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. kerframil says:

    Hi, RaMMicHaeL. I found an interesting hack that disables the ‘immersive’ context menu that was introduced to the taskbar in Windows 10 v1607.

    http://www.askvg.com/tip-get-rid-of-dark-context-menu-in-windows-10-taskbar/

    It does away with the grating discord between the appearance of the taskbar’s context menus and those of the rest of the shell i.e. no fixed black background colour or excessive spacing between the menu entries. However, the implementation is clumsy and has it has to be injected each time that Explorer is loaded or re-loaded.

    This seems like something that could be a good fit for Taskbar Tweaker. Is there any chance of it being implemented?

  2. Aaron says:

    I think I have a problem with 7tt crashing Explorer.exe, sometimes explorer.exe will try to connect to 144.76.167.69 (your website has this address) and it crashes and restarts.

    Is this something you have seen before?

    • sometimes explorer.exe will try to connect to 144.76.167.69 (your website has this address) and it crashes and restarts.

      7+ Taskbar Tweaker has a crash reporting mechanism. That doesn’t mean that 7+ Taskbar Tweaker is responsible for the crash.
      Can you provide the crash report? It can be found in the event viewer.

      • Aaron says:

        Sure, but it doesn’t say much:

        Log Name: Application
        Source: Application Error
        Date: 23/01/2017 2:52:43 p.m.
        Event ID: 1000
        Task Category: (100)
        Level: Error
        Keywords: Classic
        User: N/A
        Computer: Computer
        Description:
        Faulting application name: Explorer.EXE, version: 6.1.7601.17567, time stamp: 0x4d672ee4
        Faulting module name: MSVCR90.dll, version: 9.0.30729.6161, time stamp: 0x4dace4e7
        Exception code: 0xc0000005
        Fault offset: 0x000000000001e1ac
        Faulting process id: 0xce4
        Faulting application start time: 0x01d274fef12fa092
        Faulting application path: C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
        Faulting module path: C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.6161_none_08e61857a83bc251\MSVCR90.dll
        Report Id: a0fcb263-e10e-11e6-8699-0024212314d9
        Event Xml:

        1000
        2
        100
        0x80000000000000

        109941
        Application
        Computer

        Explorer.EXE
        6.1.7601.17567
        4d672ee4
        MSVCR90.dll
        9.0.30729.6161
        4dace4e7
        c0000005
        000000000001e1ac
        ce4
        01d274fef12fa092
        C:\Windows\Explorer.EXE
        C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft.vc90.crt_1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b_9.0.30729.6161_none_08e61857a83bc251\MSVCR90.dll
        a0fcb263-e10e-11e6-8699-0024212314d9

  3. Elisa says:

    How do I uninstall it? I can’t even find it so I don’t know where it installed to. Thanks for your help.

  4. Stamimail says:

    “Portable Registry Tweaker”

    Hi Michael,
    I think I have an idea, but I don’t know if this is technically possible. We had talked about tweaks for taskbar-thumbnail-delay-time and for “Show Labels”…
    http://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/643-using-the-portable-version-on-a-different-pc/

    So I was thinking about the need for developing a tool works similar to +7TT, in terms of how it changes registry values without affecting the original registry. A tool will let the user to enter a list of custom registry entries, and the tool will inject them to the original registry.
    In this way, the user will be able to use his friend PC, with his own customized registry values, with no harm and any change to his friend PC.

    • Hi,

      Such tool is possible, but it might not be as useful as you might think. One can make explorer read values different than the real values in the registry, but the thing is that these values are being read only upon process initialization. So, given a tool like you’ve mentioned, you’ll have to restart explorer for the new settings to apply, which is not ideal.
      Maybe there’s a way to request explorer to re-read the values without restarting, but I’m not aware of it – it requires some investigation.

  5. BratetsVolk says:

    Dear RaMMicHaeL, say please, is it possible in 7TT to display the name above each thumbnail in Windows 7 in the alt+tab or ctrl+alt+tab menu? If not, what do you think about this feature?

    http://i013.radikal.ru/1701/bc/6f18ad92bacf.png

    • It’s not a part of the taskbar, so it won’t be implemented as a part of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. I know that there are programs to tweak/repalce the Alt-Tab window, such as VistaSwitcher. You might want to try them.
      Also note that it works like you suggest in Windows 10.

