Windhawk mods for the Windows 11 taskbar
A few weeks ago, Windhawk, the customization marketplace for Windows programs, was released. You can read the announcement blog post for more details and for the motivation behind creating it. One of the sections of the blog post was dedicated to 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
Regarding the future of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker: It will keep existing as a separate program which supports Windows 7 to Windows 10. As mentioned in a recent blog post, most parts of the taskbar were reimplemented in Windows 11, and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker can’t be made to work with the new taskbar without a huge amount of work. My plan, at least in the short term, is to implement the most demanded customizations for Windows 11 as Windhawk mods.
Below is a table with features that are available in Windows 10 but are missing in Windows 11. Some of the features are part of Windows 10 (marked with the 
icon) and some are part of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (marked with the 
icon). Please vote for the features that you’d like to have back in Windows 11. I’ll prioritize implementing the most requested features as Windhawk mods. For each implemented feature, the page will be updated to reflect the current status.
Voting can be done in two ways, simple voting and a donation. I added the donation option to be able to give extra priority to votes of users who wish to support the project with a donation. To vote with a donation, add the feature hashtag to the donation comment like this. Donations are a great motivating factor (thanks!), and I think that letting supporters decide where to focus first is a nice perk.
| Feature | Votes | Donations | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Right click: Standard window menu |
|||
| Middle click: Switch to / Minimize / Close |
✔️ Partial | ||
| Dropping: Open with |
|||
| Hovering: List / Tooltip / Nothing |
|||
| Thumbnails: Drag to reorder |
✅ Done | ||
| Thumbnails: Left click on the active thumbnail minimizes the window |
|||
| Pinned items: Remove extra gap between items |
|||
| Pinned items: Open with double click |
✅ Done | ||
| Grouping: Don’t group |
✅ Done | ||
| Grouping: When not grouping, place new items next to the existing ones |
✅ Done | ||
| Grouping: Don’t group pinned items |
✅ Done | ||
| Grouping: Drag within/between groups using right mouse button |
|||
| Left click on combined item: Cycle through windows |
|||
| Mouse wheel: Cycle between taskbar buttons |
✅ Done | ||
| Minimize/restore when mouse is over: Taskbar buttons / Thumbnails |
✅ Done | ||
| Control volume when mouse is over: The taskbar / The notification area |
✅ Done | ||
| Customize double/middle click on empty space |
|||
| Hide the Start button |
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| Hide the “Show desktop” button |
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| Display seconds on the tray clock |
✅ Done | ||
| Reserve empty space on taskbar |
|||
| Change the size of taskbar icons |
✅ Done | ||
| Taskbar Inspector |
|||
| Change padding between tray icons |
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| Decombine taskbar buttons |
|||
| Show labels in taskbar buttons |
✅ Done | ||
| Taskbar on the top of the screen |
|||
| Taskbar on the side of the screen |
|||
| Open Taskbar Manager via right click |
⭐ | ||
| Taskbar with multiple rows |
If a feature that you’d like to see in Windows 11 is not in the table, please let me know in the comments below.
Tags: 7+ taskbar tweaker, windhawk
please make a mod for remove the gap between items, when i reduce the icon size, it looks hideous. thank you.
Right now, there are the following solutions you can try:
Install the Taskbar Labels for Windows 11 mod, and set a narrow width in settings. It’s not 100% supported and tested, there might be issues, for example, when there are too many items on the taskbar. But generally I believe that it should work. Let me know if you encounter any issues with it.
Try this updated version of the mod. Let me know if you need help installing it.
Thank you man, you are a saviour.
Change the size of taskbar icons – does not work after updating the version of Windows
Please run the mod with debug logs and post the output.
I still use to classic context menu in the Taskbar because “x Close” is directly where I need it.
Could you add a mod to move the modern context menu closer to the mouse like the classic context menu?
Not sure about moving the modern context menu, but a mod to restore the classic context menu (basically making Shift+right click the default) is on my list.
Appreciate this might be a bit out of scope for Windhawk, but it would be ace if you had a mod that does something similar to Mouse Jiggler
https://github.com/arkane-systems/mousejiggler
That seems to be less of a fit for a Windhawk mod, as it doesn’t customize another program, it’s a standalone program which does something on its own.
