7+ Taskbar Tweaker

7+ Taskbar Tweaker
7+ Taskbar Tweaker allows you to configure various aspects of the Windows taskbar.
Most of the configuration options it provides can’t be tweaked using the taskbar properties or the registry.
The tweaker is designed for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

Download

exe 7tt_setup.exe (1.78 MB, changelog)
Latest version: v5.15.1
Note: The installer can be used to extract a portable version. Refer to the FAQ below for details.

Beta version
exe 7tt_setup_beta.exe (1.79 MB, changelog)
Latest beta version: v5.15.1.2
More info about beta versions.

Windows 11 Support Status

  • 7+ Taskbar Tweaker doesn’t support the Windows 11 taskbar, and probably never will. See this blog post for more details.
  • Some of the tweaks are available in Windows 11 as Windhawk mods. See here for the list of mods, and vote for missing mods that you’d like to see implemented. Read more about Windhawk here.
  • 7+ Taskbar Tweaker works on Windows 11 with the old taskbar which can be restored with third party tools. See this blog post for more details.

Demo video

Here is a video that demonstrates some of the tweaks:

Source code

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

FAQ

Q: Which registry keys does 7+ Taskbar Tweaker modify? I don’t need extra processes in my system.
A: The only registry keys the tweaker modifies are its own settings. There are no registry keys for the options it provides. The tweaker does that by injecting a DLL to explorer, hooking/subclassing/some other methods of the dark side.
As for extra processes, the tweaker is a native program, and is very lightweight. It shouldn’t slow down your system, and uses an extremely small amount of memory. Also, you can hide the tray icon if you want.

In case you want to remove the tweaker’s settings from the registry, look for them here:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\7 Taskbar Tweaker
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run (“7 Taskbar Tweaker” value)

P.S. if you’re a programmer, you might want to take a look at the 7+ Taskbar Tweaking Library.

Q: My antivirus complains about 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.
A: It’s a false positive. I guarantee that the tweaker binaries (and any other files on this site, unless specifically noted) are 100% clean.
Also remember that the tweaker injects into explorer and modifies its memory, which is indeed suspicious.

Q: Can I Group/Combine/Label only some of the items on the taskbar?
A: Yes, use Taskbar Inspector.

Q: May I use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker in a commercial environment?
A: Yes, feel free to use it wherever you want.

Q: Where is the portable version?
A: When installing the tweaker, choose the Portable type of install, as shown on the image below.
The portable version will be extracted to the selected folder.

Selecting the portable installation type

Note: If the tweaker is already installed on your computer, the option won’t be visible. You can launch the setup with the /portable command line switch to force a portable installation.

Q: I want to report a bug/suggest a feature! What is the best way to do it?
A: Post it on the UserEcho page.

Q: I want to translate 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to my language.
A: The archive below contains the files needed to be translated.
Please read readme.txt before proceeding.

zip 7tt_translate.zip (758.63 kB)

If you are brave enough to translate the help file, contact me for the required software and files.

Posted in Releases, Software by Michael (Ramen Software) on September 30th, 2009.
Tags:

6,605 Responses to “7+ Taskbar Tweaker”

  1. MainTrane says:

    Is it possible to assign a new function to the ‘drag away from taskbar’ action?

    I’m thinking this would be a nice way to manually access thumbnail previews, since I disabled them on hover.

  2. Michael says:

    Hi there,

    I recently tried to get 7+TT *Portable* to work on windows 7 with keyboard shortcuts. I couldn’t find any help on getting the shortcuts into the .ini file, so I tried the registry. Specifically I mapped (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\7 Taskbar Tweaker\Keyboard Shortcuts):
    • “0x09|alt” (alt+tab) to 102 (go right in the taskbar)
    • “0x09|alt+shift” to 101 (go left in the taskbar)
    • “0x1B|alt” (alt+esc) to 101 as well
    they are all REG_DWORD (32bit) values.

    I started 7+TT as administrator. Nothing works, only get basic windows 7 behaviour.

    What am I doing wrong?