  6. Mark says:

    RaMMicHaeL – Does 7 taskbar tweaker change the threshold of how many windows must be opened before the grouping preview only shows window titles and no preview? On Windows 10 the “preview” windows that show up when you hover over a grouped window are so small before this switch to just showing the window title and window icon.

    thanks,
    mark

  7. The Snake says:

    Thanks a lot. Was looking for this quite a long time ..

  8. Wazir says:

    @RaMMicHaeL amazing program, there is no second to it. donated a small token:
    http://rammichael.com/donate?all#donor-2151

    As Windows is moving to Creators update, did you get any chance to look at it? I am using a slow build (14986) and it shows a typical error “Could not load library (104)”. hopefully a small tweak required, can you please look at this? Thanks!

    • Thank you for the donation Wazir, I appreciate it!
      I haven’t looked at the Creators update yet, and I don’t plan to do so until it’s stable, as currently it’s a moving target. I do plan to update the tweaker once it’s ready.

      • Greg says:

        I’m currently running Windows 10 Creators Update (64bit) since Microsoft released the ISO images, and apart from a minor issue with a Radeon gfx driver that is now resolved (old-ish gfx card) it’s running quite smoothly so far.

        I’m seeing the same error as Wazir, and none of the 7+TT functionality is working on this latest Windows 10 release, despite my install of Windows itself working well.

        Microsoft released W10 Creators Update for manual install via the Update Assistant app last week, and the general rollout pushed via Windows Update starts 11th April.

  9. Jay says:

    This program is flipping brilliant and i really appreciate how well it’s been written and tweaked. I just wanted to shoot this into the great emptiness of the internet

  10. Anixx says:

    Is there a chance that there would be an option to make the taskbar in Win10 classic in the same sense as in Win7/8? Particularly, make the task buttons 3D shaped and theme-dependent in appearance (rather than just underlining the current task).

  11. Mathieu says:

    Hi. Would be awesome to have an Alt+Tab customisation option, either in the Tweaker, or in advanced options! I use this all the time.

  12. q3fuba says:

    hi there
    maybe it’s possible to add a feature to (temporaray?) fix the win10 anniversary “WS_EX_TOPMOST” bug?
    Means to remove the “WS_EX_TOPMOST” from the “Shell_TrayWnd” Window Properties.

    It seems it’s just possible to do this with a hook beacuse every time after pess the window key, the WS_EX_TOPMOST ist reset even after remove it manually… :/

    Don’t know why MS is not able to fix this because the bug was posted MANY times in there forum!

    Would be nice if you can take a look on it!
    Until then i use your feature to toogle the taskbar with a doubleclick but this is very annoying 😀

    greetings q3fuba

  13. Roy says:

    It seems that unpacked binaries will not triggering anti-virus programs.

  14. botus says:

    Hi I’ve used this for years but now, a security team is flagging they don’t like it

    Running v 4.5

    The issue with the specific software running on your machine is that it modifies your computer and compromises its security controls. That specific application displays signs of malicious process injection. The 7+ taskbar tweaker.exe executable is injecting itself into explorer.exe on a regular basis and it’s not a signed or a verified executable. It’s also executing from c:\users\xxx\appdata\roaming\7+ taskbar tweaker\7+ taskbar tweaker.exe – Legitimate applications usually install under the C:\Programs Files or C:\Program Files (x86) and run from there. All of these different indicators are flagging our security monitoring tool (not Symantec) that this software is suspicious and it is in our best interest to not have on your machine because it increases our threat landscape and risk.

    • Hi botus,

      Running v 4.5

      First of all, there is a newer version of the tweaker. I suggest you to update to the latest version.

      The 7+ taskbar tweaker.exe executable is injecting itself into explorer.exe on a regular basis

      Yes, it’s required in order to be able to apply the provided options.

      and it’s not a signed or a verified executable

      That’s right. A signature costs money, and 7+ Taskbar Tweaker is a freeware product.

