7+ Taskbar Tweaker for Windows 10: beta version

About a week ago, Windows 10 became generally available for updating. Today, I’m happy to present the beta version of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, which is compatible with Windows 10. All the existing options should work, except the following advanced options: list_reverse_order and tray_icons_padding. These two options cannot be tweaked in Windows 10 using the same tricks that the tweaker used in earlier Windows versions, so they don’t work in Windows 10. I might look at reimplementing them for Windows 10 in the future.

Please try the beta version, and if you encounter any issues, please let me know.

Posted in Software, Updates by Michael (Ramen Software) on August 7th, 2015.
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81 Responses to “7+ Taskbar Tweaker for Windows 10: beta version”

  1. GFcat says:

    I can’t install this version on Windows 10. It gives the error:

    Windows 10 support is under development.
    (…)
    Open the link now?
    [Yes] [No]

    Did you leave an OS check in there that shouldn’t be there anymore?

    P.S.
    Installation in Windows 7 works, but copying the installed files over to Windows 10 and starting the executable gives the above error, too.

  2. GFcat says:

    Oops, never mind. Got my hands on the wrong installer.

  3. Twist of Fate says:

    Hi. Since I’ve downloaded the latest beta (for use in Windows 10) i’ve been having an issue regarding brightness on my laptop.

    It may just be a coincidence but it seems as though with the tweaker enabled at start up (say ‘upon resetting’), the brightness on my computer seems to stay maxed out (it’s normally meant to drop down when Windows starts to the set level of brightness). Checking the settings at those times, it still says the brightness is at 10% and then adjusting it seems to make it change as it should.

    This may just be an issue on my end, but it only seems to have happened since I reloaded the program (beta) on.

    • Hi,
      Did you try to disable/uninstall the tweaker and restart? Does the issue still persist? The tweaker does not make permanent changes to the system, so if you’ll still have the issue, it will probably mean that the issue has nothing to do with the tweaker.

      • Twist of Fate says:

        It appears it may have just been coincidence. I think it may have had something to do with my user account. I’d previously also performed a “sfc/scannow” for something else and something to do with that may have actually had an impact. Once i’d changed my account to a local account I restarted it a few times and it didn’t happen.

        Since then i’ve made it a ‘microsoft’ account again, but disabled syncing (just in case) and reloaded the tweaker again, and it hasn’t done it since. Prior to that both uninstalling the program and removing settings didn’t help either anyway. Thanks for your help anyway, appreciate it.

      • Ken Westover says:

        RaMMicHael,

        I work for a company that was using 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, until we got the Cryptolocker Virus through an email. Since then we have added new software to help stop the Cryptolocker Virus. THe parameters of this new program disable your program from working… because of the + character in your programming. Is there anyway you could reprogram your 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to eliminate this character. If there is I could come up with all the characters that this program would recognize and disable your software from running.

        The feature of your software that we use is the ungrouping by Application ID in the taskbar.

        Maybe there is a tweak in the registry that we could apply??

        • You can choose a different folder and rename the file manually:
          * While installing, choose a path without symbols, such as “SevenTaskbarTweaker” instead of “7+ Taskbar Tweaker”.
          * Open the installation folder and do the same with the .exe file, i.e. rename “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe” to something like “SevenTaskbarTweaker.exe”.
          * To fixup the startup path, open the settings dialog, and uncheck the “Run at startup” checkbox. Then re-check it.

  4. Subi says:

    Hey, thank you so much for the public beta. Works flawlessly.
    (Things said to be working are working, no errors or odd behavior since installation. Things like tray_icon_padding are already mentioned to currently just working with the previous Windows versions)

  5. Croatoan says:

    It works without hiccup. It’s has really good stability for beta program. Even the response time is better. Keep up good work Mike.

  6. addicted says:

    Thank you as always, you are my hero.

  7. Buro says:

    Thanks a lot for this! much appreciated!~

    I noticed a weird behavior when using virtual desktops (only happens with the “On the taskbar, show windows that are open on” option on “only the desktop I’m using”).

    If I have multiple instances of a window, say two folders on each virtual desktops, if I click to cycle through them it will jump back and forth between windows from both desktops but not cycle through all of them.

    It would be nice if it either cycle through all of them or just the ones on the current virtual desktop.

    in any case, thanks again for updating this awesome tool!

    • It would be nice if it either cycle through all of them or just the ones on the current virtual desktop.

      On my PC, it scrolls just the ones on the current virtual desktop. Could you please provide your tweaker settings and taskbar properties, so I’ll try to reproduce with your settings?

      If you could provide a video, that would be awesome.