    Kind Regards
    Michael

    • Michael says:

      Hi again,

      while I’m at it:

      • how about making starting into the taskbar (-hidewnd) the default for the portable installation (unless the option do not show taskbar icon is checked), or maybe create a setting to set hidden to default?
      • how about creating a default feature to change alt+tab, alt+shift+tab and alt+esc to switching through taskbar items rather than open the windows switcher? I recently looked through a few forums and there are quite a few people who wish for an app that can do that.
      • is there allready an option to show debug info about the configuration that get’s loaded from the registry? if not, how about adding one, so debugging config becomes more easy?

      Hope this contributes something^^

      Kind regards
      Michael

      • Michael says:

        • how about adding all (public) registry settings to the .ini file of the portable installation (especially the keyboard shortcuts, so they become portable). Maybe you have allready done that? How about adding documentation of the .ini file to the help files. I can contribute german translation btw.

        • Michael says:

          I should have composed my comment before, and think a little longer. Here I am sitting, adding one reply after another… well: maybe adding a launcher, that automatically opens the application hidden is a better idea than the config setting. Or else an unexperienced user might lose the 7+TT somewhere in the vast lands of background applications forever^^.

      • Jonny H says:

        Hi, amazing app. Just reading some of the posts…

        Is there a bug-reporting/issue tracking system anywhere for this? Having a conflict with another IRREPLACEABLE tweaker (7plus, reported @ http://goo.gl/DkRdRM, hope the link works, courtesy of 7plus’s url-shortener-shortcut 🙂

        on another note,

        for anyone interested in alt+tab enhancements, I’d recommend checking the vista switcher. Personally I still have win 7 alt + tab / ctrl+winkey+tab / alt+alt+tab (old-school task-switcher!), but also use vista switcher (alt+f11) to switch between other ‘similar’/group applications (notepads etc)

        Noticing instability whilst apps are conflicting (similar taskbar event-handling attempts prevent 7tt’s ‘double-click on empty taskbar space’ event from being detected, or the ‘open taskbar inspection’ action from being executed (would love to know how to debug!)

        As always, looking forward to learning and solving. thanks again, Jonny

    • Hi,

      The portable version doesn’t use the registry. All the settings should reside in the .ini file. Your settings would look like the following:

      [Keyboard Shortcuts]
      0x09|alt = 102
      0x09|alt+shift = 101
      0x1B|alt = 101

      Note: Alt+Tab won’t get overridden as it’s registered by Windows.
      Perhaps switching back to the classic Alt+Tab will help.
      http://superuser.com/questions/114001/getting-back-the-old-alt-tab-windows-switching-behavior-in-windows-7

      • how about making starting into the taskbar (-hidewnd) the default for the portable installation (unless the option do not show taskbar icon is checked), or maybe create a setting to set hidden to default?

      Not likely to happen.

      • how about creating a default feature to change alt+tab, alt+shift+tab and alt+esc to switching through taskbar items rather than open the windows switcher? I recently looked through a few forums and there are quite a few people who wish for an app that can do that.

      It can be done from the registry, and I believe it’s good enough.
      I don’t think the option would be too popular.

      • is there allready an option to show debug info about the configuration that get’s loaded from the registry? if not, how about adding one, so debugging config becomes more easy?

      There’s no such option, and I don’t plan to add one.
      As you can see, I didn’t need it to solve your issue.

      How about adding documentation of the .ini file to the help files. I can contribute german translation btw.

      I’ll mention it in the help file.
      And I already have a German translator, thanks 🙂

      maybe adding a launcher, that automatically opens the application hidden is a better idea than the config setting.

      You can easily do it yourself. Open notepad, paste the following code, and save it as launch.vbs:


      Dim objShell
      Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
      objShell.Run("""7+ Taskbar Tweaker"" -hidewnd")
      Set objShell = Nothing

      • Michael says:

        Thanks a lot,

        changing to the old tab behaviour helped, 7+TT took control of alt+tab.

        Sadly the PortableApps.com menu does not recognize vbs scripts, so I need to create a .exe. Which luckily one can do from a .js file with microsoft.NET’s jsc. But that is quite advanced. Can’t I convince you to add a “-hidewnd” launcher? I’m propably not the only one who want’s to start his portable 7+TT automatically hidden with his PortableApps.com menu 😉

        Anyway thanks a lot!

  3. Michael says:

    Oh and last but not least:
    100 Thumbs upp for your cool application!!!

