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. monolake says:

    First of all: Thank you for programming this really useful tool!
    For me, the best part is the Taskbar-Inspector to sort the windows inside the folder of the firefox and the explorer. But after a reboot, the order of the windows is destroyed, I have to sort again.
    Is there a possibility to fix the sequence? Have I overlooked something?

    • Currently it’s not possible to keep the taskbar items always sorted with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. Using advanced Mouse Button Control options, you can assign a mouse shortcut to sort a taskbar group with a click, but it’s only available in the beta version for now. Refer to the help file for more details.

      • monolake says:

        Thank you for your answer!
        I tried via advanced options to keep the taskbar group sorted. With the command taskbaritem|ctrl+shift+lclick 15, I get indeed a alphabetically sorted list. But I would prefer an own sorted list. With the value 14 nothing happens and with the value 12 all the explorer windows in the group appear on the desktop. Is there a possibility to remember the actual sorting and recall ist?

        • With the value 14 nothing happens and with the value 12 all the explorer windows in the group appear on the desktop.

          These are not relevant for sorting. From the help file:
          12 - Restore all group items
          14 - Restore [a single item]

          Is there a possibility to remember the actual sorting and recall ist?

          No, that’s not possible in general. The reason is that the windows get recreated upon reboot, and the tweaker has on way to identify them.

  2. Phillip M. says:

    as a quadriplegic gamer that happens to like a couple of the tweaks this offers, I’m disappointed that it seems to have suddenly started to cause latency with a few programs I can’t function without. Namely, these programs are Windows Explorer (I shouldn’t need to explain why that one’s needed) and Dragon NaturallySpeaking (adaptive technology that can do things like transcribe my voice and act on voice commands)

    Not sure which of the 3 programs is most to blame, but lately I’ve noticed that when when your app is running, the other 2 programs function slower, especially Explorer. For example, it normally only takes a few hundred milliseconds for a minimized window to come up when I click the associated icon, but with 7TT running it currently takes a few seconds. Please try to fix this. As far as I can remember, it only started happening sometime in the past 72 hours, and before your recent update. My best guess says a registry error is to blame, but I’m not the developer here.

    if I knew where to send it that it wouldn’t be published for all readers to see, I’d give you my email address so you could contact me for further details that way. Unfortunately, I don’t see a contact form anywhere on the site. Do you have one and I’m just missing it or something?

    • Phillip M. says:

      actually, it might not be your program after all. Even after closing the program, explore still continued to act up. It did seem to improve a little, but I’m still experiencing the same symptoms without your app running, so I guess I’ve got some troubleshooting to do. In the meantime, I guess you may as well disregard my previous comment.

  3. Gordon M says:

    Nice one 🙂

  4. Zageron says:

    Hello,

    I’m getting a library launching error in windows version 16251.

    Thanks,

    • Hi Zageron,

      You’re using an insider build of Windows 10. Insider builds are not supported.

    • Loving Beast says:

      Actually, I started getting those same errors in win 10 pro. I tried to manually register the DLL and it failed. Also, the taskbar inspector failed to load as well. However, when I uninstalled it and reran the installer as an administrator, and then went to the program directory, and ran the 7tweker program in compatibility mode as an administrator. Everything works again. I hope this helps.

  5. Rusty says:

    This is a great program, but I usually have 3-4 firefox windows open at a time and the order often resorts itself at random (firefox freezing or maybe from tabswapping) is it possible even theoretically to maintain the order?

  6. Jeeves says:

    Does this tool allow multiple columns when the taskbar is vertical?

  7. Anuser says:

    Hi. Your download page is not opening as of this time on 12/9/2017. Can you please check the problem because I have to download taskbar tweaker and its not downloading. Thanks.

  8. Branko says:

    Hi. I have noticed that on second monitor, where I also have taskbar, on that taskbar windows can not be closed on middle click. And windows on task bar on primary monitor can. Can I do something to fix it?

  9. Billy Bob Baked Beans says:

    This app is awesome! Thank you very much for making and supporting it!

  10. HC says:

    Love the program. It’s the other thing that goes on a PC after Classic Shell :-).
    One thing I’ve noticed. What controls the title on a taskbar button group? I have found that all of my cmd.exe taskbar groups end up with the same title -“Admin” which was the title of an elevated command prompt I ran once.
    I can’t see where the mapping between process group and group title is….

