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 |
✅ Done | ||
| 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 |
✅ Done | ||
| Hide the Start button |
✔️ Partial | ||
| Hide the “Show desktop” button |
✔️ Partial | ||
| 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 |
✅ Done | ||
| Decombine taskbar buttons |
✅ Done | ||
| Show labels in taskbar buttons |
✅ Done | ||
| Taskbar on the top of the screen |
✅ Done | ||
| Taskbar on the side of the screen |
✅ Done | ||
| Open Taskbar Manager via right click |
⭐ | ||
| Taskbar with multiple rows |
|||
| Taskbar toolbars |
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
Michael,
I’ve been asking a lot of questions and making a lot of requests lately, and I just wanted to take a minute and thank you for all of the work and support you have put into both 7TT+ and WH.
Especially regarding the taskbar and the start menu, out-of-the-box, Win11 seems to be something of a downgrade from (sure I could install Explorer Patcher and have the Win10 interface back, but why upgrade to keep what I had), but with WH mods I like the Win11 start menu and taskbar BETTER than the Win10 versions.
Thank you for making my computing much more pleasant!!!
You’re welcome 🙂 I’m glad that my tools are making a positive impact!
Does anyone know how to adjust the spacing (padding) of the inactive SysTray (notification area) icons, using Windows Taskbar Styler.
I found the setting for the active icons.
Using UWPSpy, it looks like the setting should be controlled by Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Grid#OverflowRootGrid
I tried changing that from Padding=12,12,12,12 (which seems to be what I am seeing on-screen), to Padding=2,2,2,2, but it didn’t seem to make any difference.
I also saw where it is setup a few levels higher as a 274×174 pixel rectangle, but when I changed that, it created odd results – the taskbar size was reduced and there was only one row of icons shown in the overflow area.
An Explorer restart didn’t change anything, I didn’t try a re-boot yet.
FWIW –
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.ContentPresenter
Height=24
Width=24
Looked promising from UWPSpy, but didn’t work either …
Hi Michael,
I have a new issue that is mildly annoying and I don’t know if you can easily fix or reproduce it.
I isolated the problem to the Taskbar labels for Windows 11 mod.
I work fairly often with Microsoft Access and I have VBA code on startup that briefly hides and unhides the button/label in the taskbar. It works fine with out WH and it works okay if I only open one Access database.
If I open multiple Access databases (I have grouping on but combining buttons off), one of them will open with the wrong icon. Typically it will not have any icon (which is okay, but I’ve also seen it open with the Skype for Business icon (but not the overlay), or the Windows Explorer icon, which is annoying).
If I toggle Taskbar Labels for Windows 11 off, the correct icon is shown, and if I re-enable it, the correct icon remains.
Hopefully, you will have a solution.
Thank you again for all the work you have put into WH and your other programs!!!
Interesting, are you sure about that? The mod doesn’t do much with the icons, just adjusts some properties such as margin and padding.
If you can come up with reproduction steps, I’ll try to reproduce and fix it.
Apparently, this was related to lack of space on my C:\Drive. I freed up space and it doesn’t seem to be happening anymore.
Spoke too soon. Freeing up space did not PERMANENTLY fix the issue. However, I was able to verify the issue is NOT with WindHawk. I thought it was related to code I was running when the database opens, but that doesn’t seem to affect it either …
Thank goodness I found Windhawk. I had a Windows update overnight and when I reopened my folders, the address/navigation/search bar was missing. I spent hours this morning trying to find out how to get them back. Just found a link in Reddit for your program and within seconds I had it, installed it and had the address bar back. Thank you so much!
You’re welcome, I’m glad that it helped 🙂
Forgot to mention, I noticed you created 7+ Taskbar Tweaker and I’ve been using it for years and love it! I like to keep my open folders in a certain order and when they get out of order, I just use 7+ to ungroup, move the folder back in place, then click on group again. So easy!
That’s great, but while that works, there are two easier methods:
Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/QPH03vS.png
Using one of these options should make it even easier.
Thanks for the tips. I just checked the drag within groups and it works like a charm!