    Kind Regards and out
    Michael

  4. TheGardner says:

    Hi Michael,

    would like to add a new feature for 8+ Taskbar Tweaker:

    [ X ] remove the Windows 8.1 START button

    Thanks for your tool! It’s great!

    Cheers Steffen 🙂

  5. Stamimail says:

    multipage_wheel_scroll
    Amazing! This feature is a big step for 7TT.
    Thank You very much.

  6. Andy says:

    Finally some real cool tool !
    All the stuff that’s missing in the crappy “new” windows 7, 8, etc.

    Only one thing I feel is strange in the GUI: It lacks a CLOSE or OK or “Apply” button !

    It’s a nice thing that each setting is applied “life” when modified or set, but one assumes that everything is reverted when not explicitely saved (i.e. X is clicked) – therefore the “Apply” button, instead of just relying on the X. Another one working as UNDO would be nice, to revert to the original settings, or undo the recent changes.

    Andy

  7. Louis says:

    Hey, thanks a lot for your great (and free) software!

    I have actually been using 7 Taskbar Tweaker – the older version – ever since I got Windows 7, and yesterday the ultra-paranoid Bitdefender deleted it against my will (even though I had put it in the exclusions).

    I was quite upset, but I am glad after all, since it forced me to visit your website and get the latest version… which brings great improvements, such as the possibility to group/degroup already loaded applications, and a number of other appreciated functions!

    Great work!

  8. Louis says:

    You’re very welcome!

    The version I used before BitDefender 2014 deleted it was 1.1.1, 64-bits.

    What is weird is that I have had BitDefender for about two months now, and I use 7TT several times daily, yet it was not considered a threat until yesterday.

    • Thanks, but my request was about uploading the files to a file hosting.
      Virustotal doesn’t allow to download the files.
      A good file hosting is:
      http://ge.tt/

      Also, it can be seen from the Virustotal links that the files are completely clean, for BitDefender as well.
      Perhaps it was some heuristic detection, or maybe the detection is not available on Virustotal yet due to old signatures.

  9. Louis says:

    Here you go:
    http://ge.tt/3aBx3yv

    And yes, the detection was certainly heuristic. That’s what annoys me about BitDefender. It treats anay tentative heuristic detection as a dangerous threat; I would rather have it inform me of the detection and let me determine if that is really a threat.

    But well, thanks to its inefficiency, I got your latest version! 🙂

  10. RayTek says:

    it didn’t work as I wanted.

    I can’t get it to combine and show labels as my taskbar is on left (not bottom)

    i used to to registry hack on vista, and it work just the way i like it as we can set how many windows to group as similar button plus showing the labels.

    why is microsoft each time they improve, they make my life sux?

  11. Apologies if this has been asked before…

    Any way to edit the properties / function of the “Show Desktop” button.

    I am looking to make it work more like Win+M rather than Win+D

    Thanks 🙂

    • No, as far as I know there’s no way to customize the button’s functionality.

    • MainTrane says:

      Try X-Mouse Button Control; it’s a program for re-mapping your mouse buttons.  It has application and window detection for sending commands to a specific location.

      Use the simulated keys setting to assign the WIN-M hotkey to the show desktop button as a specific window. With it you can bind commands to whichever mouse button you please. The hotkey will only trigger when you press the assigned button over the show desktop button.

      Hope this helps 🙂

  12. Andy says:

    Hi,

    nah, for the (X) button, it became quite fashionable to minimize instead of close the application – no worries about that.

    I meant to say: It doesn’t feel correct to hit (X) to apply the settings (even though they already have been applied life when changing an individual option). Therefore, it would be better (i.e. less confusing) to have an OK (or call it “Minimize” button), which then simply does the same as the (X) – minimize the application (to tray).

    What about some UNDO funtionality – the tool keeps a change history, and every time one hits UNDO, the respective setting is reversed. Anyone favours for this ?

    Andy

  13. SMUsamaShah says:

    It would be great to have drag drop on clock or desktop button to delete files. LClock had many great little features and it was one of them. Biggeer clock was one of them. Also it allowed to open start menu on clicking the clock and hide start button.

    BTW Took back all analog clock votes. Not playing it anymore

  14. Chris says:

    With all these updates, I always wish to see being able to hide the “Start” text in the start button some day (I am a classic user)!
    Is it possible?

