7+ Taskbar Numberer: taskbar numbers for Utter Command

Speech recognition

This utility has been designed for speech recognition users who use voice macros to switch between open applications and tray icons. It works on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 operating systems, both 32-bit and 64-bit.

For example, speech recognition users that use Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional with the third-party provided Utter Command add-on can switch to the third application shown in the taskbar by using the command “Window 3”, or can right-click on the third visible tray icon by using the command “Tray 3”. When there are many open applications, or when the user has a significant amount of tray icons, it can become quite cumbersome to count by hand the number of icons in order to identify the sequence of the intended application or tray icon.

“7+ Taskbar Numberer” solves this problem by numbering sequentially, left to right:
– the icons for the open and close-but-pinned windows applications.
– all the visible tray icons.

and then placing tiny visible numbers (a.k.a. “hints”) in the top left corner of the application icons, and in the top right corner of the tray icons. The numbering scheme supports more than one digit, so that the hint for the 12th application is “12”.

While this utility has been tested with the Utter Command user interface, it will work with any other voice macros that select open applications or tray icons by rotating with them sequentially from left to right.

The utility adjusts dynamically as new applications or tray icons are added, and also works when the user has chosen to make just a subset of the tray icons visible.

This above “Speech recognition” section wasn’t written by me. The author wished to remain anonymous.

Win+# keyboard shortcuts

You can use the Windows key+number keyboard shortcut to refer to a taskbar item.

Windows logo key microsoft_win+number
Start the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number. If the program is already running, switch to that program.

Shift+Windows logo key microsoft_win+number
Start a new instance of the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.

Ctrl+Windows logo key microsoft_win+number
Switch to the last active window of the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.

Alt+Windows logo key microsoft_win+number
Open the Jump List for the program pinned to the taskbar in the position indicated by the number.

Source: Microsoft.

7+ Taskbar Numberer adds numbers to your taskbar items, so you can see right away what keyboard shortcut is assigned to each item.
Optionally, the numbers can appear only when the Windows key is down.

Number of combined buttons

7+ Taskbar Numberer adds numbers to your combined items on the taskbar, similarly to the way Windows XP did:

Optionally, you can use this option, but show Win+# keyboard shortcuts when the Windows key is down.

Usage

To launch this utility automatically when Windows launches and without showing the dialog, add a shortcut in your startup folder pointing to the location where you have placed the utility, followed by the -hidewnd command line switch, similar to:

"C:\Software\7+ Taskbar Numberer\64\7+ Taskbar Numberer.exe" -hidewnd

You might also want to add the -hidetray command line switch to hide the tray icon.

To use a specific option from the GUI, use the corresponding command line switch:
-v1, -v2, -v3, -v4, or -v5.

To exit from this utility, right-click the tray icon.

Download

zip 7plus Taskbar Numberer.zip (214.24 kB)

Source code

https://github.com/m417z/7-Taskbar-Numberer

Posted in Releases, Software by Michael (Ramen Software) on July 22nd, 2012.
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385 Responses to “7+ Taskbar Numberer: taskbar numbers for Utter Command”

  1. Tom says:

    Like others have said, it would be nice to have some basic settings for size and appearance of the badges. But other than that, awesome tool!

  2. Wojtek says:

    Doesn’t work.

    Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview
    version 2004
    Installed: 15.03.2020
    OS bulid 19577.1000
    Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.5101.0.0

    Error something like that IDS_INJERROR_X3

  3. Wojtek says:

    Thanks!

  4. Tom says:

    Sweet, thanks so much! With the Windows 10 light theme, the numbers appear white on white and aren’t readable. I fixed it by switching to the dark theme. OK for me as I don’t care much about light or dark.

  5. Tom says:

    Hi Michael,

    You said elsewhere that “In “Win+# hotkeys” mode, the numbers are deliberately displayed on the main monitor only, since the hotkeys only affect the main monitor taskbar.”

    In my setup (and I believe it is the default?) the taskbar is the same on all monitors, so it would be nice to have the Win+Hotkeys monde support multiple monitors for that case too. For now I am using speech recognition mode for this purpose.

    • Hi Tom,

      Good idea, I’ve implemented it so that if the taskbar is the same on all monitors, numbers appear on all of them. Please try the new version, 10.1.

      Not sure about the default option, but I personally have the taskbar configured so that only the monitor’s windows are displayed there.

      • yiz says:

        Hi,

        Thanks for this terrific tool, I noticed that for me at least using the latest version available from the download link the numbering doesn’t appear on every monitor.

        • Can you please post your 7+ Taskbar Numberer configuration, and the “Multiple displays” configuration in taskbar properties? I’ll try to reproduce the problem.

          • yiz says:

            Hmmm…. I guess I didn’t realize I needed to make any changes to my config, its the default.

            Here’s a screenshot from my multiple displays properties: https://i.imgur.com/9faf4je.png

            I’m using -v5 -hidewnd cmd switches.

            • It’s indeed a bug, the buttons are not being redrawn. If you hold the Win key and hover over them, you’ll see the numbers appear.

            • Please try the newly uploaded version, 10.2.2.

              • yiz says:

                This worked thank you!!

              • yiz says:

                Hi,

                sorry to bother you again, I noticed another issue, when the win key is used for another shortcut in powertoys (e.g. win+alt+space) for something the numbers on the taskbar don’t get redrawn correctly when using -v5: the numbers change from the open windows to the taskbar number but don’t change back when you let go of the win key unless it’s the last key you release.

                I totally understand if this isn’t something that you can really fix, just thought I’d let you know.

                thanks!

                • Hi,

                  Thanks for the report. I was able to reproduce it without Power Toys like this:
                  Win down + Alt down + Win up + Alt up -> numbers are still shown.