Re-sent you a test E-mail.
Nope, it doesn’t arrive for some reason. Did you use the email address from the contact page?
Yes, I did, and I got a successful delivery receipt. Can you E-mail me a different address to try?
got your test E-mail and replied back.
Did you get the images and dump file E-mails?
My feature request: just start menu in bottom left corner while the rest of the taskbar remains centered.
You might be able to achieve that with the Windows 11 Taskbar Styler mod. There’s also a relevant discussion here:
https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk-mods/discussions/679
while not directly related to the taskbar I’d like to suggest a mod that:
shows only windows from the current screen in the alt+tab
and if possible also changes the order of items in the alt+tab switcher from MRU to the order of buttons on the taskbar
oh and a really minor thing but if all the flyouts appearing while clicking on taskbar elements would just touch it instead of levitating that would be awesome too
it probably can be achieved with existing mods too, but due to the positioning being pinned to the top of the screen it probably would be better to calculate it dynamically
“Grouping: Drag within/between groups using right mouse button”
I hope this feature gets implemented. It is one of the most important features of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
I am trying to switch from 7+ to Windhawk because recently Windows 10 installed some update & once again 7+ made explorer repeatedly crash. Only closing 7+ made the system stable.
Perhaps you already know this, but for now you can use the Taskbar Thumbnail Reorder mod.
Can you please enable dump capturing and send me a crash dump?
You should be able to get it with the following steps:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error ReportingLocalDumpsDumpTypewith value2%LocalAppData%\CrashDumpsfolder, you should see a dump file in thereYou can email it to me.
Just wanted to add one thing that might help others. I was a big fan of “Right-Click to drag between groups” with 7TT. It was one of the few features I really missed with Windhawk.
I found a fairly good workaround – if you can live with a taskbar list instead of thumbnails – https://www.elevenforum.com/t/change-number-of-taskbar-thumbnails-to-show-before-stacked-as-list-in-windows-11.6363/ – You can then select in the list and click and drag items in the list and it will change the order of the icons also.
This might work on the thumbnail previews also – not sure.
Too funny. I didn’t see the previous posts. I do have taskbar Thumbnail Reorder enabled, and I suspect that is why it works. I thought it (Taskbar Thumbnail Reorder) just allowed me to left click and move the group of icons, not the icons within the group. I used the Explore feature on WH and overlooked it also …
Hi!
Thanks for the new version of Windhawk 1.5!
But now i get some compilation errors:
c:\Program Files\Windhawk\Compiler\bin\clang-18: Invalid argument
Compilation failed, the mod might require a newer Windhawk version.
This occurs with:
Windows 11 Start Menu Styler
Taskbar height and icon size
when i try to update the mods.
Thanks
Konrad
Hi Konrad,
I’ll try to reproduce it when I’m near the computer. Do you see any other output, or is “Invalid argument” the only message that’s shown?