  15. Andrew says:

    Why does the program not combine opened emails under Outlook 2003 even if I have “Combine grouped buttons” and “Group by Application ID” and even the Taskbar Inspector shows them under the same ID?

  16. Louis says:

    Hi again!

    I know close to nothing in programming, so my suggestion might be unrealistic, but would it be possible to add an option to *totally* ungroup PowerPoint or Excel windows, i.e. being able to show two instances at once on each side of the screen (using Winkey+{Left} and Winkey+{Right})?

    That happens by default with Word, but strangely not with PPT and Excel, where all instances are always shown on the same side.

  17. RadarNyan says:

    Thank you very much! 7+ taskbar tweaker is must-have tools to me and I’ve recommended it to many friends, they also liked this tools, Great job!

    The most useful feature to me is when drag to taskbar, use “open with” instead of “pin to”, but here’s a little problem: if I drag some file that can be pinned to taskbar (eg: a .txt file), I sure can use the “open with” feature but it also act as “pin to” when I hold it between icons or on free space. This is quiet annoying when you have multiple application pinned and you want to choose one to open (for me, I pinned two different text editor for different purpose) So would you add an option to completely disable “pin to” while dragging to taskbar?

  18. J says:

    Is there a way to reset the settings back to the default Windows 7 settings ( a one button “restore defaults” ?

    thank you

  19. J says:

    thank you

    When firs starting the program will the Windows 7 orginial ( default) settings be shown or will the program automatically make changes when first installing/starting it?

  20. Sunil Sundareswaran says:

    Hi RaMMicHaeL,

    I have a small scenario, wanted to know if there is a possibility of having this fixed.

    Note :: This scenario comes when I am using an application called SAP.

    Suppose I have assigned a tab to a random Application ID and then I am trying to Open a New Window from a screen which is assigned to a Random Application ID then I presumed that the New Window that was created was also assigned to Random Application ID to which the parent screen was a part of, but it was assigned to the Application ID of SAP the Parent Application and not the Random Application ID to which I had moved some of the screens to.

    Please suggest if anyone has a way to solve this scenario.

    Another request is – Do we have a way to rename the tabs that we assign these taskbar Items to, It would be a very useful feature if provided I am not sure if its there or not.

    Thanks & Regards,
    Sunil

  21. TheGardner says:

    Strange!

    Running v4.3.1 on Windows 8.1 now, but can’t find a way to hide the start button in the settings of Taskbar Tweaker.
    But in the changelog of 4.3.1 it says “New registry option that allows to hide the start button (currently works only for Windows 8.1).”

    Am I doing or understand somethings wrong?

    Cheers Steffen

  22. Kurt says:

    Would it be possible to create an advanced setting to tweak how long the window preview persists after the mouse leaves the button / preview window? Thanks!

  23. cael says:

    Hi i love this app but theres a bug in windows 8.1 the feature mouse wheel cycle between taskbar buttons doesn’t work like in windows 7 i have to click first on the taskbar and only change to another window and no work anymore, the same happens to the control volume scroll on the notification area :(, thanks and keep the good work.

  24. paolo says:

    When I restart my Windows-7 PC Piriform CCleaner is run and afterwards 7+TT is no longer active. Where is the executable for 7+TT located, so that I may put it in the Startup folder? Thanks.

  25. MarK says:

    Nice tool, thnx for the update with support for windows 8.1.
    Can you ad an option to set the width of the WINDOWS DESKTOP button on the right of the taskbar? When i remove the spacings between the taskbar, this button is very small, it would be nice if i can set it wider..

  26. Eric says:

    Hey man, same problem again, I let your update link on the software do the update and now I am back to v4.2.7 (I had 4.3.1 that you gave me in dropbox a few weeks ago).

    Any idea what gives here?

    E

  27. Eric says:

    I contacted them, however, heh, they have no idea, it’s all Indians (no racism here, just observation) at the call center that know nothing about re-directions or anything else really technical, and since my connection is working fine, that’s where they’re helpfulness ends.

    Appreciate the drop box though, I really do.

    E

  28. Stamimail says:

    Modifier keys
    Why Win and Alt are not supported?

  29. Jacker says:

    It is still support for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1??