You can find many small AutoIt3 scripts that do something like this. I’ll copy my 20-ish lines of code below, you can just run the script or compile it for use on a computer without AI3 installed.
The code itself is fairly self-explanatory, if you wanted to port it over to any other program you prefer.
$timeStep = 4.9 ; minutes HotKeySet("!{CAPSLOCK}", "NoSleep") HotKeySet("!+{CAPSLOCK}", "AllowSleep") HotKeySet("!+^{CAPSLOCK}", "EndSleepFunc") AllowSleep() Func NoSleep() ToolTip('No Sleep Activated', 0, 0) Sleep(1000) ToolTip("") While 1 Sleep($timeStep<em>60</em>1000) ; miliseconds Send("{CAPSLOCK}") Sleep(20) Send("{CAPSLOCK}") WEnd EndFunc Func AllowSleep() ToolTip('Sleep Allowed', 0, 0) Sleep(1000) ToolTip("") While 1 Sleep(1000) WEnd EndFunc Func EndSleepFunc() ToolTip('Exiting...', 0, 0) Sleep(1000) ToolTip("") Exit EndFuncI need the option “Drag To Reorder” for the Thumbnails. Actually is not working con windows 11. Is it possible that you can fix it to work on win 11?
Ty in advanced
Sebas
Have you tried the Taskbar Thumbnail Reorder Windhawk mod?
Well, I have to say WOW !! I did not try the windhawk mod until now. I’ve just installed it and it works !! Thank you very much Michael !!!
You’re welcome, enjoy and spread the word 🙂
Can you confirm that “Hovering: List / Tooltip / Nothing” would show a text list of opened windows of the app icon hovered over, like 7+TT in Windows 10?
Especially important for Firefox (show windows list, not tabs list). I’d gladly donate for that!
Yes, the item is about showing a list instead of the thumbnails, or show nothing.
Previously when Shift-Rightclicking on a group (e.g. File Explorers) and choosing minimize, it would minimize all windows of the group.
Currently only one window (I think the last active one) will be minimized.
Feature Request:
Grouping: Minimize in group context menu minimizes all its windows.
You might want to try this new mod:
Taskbar minimize/restore on scroll.
That does exactly what I need, just way more convenient via scroll-wheel and a few more functions!
Thanks! 😁🍻
Would be also great to have some small mod, which minimizes/restores all windows in group on left click on it’s taskbar icon. It feels kinda useless when left click on it acts the same as the hover action (reveals the previews)…
You can try the Taskbar minimize/restore on scroll mod which provides that functionality for wheel scrolling.
Yes, I just tried it and it works great! But wheel scrolling doesn’t feel right to me for this action — I got used to clicking an app in order to minimize/restore. And since Windows 11 doesn’t use left clicks on group icons at all, would be great to see a mod for this.
OK, thanks for the feedback, I added it to my mod wish list.
By the way, you can also use Ctrl+Click to cycle through the windows in the group. Another mod in the wish list is it allow that without having to hold Ctrl.
Thanks a lot! Probably my request could be combined with existing entry you mentioned, just as an option in settings for action on left click (“cycle through windows in group”, “minimize/restore all windows in group”, etc)
Could you add a feature to support a multi-line taskbar like in prior versions of Windows, so that when there are many programs open their buttons can spread across multiple lines? I’d like to make a donation and vote for that one while I’m at it.
Regardless, thank you for the work you’ve done on both 7TT and Windhawk. I’ve been using 7TT for a long time.
I tested using 7TT with Start11, but the 7TT options didn’t work until I also installed ExplorerPatcher. Is that what you’d expect? I was confused as Start11 and ExplorerPatcher seem very similar so I thought either one would suffice for 7TT to work.
Thanks for the suggestion, added it to the list so it’s now possible to vote for it. It’s not a simple feature to implement, but I’ll consider looking at it if there’s enough interest.
I’m not familiar enough with Start11. I only know that by default ExplorerPatcher restores the old Windows 10 taskbar and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker can work with it.
Would it be possible to add tray_icons_padding to the wishlist? I used that advanced setting on Win10 to reduce the space between tray icons. The taskbar label mod lets you set padding around the taskbar items, but not tray items.