      • Buro says:

        Here’s the screenshot of my settings.
        https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20963193/7tt.jpg

        It basically just switches between the last active instance window from one desktop to the last active instance window of other desktop, and back again. If I have more than two virtual desktop it won’t go to the others.
        It happens with any programs that can have more than one instance open on each virtual desktop.

        If you can’t reproduce it I guess it must be something on my side, so I’ll keep checking.
        Thanks for looking on it!

        • If I have more than two virtual desktop it won’t go to the others.

          That’s right, it will cycle only between items on the current taskbar, which are all on the same desktop.

          It happens with any programs that can have more than one instance open on each virtual desktop.

          This option has nothing to do with program instances. It just looks at the taskbar, finds the currently selected item, moves to the right/left, and activates the next item.

          Could it be that you’re misunderstanding the option? Or perhaps I don’t understand what you mean.

          • Buro says:

            Oh I mean the option “left click on combined item” (cycle through windows). not the mouse wheel one, that one works properly.
            sorry that I didn’t specified which one.

            • OK, now it’s much clearer πŸ™‚

              In fact, this option is not implemented by the tweaker. It’s a Windows option, which can be enabled by holding the Ctrl button. The tweaker merely makes Windows think that you hold the button.

              • Buro says:

                lol I did check using just Ctrl and click and does the same thing…. ugh I guess it’s a windows problem then!

                man sorry to have bothered you about it, but thanks a lot for your time, I really appreciate it!

  8. Phil says:

    Drag to reorder doesn’t work for me. I use “never combine” for the taskbar.

  9. hellslave says:

    Haven’t had a chance to check out this version yet, but I intend to do so soon. Was wondering… does (or can) this version allow for the removing the horizontal line from the taskbar buttons that acts as an open window idicator? It looks really obnoxious when you keep the taksbar button labels visible (like I do). I haven’t found a way yet, to get rid of it.

  10. Jon says:

    Using the 7tt beta for Win 10, I downloaded it to stop thumbnail previews as my new logitech gaming mouse has been acting a bit wonky (other logitech models have about a year ago in Win 7), So I’m just wondering if your software can disable left click + drag upwards left from emulating a right click (on the taskbar)? Once I have that shut off I should be good to go. Thanks.

  11. Jon says:

    nevermind, found it. Thanks

  12. Azarien says:

    Any chance for an option to hide those stupid search and “switch window” buttons near the start button?

  13. Thorsten says:

    When the taskbar is aligned vertically (located on the left or right edge) and has been made wider, is there any way you could enable displaying multiple columns if there are more task buttons than available space instead of forcing a scrollbar? (In the same way has having a high enough taskbar on the bottom shows multiple rows of task buttons if required).

    Is there any way that you could re-enable dragging the taskbar onto a secondary monitor in Win 10? (When in single taskbar mode, worked fine in Win 8.1 and older, Win 10 does not allow dragging the taskbar off the primary monitor anymore)

    • is there any way you could enable displaying multiple columns if there are more task buttons than available space instead of forcing a scrollbar?

      It’s not an easy feature to implement, so that’s unlikely. But feel free to vote for that feature on UserEcho, and I might look at it one day.

      Is there any way that you could re-enable dragging the taskbar onto a secondary monitor in Win 10?

      I’ll take a look when I have access to a multi-monitor environment with Windows 10. But even it that doesn’t work anymore, it’s probably possible to move the taskbar to another monitor by changing the primary monitor in screen settings. Therefore, and because it’s not a frequently needed feature, I don’t think that it deserves a fix in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.

      • Thorsten says:

        I have 4 monitors and the outer two are rotated by 90 degree.

        I always used to have my taskbar on the left edge of the outer left monitor (among other reasons because having the vertically aligned taskbar on a vertically rotated monitor means there is enough space that all the task buttons fit without a scroll bar) and my primary monitor is the middle left monitor.

        I can’t make the outer left monitor the primary display because then all programs that start in fullscreen mode try to fit onto the rotated monitor, which the large majority of programs (especially games) are completely unprepared to handle.

        • OK, I just tried it, and I’m able to drag a single taskbar to a different monitor on Windows 10.
          As for primary monitors, I thought that dragging the main taskbar (the one with the notification area) to another monitor makes it the primary monitor, but I might have been wrong.

          • Thorsten says:

            Thanks for that information.

            On 3 different machines with multiple monitors that I upgraded to Win 10 the taskbar was forced onto the primary display after the upgrade and I couldn’t move it off that display anymore. Two people I know that had multi-monitor setups and upgraded to Win 10 also confirmed to me that they had the same problem, so I assumed this was a general Win 10 issue.