  30. Wheels says:

    Thanks for the excellent software!

  31. Cheap_Bastid says:

    Thank you thank you thank 1 million times!!!! Your software has fixed the much hated “left click + drag to jump list” feature that appeared on Windows 7!! I have lost so much productive work thanks to this stupid feature, completely useless in desktop mode.

    Your software is the ONLY software to address this insidious bug. Thanks a million!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  32. jhon says:

    Hi, i’m interested to know if this is possible:

    – When i left click and hold on taskbar button and move the mouse up, i get the “jump list” menu. I don’t what this feature enabled! I don’t want anything to happen with this action.

    – Is there a tweak to make the tasbar buttons don’t move when left click + hold and move left to right? I have it on don’t group, don’t combine, but i don’t even what to be able to arrange them! Just like on xp!

    • – When i left click and hold on taskbar button and move the mouse up, i get the “jump list” menu. I don’t what this feature enabled! I don’t want anything to happen with this action.

      Right click the tray icon, choose “Advanced options”.
      Set the “drag_towards_desktop” option to 1.
      See help for more info and other possible values.

      – Is there a tweak to make the tasbar buttons don’t move when left click + hold and move left to right? I have it on don’t group, don’t combine, but i don’t even what to be able to arrange them! Just like on xp!

      Currently it’s not possible.
      Vote for the suggestion if you’re interested:
      http://tweaker.userecho.com/topic/173756-option-to-lock-icons-so-they-do-not-move-around/

  33. jhon says:

    OMG, how the hell did i miss the advanced options?!

    Now if only the buttons would not move when dragged left and right…

    Thanks for this amazing tool!

  34. jhon says:

    Also, forgot to ask earlier (don’t know if it’s a taskbar tweaker issue)..

    My tray looks like this – http://s21.postimg.org/rozk9u70n/tray.png

    The taskbar is dragged to its smallest size add locked. Can i have the clock without the date, like on xp, like this? http://s16.postimg.org/60qct31cl/trayxp.png

  35. Bruce says:

    Any chance of adding features to improve on the existing but outdated and underutilized “Toolbars” function of the taskbar?

    Microsoft really needs to improve this feature. It could even help people get over the removal of the Start Menu.

  36. Bruno says:

    Is there a way to flip the task bar so the start menu is on the other side, my taskbar is on the left side and I want the start menu button to go to the bottom.

  37. oroboros says:

    Your 7+ Taskbar Tweaker has become one of those “must install now” programs after I install my OS! Thanks a lot for the great work!

    BTW, does the “7+” stand for Windows 7 and beyond, or does it have another meaning?

    I have a couple of suggested features for you to consider for future versions. One is to add the option to “Force close” on Middle Click, to not just just close a window, but to force terminate the process (for example with a non responsive window).

    Also, I’d love to see the option to have windows “Always on top” or with “Transparency”. I’m not sure if your magic works with these things too, or if they might be of interest to others, in any case thanks again and best to you!

    • BTW, does the “7+” stand for Windows 7 and beyond

      Yes, that’s what it stands for.
      The tweaker was created when the most recent Windows version was Windows 7, and it was called “7 Taskbar Tweaker”.
      Then Windows 8 appeared, and I had to rename the tweaker, but I still wanted the name to be recognizable – so I’ve just changed 7 to 7+.

      add the option to “Force close” on Middle Click, to not just just close a window, but to force terminate the process

      That’s actually possible in v4.4.1, which was released about an hour ago 🙂
      I wouldn’t suggest assigning it to the middle click, though, as you could easily terminate an important process by mistake. You could use something like Ctrl+Shift+middle click.

      Also, I’d love to see the option to have windows “Always on top” or with “Transparency”.

      You might want to create a suggestion on the UserEcho page:
      http://tweaker.userecho.com/

      thanks again and best to you!

      You’re welcome, and thanks for the feedback.

      • oroboros says:

        RE “Force Close”: Now you’re just freaking me out! Does 7+ read minds?!

        I just downloaded the update, but I can’t find how to set this up. Would you mind explaining where I need to look?

        Thanks again!

        • There’s no option on the main window for it, it’s a so-called “advanced option”.
          * Right click on the tray icon, and choose “Advanced options”.
          * Go to “Mouse Button Control”.
          * Right click and choose “New”.
          * Name it “taskbaritem|mclick”.
          * Set Data to 8.
          * Click Apply.