  11. ed says:

    This is a good little tool. Thanks

    I’d be willing to donate, but it has never really worked in the years I have tried using it.

    The problem is when I open my computer (e.g. from sleep mode) all the browser windows shuffle, and end up in a different order.

    I am using Grouping > Dont Group

  12. Stamimail says:

    Hovering
    My settings is “Show thumbnail preview (default)”
    I tryed to get the “List” option by Advanced Options > Mouse Button Control,
    but I see that there is no “List” in taskbaritem.

  13. Scott says:

    hi, im getting this cool looking tool right now. It reminds me of PowerToys for XP Pro I think. Love having as many options as possible. Two questions- I want to have a toolbar with many links on the side with the taskbar on the bottom. I dont recall the trick exactly but unlocking the tb and having an empty desktop you could grab it and seperate it to either fill the full length of one of ther other 3 or adjust it just how u wanted if it wasnt too close to full length. Then i would have it auto hide. Really liked it! How can I do this with Win 10?
    2- I used to program BASIC or actually ext. Basic on my TI-994a and am a CNC programmer. I downloaded qb64, VS 2017, many others. Just want to make simple desktop that you input info such as speed, tool size, sfm, etc and it would spit out a usable CNC program, usually just doing simple math and the hardest part is the text editing, especially on the html stuff. I want to create a clean windows app for machining purposes. What to use? What to get rid of?( Python, Coco, Azure,? I have an interest in VB and was trying C++ many years ago. I am overwhelmed and not making progress. Why is it so hard to make a window with a menu bar, a couple drop down windows, and a couple links without a ton of effort? Give me some advice please. I am willing to study and don’t want to download somebody else’s work to complete half the project. Pls help. Thanks, Scott

    • Hi Scott,

      About the toolbar, I’m not sure I understand what you mean. A screenshot can help.
      About CNC, I don’t really know what it is. Sounds like you’re looking for a tool to program a computational graphical tool. There’s no one tool which is right for the job, it highly depends on your needs.

  14. Lars W. says:

    Could you implement an option to disable the language indicator? It always appears although I’m disabling it in the Settings.

    (Windows 10 CU Build 15063, Tweaker v5.3)

  15. Matthias Pester says:

    Works it with the 1709 Windows 10?

  16. Mark Neve says:

    I have used Taskbar Tweaker now 2 days and this far everything looks perfect.

    I had been trying to prevent Win7 Taskbar pop-ups to pop up with “ExtendedUIHoverTime” etc. tricks.
    These help for some time, but then after some time, the Pop-Ups again start popping up again.

    In Taskbar Tweaker I only set this single setting:
    “Howering. Show thumbnail preview –> Nothing”
    now finally the popups seem to be gone.

    For now I have not rebooted the machine, and I’m, not sure if this setting will stay. Or do I have then to use Taskbar Tweaker again.

    Thanks for this great and simple tool.

    -Mark

    • Hi Mark,

      I’m glad that you found the tweaker helpful 🙂

      For now I have not rebooted the machine, and I’m, not sure if this setting will stay. Or do I have then to use Taskbar Tweaker again.

      While installing 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, it’s being set to run at startup. So after you reboot, the tweaker will run again and will apply the configuration. No need to do any additional steps.

  17. user says:

    Thanks you for the tool. It really helped me to fix some weird defaults.

  18. William says:

    I’ve been looking for a way to stop pinned icons from being dragable. Is there a way to pin stuff to the taskbar and then remove the ability to rearange them?
    My problem is that sometimes I click a thing in a bit of a hurry and instead of opening what I wanted, I just drag the icon around, failing to open what is was and also mixing up the icons.
    Thanks for the awesome program!

  19. Moe says:

    Hi There.

    I like your app. The feature which allows multiple taskbar icons of the same program without text is really handy. It’s surprising Microsoft overlooked this basic function.

    However i did notice a bug when using virtual desktops in Windows 10. When switching from one virtual desktop to another while having ‘don’t group’ and ‘don’t combine grouped buttons’ both selected, the taskbar icons end up getting rearranged back into a group.

    It would really be nice if you can figure out a fix to that problem since both those functions are very handy to have and at the moment i can only pick one of them.