Added to the list under “Change padding between tray icons”.
Until a more convenient mod is made, this can be implemented using Michael’s “Windows 11 Taskbar Styler Mod” which is in the explore list in Windhawk.
Copy/merge/overwrite the following xaml rules into the Advanced tab, Mod Settings text box and hit save. (Include the curly brackets. You should not have to restart windows explorer if using the latest version of the mod) You can adjust the values as you see fit. I have my taskbar height at 36px and icon size at 20px so the values i used here may not apply for your use case. I included “comment” fields so you know what the selectors modify. These are ignored when ran.
(Windows version: 22H2 – 22621.2134)
{ "promptForExplorerRestart": 0, "controlStyles[0].target": "systemtray:TextIconContent", "controlStyles[0].styles[0]": "Width=20", "controlStyles[0].styles[1]": "Comment - network, volume, battery: requires systemtray:TextIconContent > Grid", "controlStyles[1].target": "systemtray:TextIconContent > Grid", "controlStyles[1].styles[0]": "Padding=0,0,0,0", "controlStyles[1].styles[1]": "Comment - network, volume, battery: requires systemtray:TextIconContent", "controlStyles[2].target": "systemtray:NotifyIconView#NotifyItemIcon", "controlStyles[2].styles[0]": "Width=24", "controlStyles[2].styles[1]": "MinWidth=0", "controlStyles[2].styles[2]": "Comment - regular app icons, doesn't seem to have issue with overflow or arrow icon", "controlStyles[3].target": "systemtray:Stack#NonActivatableStack", "controlStyles[3].styles[0]": "Margin=-7,0,-7,0", "controlStyles[3].styles[1]": "Comment - onscreen keyboard, untested if other icons show up in group?" }Huge thanks to Michael for creating UWPSpy! – some selectors don’t seem to play nice, but I managed to find ones that work. There may be others that work, but it took long enough to get these ones…
Im not the sharpest tool in the shed, but would these targets allow for changing the color of the systray icons? I use the light mode in Windows 11 so the text appears black in the systray and I want to change it to a different color.
Can you add the ability to bring back the Windows 10 “People” icon in the taskbar? You forgot to add this to the table.
I never used this icon, and haven’t got this request from other users. I’ll keep it in mind and will consider adding it if I see there’s demand from more users.
plz add option to add taskbar on the side and to be NOT on top of other windows
that means that a window can be dragged OVER ON TOP of taskbar
also when a window lets say a game is double clicked and switch to full screen window it will take the whole screen and not just the screen minus taskbaer
i believe these options exist in the right click advanced settings of 7tt with a bunch of optioons as numbers
default is 0 and u can try 1 for on top and 2 for on top and allow full screen
thanks
You are right, the ‘always on top’ behavior of win11 taskbar is very annoyng.
It will be a great thing if could be disabled with WindHawk, without installling any other programs or be forced to change the bar appearence. I wish you good work with that, Micheal.
And great thanks for your old 7tt tool 😉
Please make taskbar like in macOS. No taskabr on left and right from Start menu and pinned programs. Just wallpaper.
I reinstall Windows 11 today and downloaded 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, but to my surprise, it is not working now, all the settings are greyed, I can not select them. Although until yesterday, it was working fine on Windows 11 for me.
Do I need to install some earlier version of 7+ taskbar tweaker? If yes, please share the link.
I read the above articles and according to my understanding, I need to install Windhawk now, and for each setting I need to install extra mods.
In some replies it was mentioned to use Explorer patcher also.
Please clarify what to use now and share the proper download links of them. I still don’t understand why suddenly 7+ (great work) is not working today inspite you are doing regular updates for it.
The only option to use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker on Windows 11 is by downgrading to the old taskbar. You’ll have to use another tool for the job, for example Explorer Patcher, as I wrote here: 7+ Taskbar Tweaker on Windows 11 with Windows 10’s taskbar.
An alternative solution is to use Windhawk and install the mods you need.
Hello,
after last update of “Disable Grouping”-Mod, not only the bug is solved, it finally behaves in most important details same as with 7taskbartweaker on indows 10 and I simply want to say THANKS!