          P.S. don’t forget to turn off the “Middle click” option on the main window.

          These “Mouse Button Control” are very flexible, and allow you to customize various mouse shortcuts with modifier keys such as Alt and Ctrl. See help for more information.

  38. Evgeniy says:

    Привет. Есть проблемка:
    когда скрываю кнопку “Пуск” и панель задач имеет вертикальную ориентацию, ужимаю её до минимальной толщины, но после перезагрузки ОСи она снова приобретает прежнюю толщину. Если надо могу скрины сделать. Респект за твикер 8)

  39. Drew says:

    Alternate methods to minimize windows.

    Some windows do not minimize all the time so you should add a check to see if it’s still on screen after. I do it with AHK by reactivating the window then minimizing it again.

    Also pinned item grouping would be awesome maybe a little overlay to partially see them and unfold on hover or a user defined shortcut.

  40. George says:

    Failed to launch installer when i try to update

    • As the message says, the tweaker failed to launch the installer.
      Did it happen only once, or do you always see this error?
      If it’s the former, perhaps the download was corrupt.
      If it’s the latter, it needs to be further investigated.

  41. Stamimail says:

    Multipage Taskbar
    When I dragging a button by RightClick towards the end of buttons, Taskbar isn’t paging automatically.
    Can it be fixed?

  42. Bostjan says:

    Seeing how you can tweak the Show Desktop button, have you ever considered to extend the button function to the screen edge?

    The thing is, that with classic theme, the button is surrounded by an edge. You cannot move mouse to bottom-right corner and click, because the button does not extend to the very corner in classic theme. This makes it utterly useless and I was happy when you added the option to hide it.

    But if you could somehow make it work when the user clicks that border… it would be awesome.

    • Perhaps it will be a better solution to use a program which allows to customize hot corners.

    • Hi again,

      I’ve looked at it, and it turned out that it was actually supposed to work, but it doesn’t because of a buggy implementation.

      I fixed it with the tweaker, try it out here:
      https://www.dropbox.com/s/l522iqfzr638s0l/7tt_setup_v4.4.3.2.exe?dl=1

      Enable the “w7_show_desktop_classic_corner” advanced option.

    • The fix is available in v4.4.4.

      • Bostjan says:

        Wow, thanks!

        Sorry for the late reply, I’ll test the new version as soon as I can 🙂

      • Bostjan says:

        It works!

        There are two slight issues, though.

        1. When swinging the mouse to the corner and clicking, it often doesn’t work because if the mouse does not completely stop yet, the cursor keeps moving. Workaround moves the cursor to bottom right pixel of the button, but mouse movement moves the cursor off the button before the click comes through and the button does not get clicked.

        To replicate, simply keep moving the mouse slowly even when the cursor is already in the corner, and click.

        If you happen to have coded it so as to move the cursor and trigger a click as two separate actions, perhaps there is a better way by SendMessage directly to the button?

        2. There are ‘dead’ pixels which do not work. For example, if you look at the Show Desktop button, it is indented and surrounded by this raised edge. The line immediately right of the button is colored white, to simulate raising. If you position cursor below this white line (but aligned with it), and click, the workaround does trigger, but the cursor does not move on the button, but on the white line instead, and button does not get clicked. It goes same for the white line immediately beneath the button, when you position the cursor on the right of this line (but aligned with it).

        Actually, I just tried and clicking the white line also does not work. I hope it’s not related to my increased DPI setting (170%). I noticed this line actually continues all the way and all tray icons and taskbar buttons have this pixel-wide line where nothing will happen – it’s off the taskbar button so it does not click, but not low enough for the workaround to trigger and move the cursor up onto the button.

        Thanks!

        • First of all, I want to clarify that I didn’t do anything but fixing one bug of the taskbar.

          Here’s how the code was supposed to work:
          Move cursor inside the taskbar -> find the deepest child window under the cursor -> trigger a click.

          The bug was that only the first child window was retrieved. That’s why it works fine for e.g. taskbar buttons (taskbar -> task list), but not for the “Show desktop” button (taskbar -> notification area -> show desktop).

