Windhawk mod: Vertical Taskbar for Windows 11
I’m excited to announce a mod that I’ve been working on for some time now: Vertical Taskbar for Windows 11. This was the #1 request on the list in Windhawk mods for the Windows 11 taskbar. The development of this mod took some iterations and failed approaches, but I was finally able to make it work. The implementation is largely based on element rotation, which is available for UWP elements, but it also required many tricks and adjustments to make it work correctly, having the right dimensions and positions for all elements.
Bugs and limitations
I tried to leave as little unfixed bugs as I could while also not delaying the release of the mod indefinitely. There are some minor known issues, but the mod should be fairly stable. If you encounter any issues, please let me know.
Features and more customizations
The first version of the mod can only place the taskbar on the left. I have it on the roadmap to make it possible to move it to the right. Other customization options are planned as well, such as rotating the clock. If you have other suggestions, let me know.
Funding
The development of this mod was funded by AuthLite LLC. Thank you for contributing and allowing all Windhawk users to enjoy it!
hi,when will you release support for 24h2? btw, taskbar height and grouping doesnt work either in 24h2.
Hi, since 24H2 wasn’t released yet, it’s not of a high priority, but I plan on looking at it.
That’s awesome! A vertical taskbar is a great way to save some screen real estate, especially for those with widescreen monitors. I can’t wait to try it out. Looking forward to seeing a preview or download link!
Here are the steps of installing the mod:
hi does windhawk plan to publish a mod that enables multiple row task bars anytime soon? if not at least i hope to know if or when it’s planned to be implemented.
i’ve seen it’s in the list with a few donations but hasn’t been implemented so i wondered
Hi,
I looked at it in the past, but it’s not a simple task. The vertical taskbar mod probably wouldn’t have happened without the funding. The same is true for a multi-row taskbar.
Hi again, I just released a mod for multiple rows on the Windows 11 taskbar, check it out:
https://ramensoftware.com/windhawk-mod-multirow-taskbar-for-windows-11
wow amazing, many thanks. you are better than MS’ CTO
Thanks for your work on Windhawk and the mods.
Might you consider adding a drop-down list control to Vertical Taskbar settings to govern whether taskbar rotation should be applied when the primary display is in landscape mode, portrait mode, or either mode? (The default would be “either mode” for consistence with current behavior.)
I mostly use my Surface Pro in landscape and use Vertical Taskbar to provide more content space for the shorter dimension of my display. Sometimes, I use it as a portrait mode tablet, where vertical placement takes space away from the shorter screen dimension.
This automatic enable/disable based on orientation feature ought to be simpler for users to understand and for you to code than alternatives that would allow a taskbar placement per display per orientation.
I found a problem with this:
1. Install vertical taskbar (of course)
2. Snap Google Chrome window next to the taskbar
Notice that Google Chrome window does not repaint, it gets stuck. It repaints if I furiously resize the window.
—
I haven’t yet figured out what the problem is, as I can’t recompile this either:
I hit “fork” and try to compile it immediately gives errors:
In file included from :480: :11:9: warning: 'WINVER' macro redefined [-Wmacro-redefined] 11 | #define WINVER 0x0605 | ^ :3:9: note: previous definition is here 3 | #define WINVER 0x0A00 | ^ c:\ProgramData\Windhawk\EditorWorkspace\mod.wh.cpp:190:10: error: no template named 'function' in namespace 'std' 190 | std::function enumCallback) { | ~~~~~^ c:\ProgramData\Windhawk\EditorWorkspace\mod.wh.cpp:885:13: error: no matching function for call to 'EnumChildElements' 885 | EnumChildElements(stackPanel, [](FrameworkElement child) { | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ c:\ProgramData\Windhawk\EditorWorkspace\mod.wh.cpp:188:18: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from '(lambda at c:/ProgramData/Windhawk/EditorWorkspace/mod.wh.cpp:885:43)' to 'int' for 2nd argument 188 | FrameworkElement EnumChildElements( | ^ 189 | FrameworkElement element, 190 | std::function enumCallback) { | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ c:\ProgramData\Windhawk\EditorWorkspace\mod.wh.cpp:924:13: error: no matching function for call to 'EnumChildElements' 924 | EnumChildElements(stackPanel, [](FrameworkElement child) { | ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ c:\ProgramData\Windhawk\EditorWorkspace\mod.wh.cpp:188:18: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from '(lambda at c:/ProgramData/Windhawk/EditorWorkspace/mod.wh.cpp:924:43)' to 'int' for 2nd argument 188 | FrameworkElement EnumChildElements( | ^ 189 | FrameworkElement element, 190 | std::function enumCallback) { | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ c:\ProgramData\Windhawk\EditorWorkspace\mod.wh.cpp:1427:9: error: no matching function for call to 'HookSymbols' 1427 | if (HookSymbols(module, symbolHooks, symbolHooksCount, &options)) { | ^~~~~~~~~~~ c:/Program Files/Windhawk/Compiler/include/windhawk_utils.h:220:13: note: candidate function not viable: no known conversion from 'WH_FIND_SYMBOL_OPTIONS *' (aka 'tagWH_FIND_SYMBOL_OPTIONS *') to 'const WH_HOOK_SYMBOLS_OPTIONS *' (aka 'const tagWH_HOOK_SYMBOLS_OPTIONS *') for 4th argument 220 | inline bool HookSymbols(HMODULE module, | ^ 221 | const SYMBOL_HOOK* symbolHooks, 222 | size_t symbolHooksCount, 223 | const WH_HOOK_SYMBOLS_OPTIONS* options) { | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 warning and 4 errors generated.Hi, the mod requires some minor adjustments to be able to compile it with Windows 1.5. When installed, it’s compiled in compatibility mode, that’s why installing it works.
