see each open application on my taskbar.
Again thanks a million for this great tool.
Hi Michael
I have been using Taskbar Tweaker for a few years and am very pleased with it.
I agree with people who say that it makes a big difference to the practicality of Windows.
You mentioned that this forum is really not for new functionality requests, but I know nothing about the forum you specify so I hope you will accept this request here.
The recent addition of volume control using the scroll wheel is excellent. In my case it is TT’s biggest enhancement to Windows.
Years ago I wondered whether Windows 7 would permit volume to be set by typing a number when the volume control popup slider window was shown. I tried typing numbers, including pairs of numbers, wondering whether those would be interpreted as percentages and set the level accordingly. Nothing happened.
Can you add numeric entry volume level % setting functionality to TT?
I suggest always require 2 consecutive number key presses for a change.
Never accept a single numeric key press then assume that if no subsequent numeric key press is made within a preset time that sole key press indicates the desired volume setting, as TV remote controls do for channel selection..
That would be an impractical arrangement because of both the inconsistency of % entry and the delay in change to sound level.
So if the volume level is at 50% and the user intends to change it to 58%, pressing key 5 causes no change but as soon as 8 is pressed the change happens.
Obviously, if the level drops to 5% as soon as 5 is pressed then jumps up to 8 as soon as the 8 is pressed that would not be a good thing.
Appropriate timeout delay of stated preset duration should be incorporated so that if a single numeric key is pressed then no other numeric key is pressed within that time that single key press is discarded and will have no effect.
I guess 2 seconds could be practical for that.
Pressing any other character key could cancel entry of a single numeric key, eg intention to enter 65, accidentally press 5 for first character, immediately press any alphabetical key then press 65, that’s the number accepted and set as volume percentage.
In a response you say that you give no guarantees, but in FAQ you say “I guarantee that the tweaker binaries (and any other files on this site, unless specifically noted) are 100% clean.”.
One of your FAQ questions says:
“Can I use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker in a commercial environment?”
It should say “May I use …”.
“can” is for ability; “may” is for permission. Common error.
Keep up the good work.
Best regards
Laurie Williams
Adelaide, South Australia
Hi Laurie, Thank you for the feedback.
That’s a nice idea, I’ll consider it for future versions. Currently, my priority is making at least some of the tweaks work on Windows 11.
You’re probably referring to this comment. Perhaps I should have written a more elaborate and precise reply. I replied to a notice that says the following:
“you are nowhere near the size of corporations such as Microsoft et al who are liable by their business taking a hit if they decided to do something shady”.
But I was actually addressing a broader concern, given the context of the whole comment, which can be worded as something like this:
“you are nowhere near the size of corporations such as Microsoft et al who are liable by their business taking a hit [if something bad happens to a user]”.
I meant that I give no guarantees in case something bad happens to a user. The worst thing happened to users so far is explorer.exe crashing after an update, so this is a theoretical talk at this point, but in theory, bad things can happen, such as my website being hacked or a vulnerability being found and exploited in the tool. While I do my best to avoid such scenarios, I can’t invest as many resources on security as Microsoft does, for example, and in this sense I give no guarantees.
I still stand by what I’ve written in the FAQ, that the binaries that I upload to this website are 100% clean from any kind of malware.
Thank you. English is not my native language, and corrections like this are very helpful.
Thank you for your prompt and detailed reply Michael. Not all people are so open about things or willing to accept good advice.
Your points all make good sense.
Something I noticed a few weeks ago – in TT options you say “when mouse is over” – but it’s not the mouse that’s over, it’s the mouse pointer.
Not necessarily the same thing as “cursor”, ie a text cursor.
One more thought I had after I posted my original comment.
On this Microsoft keyboard, when I press either volume up or volume down no indication of volume level or change is shown unless the level goes to or from zero, 33 or 66, in which cases the icon changes slightly.
If TT can make the little popup appear each time, as it does when the mouse pointer is put over the volume icon, that would be a big help.
Your use of English is much better than that of most native English speakers.
Here’s one more tip for you.
This world is in an epidemic of abuse of the word “while”.