                  It turns out that when the Alt key is pressed, Windows sends a different message, WM_SYSKEYUP instead of WM_KEYUP.

                  It should now be fixed in v10.2.3.

                  • yiz says:

                    Thank you for the quick response and update! gotta love microsoft’s odd decisions… the doc doesn’t really explain why it’s important to have a different message when alt is pressed.

  6. Tom says:

    Fantastic. I am impressed by your responsiveness! I post a feature request one evening, and the next morning I see it implemented. 🙂

  7. Anon says:

    Hi,

    Could you indicate what are the purpose of each of the config values: [tray_border] [tray_background]…?

    I tried playing with each one of them in order to make the number appear next to the icons, but with no luck.

    Thanks!

  8. Bruce Houghtaling says:

    Just installed (I think) 7+, but I have no idea how to use it. All I see is a box with 5 options, a button for About and one for Close. How do I get the program to add the numbers to the icons? Please don’t tell me I have to be a programmer to install this. Not comfortable with messing with the registry. The section on usage appears to be written for power users, which I am not. I just want to number the icons to use the Win key shortcuts.

  9. Aquila says:

    The newest Windows update (https://support.microsoft.com/nl-nl/help/4566782/windows-10-update-kb4566782) seems to have broken the 7+ Taskbar Numberer. I’d be very grateful if it could be updated again :-). Thanks!

  10. Tom says:

    Yep, broken under newest update. :/

    Thanks for all your work Michael.

  11. Dinesh Sharma says:

    Thank you very much for this great tool !!

  12. Darren de Lima says:

    I love this tool, and I love Taskbar Tweaker. Don’t suppose there’s any chance you could merge the features from Taskbar Numberer into Tweaker?

    Many thanks!

  13. Benjamin says:

    Hi there! I am a big fan of your utilities. I want to thank you genuinely for providing these for free 🙂

    I was curious if you’re aware of any utilities that allow items on a jumplist (menu from Alt+Win+number) to be selected by inputting the first letter. It used to be a feature in Win7 but not anymore :'(

    Thanks again!

    • Hi Benjamin,
      Thank you for the feedback, I’m glad that you like my tools! Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with something that allows to select jump list items like you said.

      • Benjamin says:

        Ah, oh well. I’ve been missing this functionality dearly. Is there any possibility of this feature being added to one of your existing tools? I’m not great at programming but I’ve been trying to figure out how to do it if you have any tips

  14. Hakan says:

    hi thank you for this useful software.
    I am trying to use it with voice recognition but it seems that utter command software cannot be downloaded anymore. So I can only use the commands that translate into win and 1-9 keyboard strokes. does anybody else have a workaround for this?

    • Hakan says:

      also I can’t find a way to use the numbers assigned to the applications on the 2nd screen when I have a separate taskbar on the 2nd screen with unique applications shown in each taskbar

    • Hi Hakan,
      I’ve never used speech recognition on Windows, so I’m afraid that I can’t help. Initially I created the tool for an Utter Command user who told me where the numbers have to be. If you find another speech recognition software that requires adjustments to 7+ Taskbar Numberer, let me know and I’ll consider changing what’s needed.

      • Hakan says:

        that’s great to know. I am just discovering the available tools and learning them right now, but I will let you know if I can come up with another solution. Thank you very much

  15. Hello. Thank you for creating a great app, it really handy for people like me that need this kind of ability on windows 10 so I can hide and unhide the window without restore and maximize anymore, sometimes the number are large that cause it hard to identify the window, and this app come to rescue. Thank you!

  16. nameldk says:

    Hello. Thank you for creating an amazing tool. Here is trouble that when I press the Win + D shortcut then it back to the desktop, and the number is shown at the toolbar but not disappear. When I press the Win + D shortcut again, then it disappeared. When I press the Win + number shortcut, the number shown and disappeared works fine.
    I use the setting v3. My windows version is Version 6.1.7601.

  17. broton says:

    Hello, Thanks for creating amazing tool, it’s usefull
    but it is not work for win11, complained with “IDS_INJERROR_LOADDLL”, I have built it myself using vs2019, IDS_INJERROR_LOADDLL disappeared, but still not work? Need I to try building it with WIN11 API?

  18. Does it by design that this piece of software doesn’t work on old windows/classic windows design task bar? Thank you

  19. Milen says:

    The download link seems not to be working anymore. Is there a new download link?

  20. Milen says:

    Thanks Michael!

  21. Oliver says:

    Windows 11 please!!!!

  22. Donatien says:

    Sadly, not working on Windows 11 Family 😔
    Version 10.0
    I like so much this feature.
    Do you intend to support Windows 11 in near future ? 🙏

  23. Martin says:

    This is fantastic! Yeah!

  24. Yonatan says:

    while i checked the files on virust total i got 2 flags on the .exe and 1 on the inject.dll

    i kinda worry to download use the program, i would like ur comment about that

  25. Chris says:

    Hello,

    This doesn’t seem to work on Windows 11. Any chance we get an update? Love this so much, improves efficiency 10x.

    Regards,
    C

  26. Edward says:

    Hi, Michael,
    I’m getting the IDS_INJERROR_LOADDLL error on Win10 Pro 22H2. Any idea on what’s causing it and how to fix it?

    Thank you in advance.

  27. Wisenut says:

    When the ‘Speech Recognition Software’ option is chosen and Microsoft Outlook (which has a main windows and a notification window) is running, I cannot switch to the notification window by using the Windows key+number, and for all the applications pinned on the right of Microsoft Outlook, the number shown on an application actually refer to the application on the right of it.

  28. KK says:

    cannot show numbers on taskbar-icons after upgrade my win10

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