Hi Michael,
i turn protocol on and get the following:
DbgViewMini v1.0.1 Listening for OutputDebugString messages... 12:14:37.997 18700 windhawk.exe [WH] [AllProcessesInjector::InjectIntoNewProcess]: DllInject succeeded for new process 14992 via a remote thread 12:14:37.997 14992 conhost.exe [WH] LL 12:14:37.998 14992 conhost.exe [WH] GPA 12:14:37.998 14992 conhost.exe [WH] II 12:14:37.998 14992 conhost.exe [WH] [InjectInit]: Running InjectInit 12:14:57.845 5104 VSCodium.exe [WH] [NewProcessInjector::HandleCreatedProcess]: DllInject succeeded for new process 12816 12:14:57.845 5104 VSCodium.exe [WH] [NewProcessInjector::CreateProcessInternalW_Hook]: New process 12816 from CreateProcessInternalW("c:\Program Files\Windhawk\Compiler\bin\g++.exe", ""c:\Program Files\Windhawk\Compiler\bin\g++.exe" -std=c++23 -O2 -shared -DUNICODE -D_UNICODE -DWINVER=0x0A00 -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0A00 -D_WIN32_IE=0x0A00 -DNTDDI_VERSION=0x0A000008 -D__USE_MINGW_ANSI_STDIO=0 -DWH_MOD "-DWH_MOD_ID=L\"taskbar-icon-size\"" "-DWH_MOD_VERSION=L\"1.2.9\"" "c:\Program Files\Windhawk\Engine\1.5_1\64\windhawk.lib" c:\ProgramData\Windhawk\EditorWorkspace\mod.wh.cpp -include windhawk_api.h -target x86_64-w64-mingw32 -o C:\ProgramData\Windhawk\Engine\Mods\64\taskbar-icon-size_1.2.9_638109.dll -DWINVER=0x0605 -lcomctl32 -lole32 -loleaut32 -lruntimeobject -lshcore -lwininet") 12:14:57.858 12816 g++.exe [WH] LL 12:14:57.859 12816 g++.exe [WH] GPA 12:14:57.859 12816 g++.exe [WH] II 12:14:57.860 12816 g++.exe [WH] [InjectInit]: Running InjectInit 12:14:57.860 12816 g++.exe [WH] II: 1 12:15:01.331 5104 VSCodium.exe [WH] [NewProcessInjector::HandleCreatedProcess]: DllInject succeeded for new process 13060 12:15:01.331 5104 VSCodium.exe [WH] [NewProcessInjector::CreateProcessInternalW_Hook]: New process 13060 from CreateProcessInternalW("c:\Program Files\Windhawk\Compiler\bin\g++.exe", ""c:\Program Files\Windhawk\Compiler\bin\g++.exe" -std=c++23 -O2 -shared -DUNICODE -D_UNICODE -DWINVER=0x0A00 -D_WIN32_WINNT=0x0A00 -D_WIN32_IE=0x0A00 -DNTDDI_VERSION=0x0A000008 -D__USE_MINGW_ANSI_STDIO=0 -DWH_MOD "-DWH_MOD_ID=L\"taskbar-icon-size\"" "-DWH_MOD_VERSION=L\"1.2.9\"" "c:\Program Files\Windhawk\Engine\1.5_1\64\windhawk.lib" c:\ProgramData\Windhawk\EditorWorkspace\mod.wh.cpp -include windhawk_api.h -target x86_64-w64-mingw32 -o C:\ProgramData\Windhawk\Engine\Mods\64\taskbar-icon-size_1.2.9_128243.dll -DWINVER=0x0605 -lcomctl32 -lole32 -loleaut32 -lruntimeobject -lshcore -lwininet") 12:15:01.343 13060 g++.exe [WH] LL 12:15:01.343 13060 g++.exe [WH] GPA 12:15:01.344 13060 g++.exe [WH] II 12:15:01.344 13060 g++.exe [WH] [InjectInit]: Running InjectInit 12:15:01.345 13060 g++.exe [WH] II: 1 12:15:26.562 18476 VSCodium.exe [WH] [NewProcessInjector::HandleCreatedProcess]: DllInject succeeded for new process 7900 12:15:26.562 18476 VSCodium.exe [WH] [NewProcessInjector::CreateProcessInternalW_Hook]: New process 7900 from CreateProcessInternalW("(NULL)", ""c:\Program Files\Windhawk\UI\VSCodium.exe" --type=gpu-process --disable-gpu-sandbox --use-gl=disabled --gpu-vendor-id=32902 --gpu-device-id=16024 --gpu-sub-system-id=2257850435 --gpu-revision=2 --gpu-driver-version=31.0.101.2128 --disable-gpu-sandbox --no-sandbox --user-data-dir="C:\ProgramData\Windhawk\UIData\user-data" --gpu-preferences=UAAAAAAAAADoAAAYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABgAAAAAAAwAAAAAAAAAAAAAACAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEgAAAAAAAAASAAAAAAAAAAYAAAAAgAAABAAAAAAAAAAGAAAAAAAAAAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOAAAAEAAAAAAAAAABAAAADgAAAAgAAAAAAAAACAAAAAAAAAA= --mojo-platform-channel-handle=1276 --field-trial-handle=1724,i,1578162911583001301,4214479298411165810,131072 --disable-features=CalculateNativeWinOcclusion,SpareRendererForSitePerProcess,WinRetrieveSuggestionsOnlyOnDemand /prefetch:2") 12:15:26.581 7900 VSCodium.exe [WH] LL 12:15:26.581 7900 VSCodium.exe [WH] GPA 12:15:26.581 7900 VSCodium.exe [WH] II 12:15:26.581 7900 VSCodium.exe [WH] [InjectInit]: Running InjectInit 12:15:26.581 7900 VSCodium.exe [WH] II: 1 12:15:31.455 18700 windhawk.exe [WH] [AllProcessesInjector::ShouldSkipNewProcess]: Skipping excluded process 10528I dont know if it’s useful…
Thanks
Konrad
Please post screenshots of:
Your files in C:\Program Files\Windhawk\Compiler\bin.