It is used as a substitute for “although”, “and” and even a semicolon joining two phrases or sentences which have no relationship with each other.
eg
“While the sky is blue, the grass is green.”
which should be
“The sky is blue; the grass is green.”
or simply two separate sentences
“The sky is blue. The grass is green.”.
“while” is for time dependency or limitation. Nothing else.
eg
“While I am at the shop I will buy soap.”.
Strunk wrote about use of “while” in his English style guide.
Where you have
“While I do my best to avoid such scenarios”
you really mean
“Although I do my best”.
I’ll be interested to see how much of the functionality I have suggested you can practically incorporate in TT.
Best regards
Laurie
The “when mouse is over” wording is possibly not technically correct or precise, but I think that it’s clear what it means, and that it’s an acceptable compromise for keeping the text shorter in the dense dialog of options. Other shortcuts are made, too, for example, “Control volume when mouse is over:” could be worded as “Control volume when the mouse pointer is over:”.
It also seems to be a commonly used wording, including by Microsoft’s own documentation.
Regarding “cursor” vs “pointer”, I’m not sure, Wikipedia says that “The mouse cursor is also called a pointer”, so it looks like both mean the same thing.
That’s true in Windows 7, but not in Windows 10, which shows an on-screen volume indicator. Since Windows 7 is no longer supported by Microsoft, it’s less of a priority for me, but I will keep the suggestion in mind.
Thank you, perhaps I indeed use “while” too often this way. I’ll try to be more aware of that.
Wikipedia is a good initial reference for researching many things, subject to then following reference links and doing other searches.
But some Wikipedia articles are corrupted with false information, particularly articles about matters which appear nonpolitical but have strong political drivers behind them.
The same applies with grammar. People’s opinions, statements and advice about grammar are usually based much more on habit and lack of reason than on logic.
People make vast numbers of serious errors in grammar, frequently making statements which do not mean as they intend.
The fact that Wikipedia says that people use the term “mouse” for “mouse pointer” says only that people confuse those terms, not that that abuse of terminology is rational, correct or beneficial.
A text cursor is always a thin vertical line, usually a hairline cursor, but the small vertical line cursor that moves with the mouse is a “mouse cursor”, and the on screen arrow that moves with the mouse is the “mouse pointer”.
Only one more word, “pointer”, and the statement then says as you intend.
In Windows 7 I frequently use Win B to open the system tray menu.
When that happens the mouse pointer jumps into that popup menu area, and remains there, so that that menu remains on screen.
The mouse pointer should never jump in that way.
It should always remain where it was, wherever the user left it.
I don’t know whether that bad behaviour is in later versions of Windows.
Can you make TT stop it happening?
That’s true, but my priority was to present the options in a clear, understandable, and convenient way. If it’s an error, serious or not (who’s to decide?), but an error that many people make and everybody understands, I’m OK with that. While not technically correct, I don’t believe that anyone read “when mouse is over […] thumbnails” and thought that his mouse should be physically over the thumbnails.
Newspaper headlines is another example of sacrificing grammatical correctness for clarity and brevity, and not many complain.
By the way, you used the term “tray”, which is not correct. But everybody understands what you mean, and I hardly believe it bothers anyone.
I don’t see this behavior on Windows 10. This request is rather specific, and being relevant only for Windows 7 which is out of support making it relevant for an extremely small amount of users. Thus I’m reluctant to add it to the tweaker, sorry.
Newspaper headlines are a bizarre mixture of styles.
Some are brief sentences; some are in the form of brief notes; others are no more than nouns with adjectives.
Re “tray”, thanks for the link. I always thought “tray” was an odd name for that region of the screen. Now I know where it came from.
Given the history, Microsoft caused its own trouble about this one.
Re the mouse pointer jumping, that makes sense. I’m pleased to know that it doesn’t happen in Windows 10.
I forgot to say that making a volume popup appear if a window eg photo or video is in full screen mode could be inappropriate.
Perhaps a user option for TT.
Just tried mute then unmute using Microsoft keyboard Mute key.
No popup appeared to show volume level.
As before, that’s in Windows 7, so maybe it does not apply in later versions.
But if it does then it could be a practical user option to add.
When volume level is changed during Mute it should not cancel Mute.