I’ve been using 7 T T for a very long time, but I’m tired of the old win 10 interface. I started using Windhawk on , but I ran into the problem of thumbnails (sketches). When using the “do not group” mod, the thumbnails on the taskbar remain very much in the way. Is it possible to remove them through Windhawk ? how was it on 7TT or did I not find it in Windhawk ?
I wrote through a translator, if it is not clear, here is a screenshot of the 7tt settings that I do not know how to turn.
https://i.imgur.com/9LT6TZs.png
thanks
Right now, there’s no mod that implements that. You can vote for, “Hovering: List / Tooltip / Nothing” in the table on this post.
Would be great to see some mod, or an option in one of existing mods, to reduce taskbar padding around running apps. Right now each running program’s button has some spacing on top and bottom, which reduces the visual size of it — I would like them to take 100% of taskbar height.
Maybe it makes sense to be added to the existing module “Taskbar Labels for Windows 11”, which already provides option for horizontal (left/right) padding between buttons?
“Taskbar Labels for Windows 11” does something simple, it allows to control the padding, but it doesn’t affect the rest of the UI. Look at the image below. “Taskbar Labels for Windows 11” allows to control the green spacing, and I assume you want to control the red spacing. Part of it can be controlled in a similar way, but the orange part is more challenging as the button UI has to be changed.
https://i.imgur.com/uMQVdyp.png
If you’re OK with only controlling the non-orange part, you can use Taskbar height and icon size and increase the icon size or decrease the taskbar height.
Oh, and orange part is the one I was talking about… At first I thought that the new “Windows 11 Taskbar Styler” would allow to easily reduce this vertical padding around tiles, but I couldn’t really find the variable for that
Windows 11 Taskbar Styler can help. You can reduce the padding as following:
Target:
taskbar:TaskListButtonPanel#IconPanelStyle:
Padding=2,0,2,0The original value is
2,4,2,4for left,top,right,bottom padding.Wow, this is exactly what I wanted! Huge thanks!!!
The only problem is, it’s not applied to Start menu button, perhaps it needs a separate style selector?
Yes.
Target:
taskbar:TaskListButtonPanel#ExperienceToggleButtonRootPanelDefault padding:
Padding=12,4,2,4Note that it will also affect other buttons, if you have any, such as Task View, and they might have different left and right padding, which means that you’ll have to pick a single value for all buttons while using this method.
Super, that’s just perfect! I love my taskbar appearance 100% more now. I wish there was a place where people could share awesome style snippets like this, I could not really comprehed how to get all these selectors…
Could you please help me with one last selector — corner radius for the Start menu button? Just to make it fit with the “square task buttons” style included in the mod.
I’m working on a tool to help with that. Keep an eye on the blog announcements!
Try this. It might also affect other elements since the name “BackgroundElement” is quite generic, but that’s the best that can be done with the current version of Taskbar Styler. I plan on improving it in the future to allow more specific targets.
Target:
Border#BackgroundElementStyle:
CornerRadius=0That does the trick, huge thanks again! I owe you few coffees
Thank you, Max, I appreciate it!
I’ve been using 7+ taskbar for years solely to make the show/hide/peek desktop button larger, would love to be able to do this in win 11.
It’s certainly not the most urgent thing to do, but would you consider setting the time and date in ONE row?
You can hide the top line in the settings, and customize the bottom line to contain both the date and the time.
Sorry if this has already been asked…how about the option to change to classic style task switcher? I like the icon style instead of thumbnail, and I don’t like how it changes what is shown on the screen when cycling through the options. Does any solution exist for this already?
Right now, there’s no such mod, and it’s not in the list since it’s not related to the taskbar. But I’ll keep your suggestion in mind, thanks for the feedback.
https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/releases has it AFAIR
If I understand correctly, the only way I can currently have the taskbar on the right side in Win 11 is to use 7+Taskbar tweaker combing Explorer Patcher (use the win10 style) right? Since the Windhawk has not implemented this function yet.
Also, thanks a lot for your effort in developing such amazing tools!
Right. And you’re welcome 🙂
“Grouping: Don’t group pinned items” should be listed as “Partial” not “Done”, because the “Disable grouping on the taskbar” mod doesn’t let you disable grouping pinned items without disabling grouping entirely.