What you see exactly after trying to update.
Thanks.
https://alder-web.de/divers/Windhawk1.5-Screen1.png
https://alder-web.de/divers/Windhawk1.5-Screen2.png
Thanks
That’s what I suspected, clang-18.exe is missing. Are you using an antivirus? It was reported that Avast falsely detects this file:
https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk/issues/233
Ah, ok. I’m using Eset and clang-18.exe is also quarantined. I’ll whitelist it.
Thanks very much!
Konrad
Great. If you could report it to ESET, that will help other users, thanks.
I reported it to Eset 🙂
Thanks again for your brilliant program. Without it the Win11-Taskbar is unusable!
There is no further error output in the debug window when i turn off the protocol.
“Disable grouping on the taskbar” and “Middle click to close on the taskbar” mods haven’t worked with StartAllBack since version 3.8. Could you please adjust them to be compatible with StartAllBack 3.8.x?
Hi, my answer is the same as regarding the compatibility with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker:
does any one know when Taskbar with multiple rows
will be implemented?
Please see my reply here:
https://ramensoftware.com/windhawk-mod-vertical-taskbar-for-windows-11/comment-page-1#comment-15272
I would like to see the possiblity of forcing a new explorer instance to be a new tab rather than a new window
Hello Mr. Ramen, Thanks for 7TT Taskbar again. I think I will stick with Win10, security issues or not. Is it possible to scroll the Win11 Taskbar with windhawk? I cannot use a desktop or laptop OS where I cant do this without great discomfort. Why do I have to click for overflow programs in win11? It will drive me crazy.
Hi, currently overflow is the only option Microsoft provides, and there are no mods to change that.
Yea i looked through all the WH mods and didn’t see anything remotely close to that. I guess it’s a niche feature to have taskbar pages. Does 7TT work with RevertSV? Gimme some hope man!!
I’m not familiar with RevertSV. I guess the best way to find out is to try it out.
Hi Michael, i’m a new user of Windhawk on win11. On win10 with 7+TT, for example i can let taskbar only show icons and set up a specific program such as Excel to show label at same time, is there any way to achieve this on Windhawk? I tried Taskbar Labels for Windows 11 Mod but it didn’t work the way i expected.
Hi Shawn,
Currently that’s not possible. It was suggested before, you can track the relevant issue here:
https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk-mods/issues/203
Hi again, it’s finally possible to configure labels per application in version 1.3 of the mod.
Hi Michael,
I’m a happy user of 7+Taskbar for 10 years now.
I recently switched to W11 and tried some mods, very nice.
“Middle click to close on the taskbar” works well.
Do you have a solution to disable “minimize window” when clicking an already active window ?
It was possible with 7+Taskbar.
https://tweaker.userecho.com/communities/1/topics/469-add-option-to-disable-minimize-window-when-clicking-already-active-window
The goal is to have a behavior similar to chrome tabs.
Hi Arthur,
Currently there’s no mod for it. It should be possible, but it requires some work and it’s not a popular request. You can create an issue for it here and I’ll consider it in the future if there’s demand for it.
Thanks for your answer. I created this new-mod-idea
https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk-mods/issues/1004
Hope it will gather some votes !