That bad behaviour is in many systems, particularly TVs and AV receivers.
The benefit of ability to vary volume level in anticipation of a future need and not instantly result in sound starting again should have been obvious to all the designers of such things.
Hi Michael,
If you were capable of modifying the general functionality of Windows Explorer (DLLs involved ???) in constructing the Taskbar then does this mean that the source code for Windows is available to the public ?
Also, why have you not written the entire Taskbar software using C++ only. It seems to me that MASM is a very old and low level programming language that can be entirely replaced by C++ for creating object files if I am not mistaken.
Mike
Hi Mike,
No, the source code for Windows is not available to the public (except for the leaked Windows XP code, and older versions). I had to resort to reverse engineering to be able to implement the tweaks.
The tweaker is written in C. If I’d start the project today, I’d probably choose C++, but it was started more than a decade ago. How did you come up with MASM?
Hi Michael,
MASM is an assembly language originaly written for the 8086 processor that I used to program back in the 80’s. It was very useful to me in cases when I had to directly manipulate hardware devices through flags and registers. With C and C++ you can manipulate the same hardware by calling special additional functions to achieve the same results before converting to binary.
All Intel processors 32bit and em64t processors (80386 and up) support the 8086 compatability mode called “real mode” which makes all PCs to this day completely backward compatible.
This is an excerpt taken from your programming section
” The code uses MASM macros such as .if/.while extensively, which can be easily translated to C. Most assembly commands can be translated to C as well. I had to manually change some of the exotic stuff (such as usage of the CARRY flag), but most of the code was ready for automatic translation. Then, I wrote a script which uses regular expression search/replace to translate every line of assembly to C. The initial result can be seen here. After some tweaking, I could get the code to compile. Due to the fact that there’s no type correctness in assembly, GCC displayed more than 1,000 warnings, most of which complain about incompatibility of types. I was actually surprised that it was able to compile. ”
If I understand this correctly you came up with the Taskbar software by doing it the long way which is by analysing registers and flags using an assembly editor and converting your findings to C afterwhich attempt to compile the results to produce your executable.
This means that any major new version of Windows will probable keep you very busy in attempting to use the assembly editor for enhancing the existing Taskbar program.
In theory you should succeed to convert the Taskbar so that it can run in Windows 11 but that would require a lot of time and patience from your part !!!
Mike
Looks like you’re referring to this blog post:
C as a portable assembly: porting RAEdit to 64-bit
It has nothing to do with the taskbar or with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, it’s about porting an editor component called RAEdit from MASM to C.
Regarding Windows 11, the programming language is not the issue here. The taskbar in Windows 11 was reworked to use a new UI technology, so most tweaks have to be re-implemented from scratch. For details, see the following blog post:
7+ Taskbar Tweaker and a first look at Windows 11
Hi Michael,
That is exactly what Software companies rely on when producing codes: “the unwillingness for most of us to start dabbling with the original machine code in order to succeed in modifying their own secretive codes” Ha Ha Ha !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mike
Problem event name: APPCRASH
Application name: Explorer.EXE
Application version: 10.0.19041.1151
Application timestamp: 2885d2b8
Faulty module name: inject.dll
Faulty module version: 5.10.0.0
Time stamp of the failed module: 5f9c0eca
Exception code: c0000005
Abnormal offset: 000000000000ea30
OS version: 10.0.19043.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 2052
Other information 1: 3e75
Other information 2: 3e75702b8bff138e7ff1d9c9e18f8a87
Other information 3: 29cd
Other information 4: 29cdea3f012f5ea67380c6203a9e4810
Hi,After the recent system upgrade, the resource manager has been restarting. By checking the system stability record, it is found that the problem is caused by the “inject.dll” module. Through the positioning, it is found that the module is caused by our software. Please fix it.
Thank you.
Hi Nicholas,
Looks like you’re using 7+ Taskbar Tweaker v5.10. Please update to the latest version, which is currently v5.11.3.
Dear RaMMicHaeL
According to your opinion, the problem has been resolved, thank you very much.