      It’s also executing from c:\users\xxx\appdata\roaming\7+ taskbar tweaker\7+ taskbar tweaker.exe – Legitimate applications usually install under the C:\Programs Files or C:\Program Files (x86) and run from there

      It works this way to be able to install and run without requiring administrator rights. You can run the installer as administrator, and install 7+ Taskbar Tweaker into Program Files manually.

      At the end of the day, it’s up to you to decide whether to use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. If you need any other information, please let me know.

  15. Emotionless says:

    Very useful! Thank you so much for this wonderful tweak for the taskbar!

  16. ray5450 says:

    Hovering–Tooltip stopped working. I tried reinstalling. I tried uninstailling then reinstalling. The other hovering options work. (Icons are small enough that there is no other icon text showing). Is there a solution? Thanks.

    • ray5450 says:

      Well, it hasn’t worked all day, then an hour after posting here, it starts working again. (reminds me when I have my car looked at, “I swear it was making that noise”…)

  17. ChromeUser says:

    Hello!

    Is there a feature to designate certain App IDs to be automatically changed into others? I want certain buttons (Eclipse, the Eclipse launcher, and the Eclipse workspace) to always be grouped on the taskbar, but I don’t want to have to open the inspector each time I open a new window.

  18. TNTUP says:

    Shame I can’t change the systray icons padding size like I did in Windows 7 on Windows 10. Can’t we like do -8 so the icons will work? On Windows 7 it works by setting it to 2, but on Windows 10 can’t we like set at -5?

    Should I suggest this on your bugs/featur reqs?

    • Can’t we like do -8 so the icons will work?

      You cannot, unfortunately. See here, quoting:

      7+ Taskbar Tweaker v5.2 restores this option [tray_icons_padding] for Windows 10 by using a different implementation. Even though it’s less flexible (e.g. you cannot reduce the spacing below a fixed minimum), it allows to control the spacing size similarly to the way it worked on pre-Windows 10 systems.

      Should I suggest this on your bugs/featur reqs?

      You can, but I don’t promise to look at it in the near future.

  19. Anixx says:

    Hello!

    We have a problem. When running Classic theme under Windows 10, the text on the taskbar is not visible:

    http://i.imgur.com/CPjbW9d.png

    Is it possible to do something about it?

  20. xesa says:

    adding option of: if active window is not over taskbar or not on maximize state then taskbar shown else on hiden state.

    i want it for my small screen laptop.

  21. Bradley says:

    I just installed the latest 5.2 on a windows 8 machine, and it doesn’t seem to allow me to shrink the taskbar, like I can on a windows 10 machine, when I have the taskbar on the side of the window instead of top/bottom.

    Am I missing something in the setup, or is it because not all features of win8 has been figured out to make this work?

  22. Justin says:

    It would be nice to have an “sub”-option of Left click on combined item > Cycle through windows. “On same screen”, such that only the windows on the same screen as the taskbar icon you are clicking on, are cycled instead of all the windows across all screens.

  23. Stamimail says:

    Hi,
    I’m looking for ideas how to improve the experience of using Multi Page. (When the taskbar is filled of buttons and then you got up/down buttons on the side, for paging)
    It seems Windows works properly but still, I have some problems…
    Usually, I hovering over a button, and I click on it to minimize (to see what behind), and click again to restore/maximize.
    In the regular case, I place the cursor in one place, and just clicking for this task.
    But, when you’re in multipage mode, there some cases, you click the button to minimize, and oppps, the taskbar is paged, so that you can’t click again in the same place where you put the cursor, but need to scroll again to the button, or to use Alt+Tab.
    Another situation is when you want to drag a File/Link to another window via a button. Normally, Windows restore/maximize its window [for some reason not always works but…].
    There some cases you overed the wrong button by mistake, and then you want just to minimize it by hovering it again, but this is not supported yet.
    There some cases you began to drag the File/Link, and then you notice you need to page the multipage taskbar to got the desired button…
    It is true that you can use the wheel, but sometimes you feel that it would have been more convenient if it can be done by just hovering over the buttons up / down.
    The same thing for dragging a button with the RighClick..

  24. abc says:

    Not work on Windows10 RS2

  25. BratetsVolk says:

    RaMMicHaeL, tell please, can I using the taskbar inspector to activate thumbnails of the programmes i want, and disable those thumbnails where they are not needed? As well as the on/off labels, groups, and pins?