    Thanks.

    • Hi Moe,

      If you use “Don’t group”, then combining is not relevant, unless you combine apps selectively with Taskbar Inspector.

      There’s this issue with the combining option and virtual desktops. If that’s what you’re experiencing, please try the beta version which fixes the issue.

      In addition, there are other minor issues with “Don’t group” and virtual desktops, see here. When the tweaker was designed, virtual desktops didn’t exist, and it was based on that assumption. To fix these issues, the logic has to be reworked, which is a major undertaking. I might do it one day, but I can’t say when.

      And thank you for the donation, I appreciate it 🙂

  20. Lee says:

    Wow! Absolutely fantastic! Windows 10 is great – but the way it groups folders was driving me crazy! I don’t want all my folders next to each other – I want them in the order I’m working!!

    For a donation – is there any chance you could make a “hovering” option – show full path?

    I sometimes have folders such as www/pages/folder and GitHub/pages/folder

    So all I see is two “folders” – it would be great to hover and see which folder I need – or even rename them on the fly 😉

    Thanks for such an amazing bit of software!

  21. id like to use shortcuts on titlebars more than taskbars.
    middle click titlebar close. right click move to next monitor. double rmb minimize etc

  22. Gareth says:

    Hi Ram,

    Thank you for this great program that adds what I believe to be necessary functionality to the taskbar. I was wondering if it was possible to customise the tray clock, say if I wanted an analog one instead of the default digital?
    What kinds of things can be put in place there, if anything?

    Thanks again,

  23. Hi, thanks for great software,

    Please make a patch for the new Windows 10 Release (fluent design)

  24. Marco Aurélio says:

    Hi. Awesome program!
    I just have one problem.
    Use the middle mouse button to close programs, such as tabs in browsers, but only one program does not quit. This happens only with Spotify. I do not know if it’s just me.
    Anyway thanks.

  25. David says:

    Nooooo. It doesn’t work anymore ;( Hope it will be updated. I need this little software in my life 😀

  26. Max says:

    Das gute Programm lauft nicht mit Spyshelter

  27. Rich says:

    The Beta client does not seem to work with the latest windows update 🙁

  28. Max says:

    7+ taskbar tweaker: konnte die programmbibliothek nicht laden (106)

    When i deinstall Spyshelter, then 7+ works perfect

    • Error 106 means that the tweaker wasn’t able to find the taskbar. Probably SpyShelter hides it from the tweaker. Try to whitelist the tweaker in SpyShelter, and if that doesn’t help, please contact the SpyShelter team.
      Let me know if you need more help.

  29. Max says:

    Please install SpyShelter than you can see what I mean.

  30. therube says:

    CHM help file, Introduction -> Changelog, has the wrong update date for 5.4 (instead showing 5.3’s date).

  31. therube says:

    Is 5.4 portable “install” broken?

    5.3 had the “stub” .exe, that then executed (subdirectory) bin\32 (or 64) “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ex2”.

    5.4 stub .exe only pops up an Error:

    Error: Process creation failed

    If you rename, “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ex2” to “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe” (& assuming inject.dll is there), you can then run that directly & that works.

    Though with that, I’m not seeing “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ini”?

    Is “that” type of “portable” storing settings in the Registry rather then in an .ini?

    Hmm… HKCU\Software\7 Taskbar Tweaker...

    Now I don’t know if that was there before or newly created?
    (AFAIK, but could be wrong, I’ve only used “portable” in the past.)

    Win7 x64.

    Anyhow, thank you for a very nice tool.

    • Is 5.4 portable “install” broken?

      No, it shouldn’t be. I verified, and it works on my computer.

      If you rename, “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.ex2” to “7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe”

      If you do that, it stops being portable, and indeed uses the registry instead of the ini file.

      Based on the error that you’re getting, my guess would be that your antivirus blocks the stub executable. 7+ Taskbar Tweaker v5.4 was just released, and unfortunately, some antiviruses falsely mark it as malicious. Hopefully this will be fixed in the near future.

      Anyhow, thank you for a very nice tool.

      You’re welcome 🙂

      • therube says:

        A/V would not apply in my case.
        I wonder if I didn’t get the “wrong” version 54?
        Seem to recall, when I downloaded, there was a “10” in the directory path… /10/download/7t… or something similar to that.