Hey Michael,
Thanks for providing us with this awesome tool to customize our taskbar! I can’ live without many of the tweaks I enabled due to 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
And recently I’ve stumbled upon a new challenge and I thought you might know a solution. I’m trying to find a way to change the pinned icons of UWP apps. There’s a known trick that involves creating a shortcut of the app then use a custom shortcut using cmd to run that shortcut like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vvIE2D5VaU
But the problem with this solution is that when you open the fake UWP pinned shortcut, the app will open up on it’s own icon and won’t stick to the fake shortcut. I’ve tried changing the Application ID using +7TT but that didn’t work either.
Do you have any idea how to do that? Using the up-to-date Windows 10, btw. There’s also the route of changing the actual PNG file of the UWP app that shows on the taskbar as icons but all the UWP apps folders are locked and sandboxed so there’s no way to copy anything there.
So I’m out of ideas and thought maybe there’s a clever way to do this.
Thanks for your time,
Cristian
Hi Cristian,
If you’re into programming, you can try setting the
System.AppUserModel.RelaunchIconResourceproperty. I’m afraid that I don’t have other ideas.Thanks for the reply, Michael!
After doing a lot of searching and trial and error, I’ve managed to create a guide to change the icons in the taskbar that works on any app, either UWP or Win32.
And I thought to share it here, maybe it will be useful to others as well:
https://dpcdpc11.com/custom-taskbar-icons-guide/
Hi,
Is it possible for us to relocate Win11’s taskbar to the left side of the screen?
Currently no app/tweak is able to do that. If you could pull that off, I’ll be the first to pay for that feature.
Hi,
I’m not familiar with a way to achieve that. I’ve heard that Microsoft are considering implementing it for the release of Windows 11, but I’m not sure what are the chances of that actually happening.
Hey Michael,
What a nice program you made for Taskbar.
I have a feature request for Combining > Don’t combine grouped buttons.
Is it possible to add a number for each buttons by sequence??? So, if there are 3 ungrouped buttons; we should number them from one to three and it is displayed on the buttons?
Hi,
You have some options for adding numbers to taskbar items with 7+ Taskbar Numberer.
Hello RaMMicHaeL,
Can you share how to manually do no_width_limit = 1 in registry or another way?
Thank you!
Hi Tom,
I’m not familiar with another way, sorry.
Thanks anyway 🙂
Feature Request (or is it possible?)
In Windows accent colors there is checkmark for “Title bars and windows borders”
So a way to separate them.
I wish the accent color only the active window’s border and NOT the title bar.
Also I wish to make the border thicker.
I read many people in forum are interested.
Thank you!!
I haven’t researched this area, so I’m not sure whether it’s possible.
Recently 7+ Tweaker has started giving me issues on Windows 10 x64 Version 20H2 (OS Build 19042.1165). The desktop freezes & Explorer crashes. I have disabled 7+ & the system is working fine. Looks like some Windows update has messed up 7+ again. I could directly zero down on 7+ Taskbar Tweaker only because such a thing has happened before where I just didn’t know the source of the issue for several days.
Can you please provide the details of the crash report?
You can find the crash report in the Event Viewer. Look here for instructions:
How do I find event logs when a program crashes?
Also, do you have other customization programs that may conflict with the tweaker?
I have tried uninstalling etc. repeatedly but for some reason my most recent set up won’t show the Help File (pretty valuable when in the Advanced) Can you please just point me to a spot where i can view it?
Thank you so much!
chm files should be viewable on Windows out of the box, without installing anything, but if you have troubles with that, you can convert it to another format (e.g. Google for “chm to pdf”) or install an alternative chm file viewer.
Hi all! Has anyone else been having trouble with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker lately? Over the last couple of weeks, it keeps turning itself off with no warning. There’s no error message or anything; just one minute it’s open, and the next minute it’s not.
Most recently I started Taskbar Tweaker, loaded the Event Viewer, and waited for it to close. Once I did, I checked the Event Viewer, and there weren’t any new events since I opened it. I’m running Windows 10.
Off the top of my head the only big change to my laptop over the last few weeks was that I switched to using Microsoft Edge as my primary browser. Could that be interfering with Taskbar Tweaker, somehow?
Hi Paul,
I hardly believe that it has anything to do with Edge. Perhaps it’s killed by your antivirus software, antiviruses cause many troubles to the tweaker because of false positives.