  26. 0xDEADC0DE says:

    I had to upgrade to creators update already to get ReFS 3.1 running on Win10. I hope we get 7+TT soon. Windows is ugly without it.

    • Hacktheplanet says:

      0xDeadcode he made it not work on purpose even in compatiblity mode and he spies on us with this program , can somebody make an open source version that never get problems ?

  27. kxtzz says:

    not work in the version 10.0.15063(1607)
    qwq..

  28. Peddler says:

    I use the no_width_limit feature, which does not work with the Windows 10 Insider Preview 15063 update. Please solve!

  29. GWK says:

    not work build 15063 update urgent!!!

  30. Passos says:

    Sad that does not work 15063 🙁

    Still a great tool, keep up the good work.

  31. stefan says:

    I choose a working taskbar tweaker over the newest windows 10. great tool!!!

    • Yoda San says:

      I revert back to anniversary update yep
      works flawlessly with virtual desktops so I can’t miss that and live without creator update

  32. Matt says:

    Here’s hoping you can update this for the Creator’s Update!

  33. Rick says:

    After updating to the Creators Update (15063) I get the error message:
    Could not load library (104)

  34. Not work on Windows10

  35. tony adams says:

    stopped working for me in the latest windows 10 update – cannot hook dll or something like that – any solution?

  36. Chris Willsher says:

    As you will have seen from other comments, Win 10 Creator’s Update runs with an error relating to libraries not being loaded. As this update is now live and officially released is there a simple workaround we can do ourselves or is this going to involve you in lots of work to keep the programme fully operational?

    Thanks for any information that you can give.

  37. Not work on Windows10 1703 says:

    Not work on Windows10 1703

  38. Neil says:

    Are you working on getting 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to work with Windows 10 Creators Update? I’ve upgraded and it no longer appears to work?

  39. Please update the software for Windows 10 Creators Update.

  40. Franck says:

    Thank you so much for this excellent app !!!

  41. andy says:

    I am grateful for your great job and I would appreciate if you could update this amazing software to make it compatible with Widows Creative update. Windows clearly sucks without it.

  42. Neil Lovell says:

    The new Creator’s update for Windows 10 has broken functionality of 7TT. Is there going to be an alpha or beta release for this soon? Keep up the great work. 7TT is an absolutely invaluable tool that I literally use daily and can’t use my laptop without.

  43. Filip Daubner says:

    Will you make early alpha of Creators update compatible 7+tt available for download when it’s ready? Like you did with Redstone update when donors could download it sooner. Great work, btw. Since early alpha I didn’t have to open GUI. Updates not noticeable in any way. Thanks!

  44. Raven says:

    As others have said before after Windows 10 Creator update, it has broken 7TT. Something that I use constantly. Keep up the awesome work and hopefully there will be a fix for this. That way I can go back to using such a great product.

  45. Yoda San says:

    Hi Michael

    Is there any issue running creator update because I had an error message when loading taskbar tweaker ( could not load some library 64 ? ) and none of my settings worked under this build

    Otherwise , 7 taskbar tweaker ran fine under anniversary update

    I had to revert back to AU since my visual style didn’t work too.

    Thanks ( windows x64 pro build 14393.969 )

  46. junk says:

    Hi,
    7+ Taskbar Tweaker 5.2.1 doesn’t work with Windows 10 1703(creators update) b10.0.15063.

    There is error message:
    7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not load library (104)

  47. User says:

    hello Sir 🙂
    what is the error “could not find library (104)” 🙁

  48. Dennis says:

    Since the Creater Update, I got an issue of not loading up the library with error code 104. May you kindly advise if there is any problem associated with it? Many thanks!

  49. Matthias Pester says:

    Hello, Windows 10 1703 is released and 7tt dont work anymore

  50. Matthias Pester says:

    Please give us a alpha version again, i will pay 10€ for it. I need the taskbar tweaker for changing the order od opened windows on taskbar and to hide the taskbar completely and i have 2 keyboard shortcuts for navigation along all opened wiindows on taskbar created. Hoping you can fix it for Windows 10 1703.

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