          Other issues are of the implementation of Microsoft, not mine 🙂

          I tried it now, and you’re right, it still feels buggy, but the following seems to work well for me:
          Click the mouse on the border, and release it inside the “Show desktop” button. I’m not sure how convenient it is for daily use, but it’s probably better than starting inside the button, too.

          Anyway, I don’t think hackfixing it further is worth the effort. The classic theme is a dead thing – Windows 7 is the latest Windows version which supports it, and even there, it’s a second-class citizen.

          P.S. have you considered using a normal theme? 🙂

          • Bostjan says:

            Of course I have. 🙂 It’s just that all other themes seem to me like a circus show, especially Aero themes with huge useless transparent surfaces. I might take a look again if I can somehow beat any theme into something likable.

            My machine was always an optimized productive environment and classic theme is the GUI that does not waste space, has perfect color (can’t stand dark themes, but must also not be too bright or too colorful), etc. And don’t forget that only classic theme offers custom DPI setting, others just offer steps and I didn’t find any of them to my liking.

            Isn’t Windows 8 theme closer to classic theme (with more configurable colors), than Aero?

            Anyway, I agree that it’s not really worth hacking it further. It’s quite obvious MS didn’t care much about classic theme in Windows 7. Seeing how they started to kick out everything “classic” (like start menu), they probably just ran out of time to remove it altogether and it had to stay until Windows 8. 🙂

  43. Dante says:

    hello.

    i’m still getting the 1001 load library error. i read your articles about some improvements and so on, update to the new version (through uninstall the older one and clean the system) and i’m still getting 1001 error. sometimes, it loads fine, but its not occur very often.

  44. gilb says:

    Awesome program! It does exactly what I need, and more. I felt happy to donate to your cause.

    That being said, I have a question or request. I mainly looked for an application like this because the grouping of openoffice windows was annoying me. Now with your software I can ungroup them, which is great. BUT the problem that I have is that in taskbar inspector, the openoffice windows are grouped under a changing process ID every time I restart the computer, or close all openoffice windows and then reopen them.

    So right now in taskbar inspector my openoffice windows are grouped under process “PID00003e7c” and next time I reboot it will be “PID00003a8b” or something.

    This means that after every reboot, I have to tell taskbar inspector to not group those windows. Is there a workaround for this or could you build in some kind of way to detect openoffice processes please (it would be easy, the window names all have “openoffice” in them).

    I appreciate the work you put into making our lifes more productive.

    • Thank you for the feedback and the support! I really appreciate it.

      As for programs with auto generated AppIds, try win7appid, which allows you to create shortcuts with a custom AppId:
      https://code.google.com/p/win7appid/

      • gilb says:

        Okay, thanks for the hint. This is a step in the right direction.

        The problem I have with this is solution is that I can not set a shortcut as the file handler for openoffice files, so I can not start the program by just double clicking the file I want open.

        My first workaround would be to create a shortcut to a file that I have open most of the time and use this to start openoffice with the right PID. I know I am being nitpicky, just wondering if you have a better idea.

        • You’re right, I haven’t thought about it.
          Perhaps it is possible to set a shortcut as the file handler, but it surely isn’t a straightforward solution.

          Have you considered LibreOffice? I don’t really know what’s the difference between the two, but I’m using LibreOffice and have no problems with it. I’ve just checked, and it does set a custom AppId.

          Another option: I can patch your OpenOffice executable to set an AppId. If you’re interested, upload the exe file.

  45. Emil says:

    Apparently something is changed or broken in 4.4.2. Previously, one could group apps (Group by Application ID) and click any of the grouped apps and gain focus to clicked app directly (with Hovering set to Nothing and Combining set to Don’t combine). This doesn’t work any more :/

    I’d really prefer having taskbar app buttons that take me into the clicked app straight away, not through a thumbnail preview popup or such extra step. Until this latest version, it worked like that.

    Sorry if this spam, apparently someone has filed a bug report about this already.

  46. M.A. says:

    Thank you very much! I love the Advanced Options. I finally can stop Windows from minimizing the focused window when I click on it in the taskbar.

  47. DT says:

    I get the error “7+ Taskbar Tweaker is designed for Windows 7/8 only” and then the install quits, v 4.4.3. I’m running Windows 8 Enterprise 64-bit.

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