Also, see the following discussions, perhaps they can help: one, two.
Thanks for the lightning-quick response!! I used Global Flags to help track it down; turns out it’s being killed by TiWorker.exe:
The process ‘C:\Users[myusername]\AppData\Roaming\7+ Taskbar Tweaker\7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe’ was terminated by the process ‘C:\Windows\SysWOW64\xh-ZA\S-1-5-73\TiWorker.exe’ with termination code 1. The creation time for the exiting process was 0x01d7a6612bc87e43.
It looks like TiWorker is related to Windows Update? I’m not sure what to do with it; what do you think?
I’m not sure. If the TiWorker.exe file is a legit Microsoft process, then perhaps they decided, for some reason, that 7+ Taskbar Tweaker imposes some kind of a compatibility issue. That’s true for some Windows versions, but randomly killing it is a rather aggressive move. Perhaps you can contact them and ask.
what about Windows 11 support?
Please see:
7+ Taskbar Tweaker and a first look at Windows 11
damnnn.. why do they need to mess around the taskbar so much.. control panel is still a mess and now it forces microsoft account sign in?
Sorry for the rant.
I hope you can make the tweaker compatible by 2025, I have been using your software since Windows 7, I really hate switching windows in taskbar need 2 clicks instead of one. Thanks for making this great software!
Currently It is possible if using a ExplorerPatcher or Startisback Preview.
https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
http://startisback.com/tbd/
Startisback is the best
When using this method, if the taskbar is often restart while game/sw loading, change “fix_hang_reposition” 1 to 0 in additional settings.
Hi,
Sorry if this has been answered already, but the application starts up with the window maximised on windows start-up (which also seems to be new behaviour since a few weeks, I seem to recall it never started up maximised).
Is there a way through a command line flag or other option to make it starts up in the background?
Thanks in advance.
Hi,
Please see my reply here:
https://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-for-windows-10-october-2018-update/comment-page-1#comment-9743
Often crashs in dev build 22478, it was perfectly worked in build 22471.
According to the crash, I believe that it’s caused by the drag_towards_desktop advanced option. Try to turn it off temporarily and see if helps.
It’s already off(0)
I turned off the empty space/margin removal options, and now work.
Sry this is not the cause, crashes again.
I’ll get not it once I have some spare time to install the new build. Meanwhile, perhaps I can make a quick fix with your help. Please tell me:
Regarding dump capturing, you can use ProcDump. Run
procdump64.exe -mp -e explorer.exeand trigger the crash. The dump will be written to a file, the details will be printed in the ProcDump console window.Yes i’m using v5.11.3.2
StartAllBack v2.9.94
I’ll try it
Please try the newly released v5.11.3.3 beta.
Working well thanks!
Hi
I can’t make 7+tt run minimized to tray on startup.
-minimized shortcat doesn’t work.
How can i do this?
Hi,
Please see my reply here:
https://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-for-windows-10-october-2018-update/comment-page-1#comment-9743
This feature is alreaddy implementer in Explorer Patcher.
Hi,
version 5.12 has a regression on Windows 7. The extended option ‘disable_taskbar_transparency’ with the value 1 does not disable the transparency anymore. The value 2 still works.
Furthermore, the automatic start after an update to 5.12 fails.
Both was tested on two systems.
Otherwise, thank you for your work in all those years!
Hi Demi, thank you for the bug reports.
You’re right. More precisely, the option works, but it doesn’t apply until you do some action, such as moving the taskbar to the side and back.
It’s a use-after-free bug in the installer, it fails on Windows 7 but happens to work on Windows 10.
Too bad these weren’t reported for the beta version, before the release. I’ve just released v5.12.0.1 beta, please try it and confirm that both issues are fixed, thanks.
Thank you for you fast reaction!
I can confirm that. If i force the taskbar to refresh, the transparency setting is applied.
For a short time, the download link for the beta still pointed to a setup of version 5.11.3.3 beta (maybe it was cached somwhere?). I can confirm now, that both bugs already existed in the 5.11.3.3 beta.
In version 5.12.0.1 beta both bugs are fixed.