        Just downloaded again, no “10” in the d/l URL, & that did work as expected when I put it on a Win10 machine (not mine).

        SHA1: 6d8cf0d86de199086636b359456b571a0caf2238

        … could be that I ended up with a beta or something like that?

        I’ll try to check tonight & see if the hashes agree.
        If they do not, I know what to do ;-).

        No… actually I do see the “10” in what I just got.
        So there’s a redirect in there up…/down…/2017/10/…

        Anyhow, I’ll check the hash this evening.
        (And scratch my head a bit.)

        • therube says:

          Hashes agree.

          • therube says:

            I ran the installer again.

            Selected, uninstall (including also removed the Windows Registry entries).

            Then installed again.
            And now it works without incident.

            All the files are exactly the same (comparing saved copies vs current install), yesterday to today (except for the .ini, today’s being “original”, yesterday [& before] having entries under [Options]).

            Also exited 7tt, put in the older .ini, fired up 7tt, & things still worked.

            No idea.
            Only diff is we’re one day later.

            (Wonder if had had Firefox open during the install yesterday? Of late, FF, with a LARGE Profile, LOTS of windows/tabs has been giving me “resource” issues – in applications outside of FF. Things like “Not Enough Storage Space” related errors, things that I haven’t seen in a decade. Can’t recall if it was open at the time or not?)

  32. JavaCoder says:

    BitDefender thinks 5.4 has a virus when I try to update.
    The application 7+ taskbar tweaker.exe accesses a web resource http://rammichael.com/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2017/10/7tt_setup.exe that has been detected as infected. Virus name: 0FCF86AE643E44B994AFD8E0A54E984E. The web resource has been successfully blocked and your PC is now safe.

  33. Ionuț B. says:

    Avast blocks the setup file, saying it is infected with “Win32:Malware-gen”

  34. Anon says:

    Hey, thanks for the quick update for Windows 1709!

    Why not integrate 7+ Taskbar Numberer in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker?

    • Why not integrate 7+ Taskbar Numberer in 7+ Taskbar Tweaker?

      That’s how it turned out historically. I’m reluctant to integrate the two now, as it would require some development time, as well as some though about the user interface of the new tweaker.

  35. Stuart A says:

    Do not download the latest version of Tweaker (October 2017) if you also have the latest version of Avast Antivirus!
    I downloaded the update yesterday, and Avast trashed it completely! Not only the new version, but the previous version too, which was working just fine until now. But Avast refuses to uninstall the old version, refuses re-install the old version, and refuses to install the new version.
    I’m stuck!
    There is now also no way to “restore” things in Avast like there used to be, so even though I can see Tweaker on the list in the “Virus Chest” (identified as “IDP.Generic”, there’s no way I can) fix it. The only workaround I found is to create a different directory on a different disk to re-install the old version again, but that still leaves the trashed version in place. It cannot be deleted.
    Beware!
    (Obviously, since I need Tweaker more than I need Avast, I’ll be dumping Avast shortly and switching to another antivirus program that is more intelligent.)

  36. Muadeep says:

    Dear Sir,

    I tried to download 7+ Taskbar Tweaker and my Antivirus Program (Bitdefender) says your software it’s infected with Cloud.Malware.1130zv3@bC27nZii, please check, Thanks

    Atte.
    Muadeep

  37. Andy Q says:

    Kaspersky meltdown: When prompted to update my beloved taskbar tweaker I OK’d the update only to have my running copy of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2017 kick in with all manner of warnings and activities. In short: Kaspersky identified the installer as “Malware” and acted automatically to block the installation and roll back various actions, resulting in TT being removed from operational usage (but not “properly uninstalled” I’m guessing). Checking the Kaspersky logs it seems like it’s performed various actions such as deleting various files and registry values, as well as the TT installer exe (I have a copy of the log if that’s useful). I’m in no doubt that TT is not malware, and life without it is too horrendous to contemplate, but I’m not sure what to do at this point. I should have disabled Kaspersky before installation but have had previous updates install without problem. My worry now is that there are remnants of TT still on my system and that maybe Kaspersky has removed or altered system files in a manner that could cause problems. Any advice would be appreciated.