            Based in your information I closed (or killed in taskman) all running applications except for explorer and was then able to drag the taskbar onto a secondary monitor.

            After logging off/on, it was again forced onto the primary monitor, so I repeated the processes and locked the taskbar, and now it stays where it’s supposed to.

            Obviously there must be some program that my 3 systems and the two people I talked to before have in common which is fine in win 8.1 and older, but which messes up the taskbar in win 10 (and no, it can’t be taskbar tweaker as I didn’t have that installed before yesterday).

            So thanks again for confirming that you could move the taskbar to a secondary monitor fine under win 10.

  14. Anon says:

    Would it be possible to add a tweak in there to fix the god awful win10 taskbar and replace the small icons with the damn bars on them? I understand the win10 taskbar can’t be themed but idk about the icons. I wouldn’t mind if this program disabled it and replaced it entirely though if that is a possibility.

    If you are working on this and would like a donation let me know.

  15. sirjason says:

    God bless you Michael. Thank you so much!

  16. Josh says:

    Thanks heaps!!

    Left click on combined item… cycle through windows should be the Windows default or an option built in!! I can’t survive without this feature. Thank you so much for restoring basic sanity.

    Also, display seconds on tray clock is fantastic. Even though I changed my time format to HH:mm:ss – and the lock screen displays second – the tray clock doesn’t honor this. 0_o Microsoft.

    • Nardo says:

      It seems to be good so far here too… much needed in the OS itself but it seems microsoft doesn’t want you to make things work as they should… thankfully there is taskbar tweaker

      I also agree that the seconds display option that was in the win-7 version of Taskbar Tweaker would be nice in the win 10 version too…

  17. LenInSD says:

    Hi Michael,

    Just wanted to report a bug in the Win10 Beta. I frequently rearrange tasks on the taskbar. I’ve noticed that if I switch to a different Virtual Desktop, the order of my tasks is not preserved when I return to the original Desktop. FYI, my taskbar is on the LEFT side (just in case that helps you duplicate the bug).

    Thanks again for 7+TT. I can’t live without it!

    LenInSD
    (Donator)

    P.S. Hey everyone reading this comment: Please send Michael a few bucks, so he can continue to develop 7+TT!

    • Hi LenInSD,
      First, thank you for the donation!
      It seems like a Windows limitation, as the order isn’t preserved regardless of whether the tweaker is running. I might look at implementing an order restoring functionality one day, when I have lots of spare time.

  18. Love this. Having a narrow vertical taskbar is awesome, especially on devices with small widescreens.

    Is there any chance of adding a options to move the start button to the bottom instead of the top, and to customise the clock? (I’d like hh:mm\ndd/MM)

    Only bug I’ve found is the option to remove the start button actually removes the task view button. This is on Win10 x64

    • Only bug I’ve found is the option to remove the start button actually removes the task view button. This is on Win10 x64

      Can you tell me the version of the tweaker, and the build of Windows 10 you’re using?

      • 4.5.10.8

        • I can’t reproduce it. Could you please specify the version of your explorer.exe file?
          Go to C:\Windows, right click on explorer.exe, choose properties, and go to details. What do you see in the File version field?

          • 10.0.10240.16405

            It’s Win10 Pro x64 set to English (United Kingdom)

            Does it on both machines.

            Also did you see my other post about the taskbar width restriction? I really want to ditch the DisplayFusion taskbar as the stock one with your tweaks is so much better! Thank you for all your hard work.

            • I could reproduce it in the tablet mode.

              Also did you see my other post about the taskbar width restriction?

              Yes, I have replied here. Please try the latest beta.

              • The width issue is solved on the latest beta. Thank you, you are awesome :3

                The start button issue is still present, happens to me not in tablet mode. It’s weird though. Somehow the search icon got enabled (I previously had it disabled) and now when I try to hide the start button, instead the search icon gets moved up and overlaid over the top of the start button, which still functions as a start button.

                I don’t actually use this feature, so if it’s only affecting me, don’t worry about it πŸ™‚

                I also have StartIsBack++ installed, which may have something to do with it.

                • I also have StartIsBack++ installed, which may have something to do with it.

                  That’s probably it. It would be great if you could temporarily disable it and see if the issue still occurs.

                  • Sorry for the delay in testing.

                    Yes disabling startisback fixes it. It looks like 7tt correctly removes the button and moves all the icons up, then startisback plonks its start button on top of whatever is there.

                    Given that it seems unlikely that anyone using startisback will want to disable the start button. I doubt this is going to be a huge issue.

                    • Great, thanks for checking it.

                      Given that it seems unlikely that anyone using startisback will want to disable the start button. I doubt this is going to be a huge issue.