Looks like I should start to test beta versions. However, I can’t promise anything, since there are no notifications for new beta versions.
Thanks for confirming, I’ve released v5.12.1 with the fixes.
Hi I downloaded v5.12.1 for my Windows 11 but the entire menu is grey and non of the functions work
Hi Alex,
Windows 11 is not supported, unless you revert to the old taskbar. See the following blog post: 7+ Taskbar Tweaker on Windows 11 with Windows 10’s taskbar.
Great update latest v5.12.2
It suddenly just stopped working and I can’t find it under the start menu. If I try to re-install, it says already installed. But doesn’t say where. What directory is this app installed in? I need to re-pin it to Start menu and probably start-up apps
You can run the uninstaller and it will show you the installation folder.
Did you try to proceed with the re-installation? If the shortcuts were removed, they should be re-created.
One question: Is it just me, or does everyone have the stretched buttons look on the taskbar?
I use two rows.
Before, the icons would first take up one row and if I opened apps, they would take some space. Once one row is filled up, the second row starts filling, first with a lot of empty space to the right of the last button.
Now all buttons are stretched to fill the entire width of the taskbar.
The icons in the tray (after clicking the up pointing arrow) are also spaced apart horribly.
It seems like some feature from Windows 11, and I don’t like it. I’m just unsure whether it’s 7TT, or if it’s Windows. I exited 7TT, and it’s still there, so I guess it’s Windows. If 7TT can fix it (or if it can be fixed by some Windows option), I’d be grateful, I couldn’t find any option to do it.
Scratch that last comment, turns out the issue is this: https://www.yuenx.com/2021/taskbar-icon-button-width-too-wide-in-windows-10/
The fix worked like a charm for both taskbar buttons and tray icons, so no need to fix it in 7TT.
I use the feature Drag within/between groups using right mouse button to arrange my taskbar windows especially my chrome windows that I have open. Once I have the windows arranged how I like it and restart my computer when I open up again my chrome windows again the arrangement that I had isn’t the same. Does the software remember the arrangement of the windows before it was restarted?
No. See my answer to this, similar request:
https://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/99-group-id-memory
Hi, thank you very much for developing and maintaining this utility. Easy install, straightforward UI, and no insistence on hanging around in the systray. I installed it for the removal of the start and desktop buttons, but starting to find other functions useful too.
Two feature requests:
1. Would it be possible to make single left clicks on empty space on the taskbar customizable in the same way as double and middle clicks? (I’d use it for the start menu.)
2. Could the action centre be one of the options available for customized clicks, doing the same as Win+A? (I don’t care for the action centre’s icon or notifcations, but the actions available through there are useful sometimes.)
Another idea: with the Start button hidden, there are still a couple of pixels remaining at the left edge before the first icon. Could those be made to act like the Start button, so the familiar throw-mouse-to-the-corner-and-click still works? (I realize this is a case of having my cake and eating it. It’s nice not to have the actual button there though.)
And now I also found the no_start_btn_spacing advanced option. It seems the minimum value to make the spacing work like the start button is 3.
Getting back to my two-monitor desktop, I’m finding that the no_start_btn_spacing unfortunately isn’t acting as a start button on the secondary taskbar, whereas it’s ok on the main. (I’ve got the main monitor on the right, so the bottom left corner on the secondary is the one that can easily be clicked.)
Related to this, I’m finding that an ’emptyspace|lclick 8′ mouse button control rule in the advanced options works fine on the main taskbar, but on the secondary one it consistently requires a double click instead of a single one. Also happens with with action values other than 8. No such problem for mclick.
I remember a limitation like this, and I tried to address it, but didn’t find a straightforward solution. In the end, the limitation is about the way the taskbar responds to mouse events, and the secondary taskbar is slightly different from the main taskbar in this regard.
Fair enough. I ended up using an “active corners” utility for triggering the start menu as well as the action center and task view by just pushing the mouse pointer into a corner.
Update: I found the advanced options, which fulfill request 1. Thanks again!
Hi Andy, thanks for the feedback.
