7 Taskbar Tweaker v2.0, with dragging within groups

7 Taskbar Tweaker v2.0 is out!

Now you don’t have to open Taskbar Inspector to Group your taskbar items the way you want to.
The new drag-within-groups option enables you to do it using the right mouse button!
Here is a short demo to demonstrate how it works:

 
You can catch any taskbar button with the right mouse button and drag it to another button to group them together!
You can drag it away of the taskbar buttons to create a new group.
Note: if you have grouping disabled, you won’t be able to group buttons with default Application IDs, but you can drag it away to create a new random_group_x which is always groupable. See demo to look how it works.


There’s a bonus coming with that feature: you can scroll your mouse wheel while holding the right mouse button to show/hide labels of the group under the mouse.


Also, starting from this version, the tweaker is distributed within a setup package (a good reason to label it v2.0).
The setup does not require admin privileges and does not leave traces on uninstall (unless you choose to keep the settings).
Also, it automatically detects whether you’re running the 64-bit version of Windows and installs the appropriate tweaker version (I had to learn some NSIS scripting on the way :)).

Posted in Software, Updates by Michael (Ramen Software) on April 18th, 2011.
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57 Responses to “7 Taskbar Tweaker v2.0, with dragging within groups”

  1. MainTrane says:

    Thanks, major improvements!
    7TT makes the Win7 taskbar so much more functional.

  2. VeriTi says:

    Thanks for good work!

    By the way, it seems that you can’t right-click-group an open window with a pinned item, even if it is “native” application ID

  3. xpclient says:

    Request: Can you make archived/older versions also available for download in case one version crashes or doesn’t work for us? 🙂

  4. Mark says:

    thanks for your great programming and sharing of it with the world for free!!!

  5. Xeon says:

    Feature request: Could [shift]/[ctrl]+[mmb] or similar combo options be added, a faster way of getting the task manager up, so utilizing the [shift]/[ctrl] modifiers with the middle button click on the taskbar would be a lot easier than trying to find a bit of empty space on the taskbar.. and secondly another option to utilize one of those modifiers for clicking on a running task, that instead of closing, did force close on said executable..Right now [mmb] can be used to close running tasks normally… where as the alternative method I’d like access too would be a faster way of going to the task manager using force end task on a running task process. In the case of an explorer folder it would end task on explorer.exe, however this request is mainly for other applications and situations.

    please add this, used to be old request for the awesome Taskix extension, the developer didn’t have the time or interest to develop for vis7a, dont’ blame tbh.

    Still great work here picking the pieces of microsoft’s piss poor design and development and actually improving the taskbar. I wonder how MS will be breaking Win8 with more pointless and crap dumbification design.. centered window titles anyone, useless explorer ribbon 😛

  6. Garth says:

    A truly wonderful utility — thank you for writing it.

    v2 is excellent.

    You should put a “donate” button somewhere on your site if you’re interested in that.

  7. A says:

    portable plz

  8. Scorpius289 says:

    Amazing! so you can create your own custom groups! A feature they should have added from the start! Thank you very much for doing this!

  9. Scorpius289 says:

    One request: could you make it so we can give custom names/labels to the custom groups?

  10. Anonymous says:

    Thank you so much for this! It’s the little nuggets like this that continue to make Windows truly flexible. I’ve been running 1.x for over a year now and found the 2.0 update purely by accident. A pleasant surprise for sure! Keep up the great work.

  11. Anonymous says:

    Here’s a wish list item….

    Add an option (preferably right under “Start Task Manager”) on the taskbar’s right-click context menu that would allow the user one click access when the system tray icon is disabled.

  12. mike_a says:

    thank you very much for creating and sharing of such cool and useful thing 🙂

  13. VEG says:

    Thank you. And what about option to hide “Show desktop” button? It will be powerful in classic theme.

  14. Peter says:

    Win + T abnormal? (Try right arrow)

  15. Eric S says:

    That’s really cool. I can see it being really useful to group things according to what one is doing with them rather than by app. Now suppose we could change the name/label of the group? And have the Label popup on hover? How awesome would that be?

  16. Eric S says:

    BTW since the moving things around within groups is something one isn’t going to do nearly as often as make use of the taskbar after you’ve set it, might it make sense to make the group modification functionality available with a modification key, like shift? For example shift-hover to decombine, shift-right-click to drag them between groups. Then the non-shift actions are available for more frequently useful behaviors, like popping up the group label or such.

  17. Alex says:

    Thank you!

  18. AlexeyN says:

    Thanks for program, using it!

  19. Anonymous says:

    With this app can you apply different settings to different groups of applications? For example, can one group show descriptions and the rest of the groups hide the descriptions?

  20. eXtreme says:

    It seems like the rightclick+scroll actually moving the windows to a new random group, not changing the show-title status…

    • That may be because when the title is gone, your mouse points to the blank space of the taskbar, and then when you move the mouse the window is moved to a new group.
      When using rightclick+scroll, do not move the mouse or point on the icon, not the text.

  21. chodorowicz says:

    Truly awesome! Many thanks!

    I was wondering, if it possible to show labels on hover with small icons set in taskbar (you’re using standard icons in the video)? I don’t know if it’s because of 7 Taskbar Tweaker or my previous tweaks to the taskbar

  22. Geoff says:

    Any chance you could still make the program directly available without the installer for those of us using 2008r2. I’ve been using it since 1.1, never had any issues and it has been brilliant; but now v2 will not install as it only knows about 7.
    The plain exe’s were easier to use straight off a memory stick as well.
    Thanks

    • The 2008r2 issue is gonna be fixed in next version.