                      Yeah, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker can’t be made compatible with all third party utilities. Also, as far as I know, StartIsBack has an option of its own to hide the start button.

  19. Oops, found another small bug.

    The option to remove the width restriction on vertical taskbars only works on the taskbar on the primary monitor. The secondary taskbar is still stuck in its default wide state.

  20. PaulBags says:

    One of the options on empty space double click is “ctrl+win+tab”, what is it? It doesn’t seem to do anything and Google has no answers. Especially confused since ctrl+tab is already a hotkey, this must have conflicts.

  21. AlanMartin says:

    This beta is working very well here in Windows 10 Pro.
    Many thanks to you for a well made program.

    I have one problem left: I can’t read the text of the taskbar buttons because it is black text on an almost black background. I want to keep the same dark background but make the text white.

    Is there any way that can be done, such as a registry tweak?
    Or could you add it as an option in 7TT please?

    • Not sure if it will work, but if you download WinAero Tweaker and look for the option “Enable Aero Lite Theme” there’s an option to have it with white text. In theory this should also affect the taskbar. As an added bonus you also get coloured titlebars back!

  22. Charles says:

    I have a potential bug report for Windows 8.1 using this beta release. Minimising/restoring windows using the scroll wheel (over both taskbar buttons and previews) seems to be broken.

  23. hi! I’m using latest beta on Windows 10 Home x64. two things regarding scrolling over the taskbar:

    when adjusting the volume while scrolling, could the program display the Windows 8/Windows 10 volume slider? I mean the one you get when using keyboard hotkeys to adjust volume. the one with rectangle slider and number value.
    would it be possible to have scrolling over the taskbar to adjust volume AND scrolling over the icon to minimize/restore the window at the same time without conflict? it was working fine on Windows 7 IIRC, but now when I’m scrolling over the icon, both features activate at the same time.

    • Hi!

      could the program display the Windows 8/Windows 10 volume slider?

      With the release of Windows 10, there are now three volume scrolling interfaces: one, two, three.
      For the scrolling option, the tweaker uses the first interface. It’s the first interface that existed in Windows since Windows 7, and I spent a considerable amount of time to tweak little things to make it work well (e.g. to implement auto-hiding after a short amount of time of no scrolling).
      Currently, I don’t plan to change the tweaker to work with a different interface. I might look at it in the future.

      would it be possible to have scrolling over the taskbar to adjust volume AND scrolling over the icon to minimize/restore the window at the same time without conflict?

      Can you tell me how to reproduce the issue?

      • thanks for the reply. to reproduce the issue, check those options:

        Minimize/restore when mouse is over: Taskbar buttons
        Control volume when mouse is over: The taskbar

        and try scrolling over a taskbar button to restore the window.

        I just noticed it’s now working properly for me, but when I tried it yesterday, the scrolling restored the window and turned volume up at the same time. weird.

      • also, regarding your answer about scrolling interfaces – I understand where are you coming from. I just thought method 2 or 3 matches better the overall Windows 10 looks, but didn’t know the interfaces required lots of tweaking by you. it’s fine as it is, keep being awesome πŸ™‚

  24. Stephane Senecal says:

    Upon launching I get multiple errors (1004 and 5) that it cannot load library.
    I have the latest release of insider preview (10525). I don’t know if there’s a relation with that.

    • Henri H says:

      I just upgraded to the build 10525 and got the same errors instantly after first boot. The newest Ξ² worked nicely before the upgrade on build 10240.

      I wonder if these newer insider builds will be supported at all?

  25. thanks says:

    Hi, because of some reasons I’m forced to update my 7 to 10. I’m glad it’s working perfectly in 10, thanks!

    I have a small suggestion, can you make an option to remove the underline of the taskbar item?

  26. Larry Ellis says:

    Installed beta on W10 Pro. After setting w10_large_icons, caused Explorer crash loop. Had to nuke 7TT process to stop the crash cycle.

  27. Richard L Walker says:

    Question: My Windows 10 laptop has decided to not display “Unpin from taskbar” when you right-click on the taskbar icon. I don’t suppose you could do something with the pin/unpin feature that keep me from having to do deep, dark magic that worries me to even think about?

  28. David says:

    Hi,

    I’ve just updated to the latest W10 insider previewer and 7+ is failing to load with a Could not load library (107) error message.

    7+ Version – 5.1.0.10 (beta)
    Explorer version – 10.0.14388.0

    Thanks,

    Dave

  29. Sergey says:

    Could you please release an update that would be compatible with Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393] (Anniversary Update released yesterday)?

    Thank you.

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