You can choose to run any command, see my answer here: https://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/287-ability-to-run-application-or-even-better-trigger-a-media-button-on-clicking-on-empty-taskbar-space
For showing the Notifictaion Center, you can use my winapiexec tool with the following command line arguments:
winapiexec64.exe u@PostMessageW ( u@FindWindowExW ( u@FindWindowW Shell_TrayWnd 0 ) 0 TrayNotifyWnd 0 ) 0x408 0 0Thanks Michael, after a couple of false starts that’s working nicely, so I’m all set.
(Winapiexec64.exe got quarantined by Windows Defender, as per your explanation elsewhere, but winapiexec.exe works ok anyway. And the Taskbar Tweaker program directory apparently isn’t in the PATH for the mouse button actions, so having placed winapiexec.exe there, I needed to put the full path into the command string in the registry.)
I still think though that the Action Center would be a useful and fitting addition to the click-on-empty-space dropdowns.
Is there a similar magic formula for bringing up the clock&calendar window when the taskbar clock is disabled in the built-in taskbar settings?
I unsuccessfully tried to send a left-click to it:
winapiexec u@PostMessageW ( u@FindWindowExW ( u@FindWindowExW ( u@FindWindowW Shell_TrayWnd 0 ) 0 TrayNotifyWnd 0 ) 0 TrayClockWClass 0 ) 0x201 0 0
(Btw what does the 0x408 message ID in the action center command stand for? I couldn’t find it in the Windows API headers.)
Try this:
winapiexec64.exe u@SetForegroundWindow ( u@FindWindowW Shell_TrayWnd 0 ) , u@PostMessageW $$:3 0x5CE 0 0First, you were trying to send a mouse-down event, usually the action happens as a response to a mouse-up event. But that doesn’t work too, because the code makes several checks, such as whether the mouse is inside the clock area, before showing the widget.
0x400stands forWM_USER, and defines the beginning of the range of private messages, spanning through0x7FFF.0x408is basicallyWM_USER+8, a message in this range.Thank you very much for the detailed resonse, and apologies for the late reply. That clock command is working nicely for me. Re the private taskbar message IDs, are they documented somewhere, or do you just have to find them through experiments?
You’re welcome 🙂
No, they are for internal use by explorer and other Microsoft programs.
I reverse engineered explorer.exe to get to them.
Crashes again with StartAllBack v3.0.5, Windows build is the same.
It was solved in v3.0.6
Version 3.05 kills explorer,exe, please fix it.
When autohide is enabled, Windows will make the taskbar unhide itself when you get a notification, and it stays up until you click on the app. It’s annoying, and it often covers other windows. Is there any way you could disable this, and make it stay hidden at all times unless moused over? Thanks!
Thanks for the feedback,
It’s probably possible, not sure about the amount of effort for implementing it, but currently I have other things I’m working on which are of a higher priority, sorry.
Hi, and thanks for you fab program, its wonderful!
Since the last update a few days ago, something strange is happening on my win10 system.
I have several constantly used file explorer folders always open, and placed at the left most edge of the taskbar.
Since the update, one or two of these folders suddenly and randomly jump to the right hand side of the task bar, after all the other open programs etc icons (ie last position).
Just a heads up, so you can look into it.
Thanks again!
Hi Fred, thanks for the feedback.
I think that what you’re seeing is related to this report. Please try the newly released beta version, v5.12.2.1, and let me know whether it solves the problem for you.
Thanks for your reply!
I had difficulties installing the last few versions for awhile (including the latest beta), and finally realised it was because of Avast antivirus, so perhaps it would help if you let them know so they whitelist the latest versions.
SO after installing v5.12.2.1 beta, things look to be alright again, no re-occurence of this issue yet.
Will let you know if things start playing up once more.
Thanks again!
Thanks for the update. Unfortunately, struggling with false positives is a non-ending hassle.
This problem is mentioned in the FAQ, and was discussed many times in the blog comments, for example:
https://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker/comment-page-43#comment-11035
https://rammichael.com/contact/comment-page-4#comment-10292
See also Nir Sofer’s blog post, Antivirus companies cause a big headache to small developers, a good write-up about the problem.
You can always help by reporting the tweaker as a false positive.
I just put in a false positive report for the installer at Avast.
Hope it helps!