      As of portability, v1 was a standalone exe, but still used the registry to save its settings. Not too portable.
      The v2 installer does not require administrator rights, and cleans all registry entries used by the tweaker on uninstall.

  23. hank8bank says:

    Does this version still inclued ‘malware’? I’ve been skeptical to use this because of it.

  24. zzweber says:

    This little app is great!
    Windows 7 has surprisingly little flexibility in this area.

  25. 333hronos says:

    Hello, I like your program and I made it translated into Russian.
    If you will, I can send it on your email. Email me if you’re interested.
    My email: 333hronos@gmail.com
    ==========Screenshot of translating:============
    http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/4627/19056738.jpg
    ======================================
    Привет, мне понравилась твоя программа и я сделал её перевод на русский язык.
    Если ты захочешь добавить его на сайт, то я могу отослать тебе его на почту
    Мой электронный адрес: 333hronos@gmail.com

    • Привет.

      Я рад, что программа понравилась, но по моему ее как-то нелепо переводить. Сложного английского нет, системные термины, все и так ясно.

  26. eXtreme says:

    Can we have option to save after moving windows or create a new group?

  27. drizagon says:

    Great tool RaMMicHaeL, I can’t believe MS didn’t include this functionality in 7…

    Thanks for the work!

  28. Devon says:

    I just installed the program for the first time (2.1.5) and it’s very close (but not quite) what i have been looking for.
    Here’s the problem im having:
    I am able to group items both by changing the appid and also by drag and drop. The problem is that after i close and reopen one of the grouped apps (or open a new instance), grouping is lost. Is this by design or a bug?
    I would prefer to not have to regroup everytime i open a new instance of the program.

    • It’s by design.
      You can choose a specific Application ID to always group, but that’s where it ends.
      For the tweaker to remember your grouped windows, it has to be able to somehow identify them, like window titles or window class (both are not reliable). What would you suggest?

      • Devon says:

        Can you do it by process name?

        • Well, let’s say I have this in my taskbar:
          [group: notepad & firefox] [firefox] [group: notepad & explorer]
          What should the tweaker remember?

          What is possible to do is provide default grouping options, like:
          “Always group notepad with firefox”

          I may do something like that in the future, but it’s not a trivial feature and require some work.
          Also, I’m not sure it’s too useful. I, for example, usually group buttons according to things I work on, e.g. I might have three groups of [browser, explorer, ide]. There’s no way a program can remember such groups, and there’s really no need to.

  29. Bill says:

    Just installed 4.2.4, and I am now unable to drag within groups using right-click. I hadn’t had any problems with this in previous versions (up to 4.2.2).

    I have “Group by Application ID” and “Use Taskbar Settings” (set to Never Combine in Win7). Am I missing something. Thanks in Advance.

  30. Bill says:

    OK, since it works for you, I had to do some more investigation.

    The problem appears to be related to my Logitech G700 mouse, which has programmable buttons. If I assign a right-click function to some other button, dragging works when that button is used.

    To add a bit of (probably useless) info: when I hover on the taskbar, I get the thumbnail preview, and when I then press the normal right-click button, I get the jumplist, and dragging is a no-no. The jumplist does NOT appear when I use the “alternate” right-click button, and dragging works.

    I don’t expect either of us to sweat over this, but if you can see an explanation, I’d be curious.

    Thanks again.

    • The jump list is activated when the WM_CONTEXTMENU message is received.
      The dragging, on the other hand, is activated when the WM_RBUTTONDOWN message is received.

      So it seems like the real right button doesn’t send the WM_RBUTTONDOWN message, and the programmed button doesn’t send the WM_CONTEXTMENU message.

      You can see what messages the taskbar receives with Spy++:
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/g9ga5pqw5jphr6o/Spy%2B%2B.zip?dl=1
      (32-bit, portable, binaries are signed by Microsoft)

      Press Alt+F3, drag the icon to the task list (class: MSTaskListWClass), click OK.
      Then right click on the selected item and choose “Messages”.

  31. Bill says:

    While playing around with all this I noticed that there was some inconsistency, in that once in a rare while dragging WOULD work using the real right-click button.

    In addition to the Logitech software I also use something called X-Mouse Button Control (guess what this does). I suspected a possible conflict. After restarting this app, everything works correctly.

    Now I can’t make it fail, but I’ll have to see how it behaves after a reboot. I can see where it possibly could be dependent on the order in which the two mouse controlling applications are started.

    For what it’s worth, I notice that NOW (not before) the jumplist appears on a button RELEASE, rather than a PRESS, for both the real and simulated right-click buttons.

    Anyway, it’s Sunday. You should find something better to do that play with your computer- Unlike me:)

    Thanks for your input.

    • I’m not sure the tweaker is involved here at all.
      It’s possibly an issue of X-Mouse Button Control with your Logitech mouse.

      For what it’s worth, I notice that NOW (not before) the jumplist appears on a button RELEASE, rather than a PRESS, for both the real and simulated right-click buttons.

      That’s how it’s supposed to work.
      The tweaker shouldn’t affect this behavior.
      Next time you encounter such quirks, you might want to close the tweaker and see if the issue still occurs.

      I’ve installed X-Mouse Button Control and I couldn’t reproduce it on my machine, regardless of the order it and the tweaker started.

  32. Bill says:

    Whoops, it’s Saturday, my mistake. Play away.

  33. Bill says:

    Sorry, I intended to suggest a conflict between X-Mouse BC AND the Logitech software, NOT the Tweaker.

    FWIW, while I was having the problem, the Jumplist was appearing on a PRESS, which I’m sure more meaningful to you than to me.

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