  38. Andy Q says:

    Thanks, all seems well now after a re-installation (although I disabled Kaspersky during the process n to be sure it wouldn’t interfere). I wasn’t expecting such a fast reply; it’s early Sunday morning here in Australia. Thanks again for such a incredibly useful application. As a graphics/3D guy I have many applications open at once, some with dozens of open files, and without Taskbar Tweaker my work life would be hell.

  39. Dmitry says:

    Dear RaMMicHael,
    maybe you’ll think about uploading a .ZIP version of installer along with .EXE version. Unfortunately, a new “protection” policy in my organization, supposedly started blocking download of .EXE files altogether.
    Thank you. Love your work.

  40. Dmitry says:

    Thank you very much for a quick response, that worked like a charm. Just for the info: upon further investigation, it seems that other .EXE files can still be downloaded normally. Therefore, it seems that’s just another “false virus” positive, now from zScaler company. Hopefully, it will be resolved.

  41. Stuart A says:

    Still not working with Avast. Avast still identifies it as a problem, quarantines it, and won’t allow reinstalling or uninstalling.

    • difool2nice says:

      deactivate avast before uninstall it, reinstall 7TT then reactivate avast ! but i never had a problem with avast about 7TT ! maybe try to set it as exclusion

  42. Junichi says:

    Hello. First of all, thank you for developing 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. I’ve been using it for a couple of years and it really helps me with my work and organizing multiple windows. I wish Microsoft had a feature like this already in Windows.

    I’ve received a new computer running Windows 10 at work, and I’m having trouble using the program. When I first install and run the program I receive the following error message: 7+ Taskbar Tweaker: Could not load library (1003)

    I’m running Windows 10 Enterprise, Version 1607, OS Build 14393.1770

    Do you know if this is an error related to a recent update in Windows 10? If not, do you have any advice on how I can resolve this?

  43. Jack says:

    Latest Windows 10 update has killed it again!

    Thanks for this awesome program – I immediately notice when Windows breaks it because I can’t use Windows without it.

    The most important feature for me is ungrouping multiple instances of the same program in the taskbar. If I drag one instance and the others stick to it, it just drives me crazy (literally – I just shut it down and use my Linux machine instead).

  44. JL says:

    Hello. I have used your taskbar tweaker for some time now and LOVE it. That said, my company recently installed a GPO that sees your tweaker as a threat and terminates the application immediately. So, my questionis this, since the tweaker is a set of functions managed by the app, is there some specific registry hacks that I can do manually to get my taskbar pinned items to stay left and not have the icons group with the default of application ID but be able to move independent of the application group? I want to be able to move one chrome window without all of them moving with it. I realize I might be asking for the recipe to the “secret sauce” but I have truly EVERYWHERE and cant find any registry values that control this specifically. Please let me know if there is any way I can doi this. Thank you.

    • Hi,
      Unfortunately, there’s no registry option for this. See the FAQ on this page for more details.
      I don’t know why the GPO doesn’t allow to use the tweaker, but perhaps installing it in the “Program Files” folder (you’d need to run the setup as administrator) or using the portable version (see FAQ) will work.

  45. Mofo says:

    Keep it good work man .

  46. Troy says:

    I have been looking for a taskbar tweaker that would make the taskbar on top of everything, especially when I open up a virtual desktop. Not sure that is possible, but I would definitely download your tweaker if it was able to do so. I understand if doing so would not be warranted for your user base though.

  47. Pavel says:

    I cannot even start it, AV blocks it (and I cannot disable the A/V):
    https://i.paste.pics/9704e765bea413669ef4f5bca62b091e.png

  48. Zageron says:

    https://imgur.com/YHwkLxU

    Hey Hey, just reporting that 7TT works on Windows Insider 17025.1000. It pops up with a warning, but everything seems to function normally.

    Cheers,
    Zageron

  49. Shisagi says:

    Hi!
    Im looking for a way to have multiple rows of icons with a horizontal taskbar. This seemed to be a feature in windows 7 but no longer in win 10. I’ve been looking through the taskbar tweaker but have not been able to find this feature. is there a way to achieve this? Thanks
    You are doing great work with this program, keep it up!

  50. 徐睿达 says:

    it’s been reporting ‘cannot load dll’ (error code 107) since i upgrade my system to build 17035, and now i’m at 17040 and it still fails to load.

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