For now, you can use this adjusted verson:
https://github.com/m417z/my-windhawk-mods/blob/e9d6ad882f9b7798246260e844cd97e894a9b2e5/mods/taskbar-vertical.wh.cpp
The changes will be merged on the next mod update.
Hi, I installed the vertical mod and had a really big problem. I have the “Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 49 Gamer Monitor” and on the left part of it (where the taskbar was) it looks like the mod somehow disabled the updating of some programs. For example: Spotfy was stuck on the task bar and when I clicked play, it actually started playing the music, but looking at the program it seemed like it still didn’t have play pressed. But if I moved Spotify a little to the right, I could see that it had actually clicked. Other programs worked, and others didn’t in that part of the monitor.
Hi, is this problem specific to Spotify? Could you post a video recording of it working properly without the mod, and a video recording that demonstrates the problem with the mod?
is it possible to have vertical taskbar on one screen and horisontal on other screens?
That’s not possible with the current version of the mod, not so easy to implement, and not planned for the near future, sorry. My current focus is allowing to move the taskbar to the right, and have it on the left on one screen, and on the right on the other.
Windhawk Vertical Taskbar for Windows 11 – conflict with Adobe Acrobat 11 Pro print dialog box. When Vertical Taskbar is active, the print dialog box in Acrobat 11 Pro is reduced to a single blank line. The box cannot be resized. When Vertical Taskbar is switched off, the print dialog box is normal. I can provide more details and screenshots if desired.
Thanks very much for this app. I was using Explorer Patcher, but there are now problems with Windows Defender classing it as malware.
Hi, please create an issue here, and add information such as screenshots or a video recording, and steps to reproduce the problem.
https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk/issues
i love it so far, but i would so love to have the hidden taskbar to be able to work with this. from what i understood its not only this mods problem, just overall windows 11 problem with mods?
i regret every second of downloading windows eleven sm
The mod wasn’t adapted to work with the hidden taskbar yet. I might look at it for future versions. It’s not quite a Windows 11 problem with mods, the Windows 11 problem is that the vertical taskbar functionality is missing altogether, so it had to be recreated, and this recreation isn’t perfect.
I’ll need to move to windows 11 eventually, but the lack of the vertical taskbar has kept me from doing so. Enter Windhawk, I hope. On windows 10 I have many open brave windows which are in grouped as one icon in the taskbar. When I hover over the brave icon in the taskbar, I get a list off to the side of all of the brave windows I have open, either explicitly named (if I did so) or with the name of whatever the active tab is in that window (if I didn’t name it). If there are more windows than can fit in the list there is a white arrow at the bottom which will let me scroll the list. When I click on an item in the list that window opens and the list disappears. Can I do this with the vertical taskbar mod in Windhawk? If the list is displayed somewhere else on the screen that would be fine because the list is only there until I select a window to open. Thanks!
When hovering over a group, thumbnail previews are displayed just like with a regular taskbar. You can see a screenshot here:
https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/25101#issuecomment-2372682448
And like with the regular taskbar, the thumbnails turn into a list when there are too many items. If you’d like to always have a list, you can a achieve that with a registry option:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/20989-change-taskbar-thumbnail-threshold-show-list-windows-10-a.html
Or with this Windhawk mod:
https://windhawk.net/mods/taskbar-thumbnails
thank you!