Hi,
This software is awesome, and thank you for developing and updating it.
In use for half a year, I have a feature request: would it be possible to hide the tray area arrow. Not the button but just the icon picture.
Hi Kim,
Thanks for the suggestion. Maybe one day, but it’s not a common request, and I have things which are of a higher priority I’m working on these days, sorry. Meanwhile, you can upvote the existing posts about it on UserEcho: one, two.
Hi, what can I do to activate this program? (i’m on windows 11)
I mean, all the thing are unselectable, they’re all grey…
Maybe I miss something.
Thanks
Hi,
Windows 11 is not supported, but you can use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker if you revert to the old taskbar. See the following blog post:
https://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-on-windows-11-with-windows-10s-taskbar
Hi, great utility this.
I’ve got 21H2 update as an optional download at the moment. Does the current version 5.12.2 work ok with this as far as you know? Or should I hold off the windows update for the moment?
Hi Paul,
Yes, version 21H2 is supported by 7+ Taskbar Tweaker v5.12 and newer.
Man, it really sucks not being able to re-order taskbar windows anymore… Is there any way we can just get that somehow? Please?
This was in regards to Windows 11, I posted in the wrong place.
I get the error:
“7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not load library (5)”
My Windows version is 21H1 (build 19043.1348)
I tried both the latest stable version and the beta version, neither works.
Can you please make sure that the beta version you tried is v5.12.2.1, released two days ago?
Also, can you please try running the tweaker with the options turned off? If the error is gone in this case, can you try to find out which option causes the error?
Thanks for the quick reply.
I did download the latest version from the main page before commenting using my primary browser, maybe it had an older version cached, or maybe it used an incorrect mirror.
I’ve no idea how, but I tried a different browser and it worked, so I’m happy and there’s no point looking into this further.
Hi,
The download of v5.12.3 is broken.
Hi Nikolay,
It works for me. Can you provide more details? Do you see any error message?
I found the problem and I believe that it should be fixed now.
The download of the final 5.12.3 seems broken for me, all I’m getting is an empty page with a “0”.
Auto update also bails out.
Could you please look into that?
I found the problem and I believe that it should be fixed now. Please let me know if you still have problems with the download.
No, now it’s working correctly! Thanks!
There is an option that stopped working a while ago and I really miss, which is Taskbar Items -> Right click -> Standard window menu, when I have that set and right click any taskbar item I still get a Jump List and not the old windows context menus. Any idea why is this broken? Will it ever be fixed? Thanks a lot.
The option works for me, and I saw no complains about it from other users. The standard menu menu itself is not a feature of the tweaker, it’s built into Windows. You can use it without the tweaker too, by holding the shift key while right-clicking. The tweaker merely makes explorer think that the shift button is being held.
Well it turned out to be an issue related to StartIsBack. After I disabled “Use StartIsBack taskbar jumplist” the tweaker option started working like expected. Thanks a lot
Hi,
Anybody help me please…
I have the all excel files fixed, but i want to put one excel file out of the other fixed excel files, separated… In the left or right side…. 1 out and the all others fixed, how can i do that?
See here please the print screen
https://ibb.co/QFyLpV7
Thanks
Hi Samuel,
You can use Taskbar Inspector, right click on the desired Excel window and assign a random AppId to it.
https://i.imgur.com/6dRWgPg.png
Great!
Thank you!
Feature request: please add custom delay (in milliseconds) for option “Decombine”/”On mouse over”. Currently, this option is almost useless because mouse movements over taskbar frequently result in taskbar buttons combining/decombining and taskbar “flickering”.
Thank you for the suggestion, I’ll consider it for a future version. For now, you can upvote the relevant topic on UserEcho.
I’ve upvoted for that request, and I think these 2 request should be jointed into 1: the same custom delay on mouse over/mouse out for decombining/combinig button groups.
Hi Michael,
In Windows 10 its a big hassle to ADD new items to the taskbar because Windows recognizes only EXEs files requiring a series of steps to accept other types of file extensions as well.
It seems that drag and drop works only within the Taskbar for moving objects around but can you make it work from “Desktop” to “Taskbar” exactly as in XP regardless of the file extension ?
Mike