The mod has an exclusion list, and I wanted to add a mode that will allow to use an inclusion list instead, so that no ungrouping will take place except for a custom (possibly empty) list of processes. You’re technically right that it makes the implementation “Partial”, but that also applies to other options, such as the labels mod which doesn’t allow to control it per process. Since most mods re-implement the functionality, there are often small gaps, and I feel that marking most of them as “Partial” is not very productive if they provide the desired functionality for the vast majority of the users.
Even if it was an inclusion list instead of an exclusion list, I still wouldn’t be able to only exclude the pinned icon from being grouped, it would still disable the grouping of running instances of that program. I said it should be listed as “Partial” because 7+ Taskbar Tweaker allowed grouping icons for a program but excluding the pinned icon, so that pinned items could work like they were just the quick launch toolbar. I would just use the quick launch toolbar as a solution but microsoft didn’t include toolbars in the new taskbar.
I am a staunch user of the taskbar tweaker functionality to switch to the window located to the left/right on the taskbar (value 101 and 102 in the advanced settings). I absolutely despise how the default cycling works in windows, so one of the first things I always do after installing windows is to install the taskbar tweaker and setting ALT+tab to cycle right and ALT+caps to cycle left.
I don’t suppose this can be implemented with Windhawk?
Actually, it is implemented as part of the Cycle taskbar buttons with mouse wheel mod. Despite the name, keyboard shortcuts can also be configured. Note that the mod only works for Windows 11. For Windows 10, it’s best to keep using 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
The feature “Hide the “Show desktop” button” is already included in Windows 11 now, so probably no need to redo this here.
The Windows option turns the button into a useless empty space. By hiding the button, the idea is to get rid of that space altogether.
Longtime user here (and I think one time donator? I know I’ve at least contributed half decent threads on the user voice):
what exactly is WindHawk and how do I get started with it? I just heard about it now when trying to find an alternative to ExplorerPatcher for my Windows 11 laptop (it came with Windows 11 unfortunately, and more unfortunately an automatic update broke the taskview button. I commented about this here: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/discussions/2013#discussioncomment-6956264), and if that works better for you, I’m all for it, ESPECIALLY if it’s less likely to make Windows start imitating a laptop-shaped mass of silicon dioxide building material (otherwise known as a brick) in the event of another nonconsensual update :rolling_eyes:
The best way to find out would be to read the publication blog post.
Just download it from the website, install it, and browse for mods. You can install mods that you like similarly to installing Chrome extensions.
Possibly replace the infuriating taskbar internet icon & options in win 11 with those from Win10?
Thanks
Can you add the mod add Disable taskbar thumbnail preview.?
Thank you.
Such mod is planned. You can vote for, “Hovering: List / Tooltip / Nothing” in the table on this post.
Thank you very much.
Executed.
Hello everyone,
I don’t know if it has already been requested, but would it be possible to change the virtual desktop icon to show the number of the desktop I’m currently in? Or any other indication in the taskbar with the name of the desktop? I can change the desktop background so that it is different between desktops, but if a window is maximised it would cover it and I often get confused.
Hi, interesting idea, that should be possible but will require some work. It’s best to post your idea here, perhaps someone will implement it (maybe it will be me one day):
https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk-mods/issues
Hello Michael,
thank you so much for your work. I don’t know whether it was already discussed, but would it be possible to implement “Show all tray icons” feature? The feature that was removed in Windows 11. I absolutely hate having to go to taskbar settings every time the system sees a new tray icon to make it visible. Thanks
Hi, it was suggested here:
https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk-mods/issues/146
I just want to comment here and say thank you for all the hard work on this. Taskbar Tweaker is one of my top required softwares for using my computer the way I want to use my computer. After reading all of these comments, it seems like when/if I move on to W11, I’ll have to fight windows even more than in W10.
“Minimize/restore when mouse is over” doesn’t work anymore in Windows 11 22H2 22621.2361… Why?
only “CTaskListWnd_OnContextMenu_Hook” works.
“TaskListButton_OnPointerWheelChanged_Hook” doesn’t work anymore