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. Fatih_BaKeR says:

    A different interface for the audio setting. Like this: http://i55.tinypic.com/nywi1z.jpg

    Percent change the setting should be.

    Thanks.

  2. V10R37 says:

    Wile Fatih_BaKeR thinks about new recommendations, I got two about when taskbar gets overcrowded:
    1. When taskbar programs are on more then one row, is hard to move one between rows when only one row is visible, so organizing from Taskbar inspector seems to be the best way to go;
    2. For people who always wants to see the name of the running program(with the name of the opened file/website if there is one) an the option to always stay same size, or let as choose the size limit.
    And another one for volume control:
    shift or a different key wile scrolling to change volume for active program.

    I hope to see all of these some day, if possible.

    • V10R37 says:

      I forgot one more for the taskbar space: Taskbar inspector option to hide icon when program not running, so it always starts in the same place every time, or permanently (not everyone has to know I have that probram)

  3. rumavis says:

    Can it works with Windows 8?
    I tried to run program in compatibility mode but Explorer had crush.

  4. Philip says:

    Thank you so much!!!! I have been looking for something like this for AGES! I will be sure to donate what I can to your site!

  5. luis says:

    grsias portodo

  6. Black_Ps` says:

    There is a problem,if sound is mute you can’t do nothing,is this a bug? Thanks ,your program is great ,keep up the good work.

  7. Black_Ps` says:

    Sorry for to tell you,Windows 7 X64 Professional,i mean you can’t control the sound anymore if sound is on mute.

  8. Manu says:

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH for this application!!!
    I was a big fan of Taskbar Shuffle in the past, and couldn’t live with grouped-by-app taskbar icons!!!

    • Ben Buchwald says:

      I second this. I’ve been fighting my company trying to switch me to Windows 7 so much because I hate every UI change Microsoft has made since Windows 2000 but unlike XP which you can can make completely classic, Windows 7 forces them on you. The task bar, start menu, and Windows Explorer were the worse offenders. Classic Start Menu fixes the start menu, and I’m so glad to finally find this to mostly fix the task bar. I only have 1 complaint left.

      When you drag the taskbar to be two rows, items on the first and second rows don’t always align like they do in XP. Is that something that taskbar tweaker could fix?

  9. totaljunk1234567 says:

    I really want the ability to middle-click the empty space to open a new instance of the current program. This would make the taskbar act similar to standard TAB behavior in modern browsers.

    Please vote on this if you like the idea:
    http://tweaker.uservoice.com/forums/73857-general/suggestions/2487815-middle-click-on-empty-space-to-open-another-instan

    Thanks RaMMicHaeL for the very useful program.

  10. Arisu says:

    THANK YOU SO MUCH! This is absolutely going to restore my sanity.

  11. Hey, just wanted to say that I absolutely LOVE this tool! Thank you so much for creating it. As a side note, a feature I’d LOVE is spacing for running applications in the taskbar. In my workflow, I’m often switching back and forth between applications and often click the wrong icon, which really slows me down. If you could do this, I’d be forever grateful!

  12. Mart says:

    Looks really nice. Does it work with several chrome users? You can have several windows from different chrome users which tabs on the taskbar will be separated -you have to click on any of the first user’s taskbar buttons to open a new instance of any other user window though. This is something relatively new and not the usual way programs work, but I use this a lot, and wonder whther it is something 7 Taskbar Tweaker handles properly or it creates some conflicts… (?)

  13. I have spent the last two hours combing the internet for any and all registry fixes to remove all the rubbish that has been added in 7… if only I had found this wonderous little program first.

  14. Leszek says:

    When you select ‘List’ in ‘Hovering section’, then in section ‘Left click on combined item’ choice of ‘Open thumbnail preview (default)’ does not work – it displays just ‘List’, not thumbnails.

    • That’s intended, assuming that if you prefer list instead of thumbnails, you prefer it for all cases.

      • Leszek says:

        I understand, but it suggest it is separate choice 🙂 But, what about to divide it to see list on hover, and thumbnails on left click, or inreversely? 🙂 Or change description for something more precise 😉

        • IMO, hovering and clicking should open the same thing, as it is the same action. I’ve tried to see how it works with separate choices, and it’s confusing: when you are quick enough, you click, otherwise it just pops by itself, and seeing two different things in those situation is not that handy.

          As for the description, well, you just see it works how it works, and if you don’t like it, you change it back. I don’t think anything extra is needed.

  15. Leszek says:

    Ok, but I mean:
    “Left click on combined item”:
    [ ] Open thumbnail or list (if set on the left panel) (default)
    [ ] Cycle through windows

    But it is ok for me know, after your explanations 😉

  16. VenAvet says:

    Do you think it’s possible to have an option to perfectly center all icons? And then have it automatically realign when a new program opens?

    I’ve been trying to find a reliable program for this, and I saw it with a buggy program called TaskDock, and I think it’d be a nice option.

    Thanks for the great program!

  17. wow! i love you man! :O :O :O this program is awwwwweesome!!!!

  18. alfonso765 says:

    on x64, I see a problem after last update, windows error (windows explorer have to restart or something). problem with inject.dll ?

  19. alfonso765 says:

    I uninstalled version 3.31, and returned to 3.21, so far problem does not appear again…

  20. Sam says:

    Hi!

    Current version (3.3.1) and Skype — crash of explorer.exe
    When new message received and I try to open dialog from contact-list (double click on contact with new message icon) — explorer.exe crashing with restart.

    Event Viewer message:
    Faulting application name: explorer.exe, version: 6.1.7601.17567, time stamp: 0x4d672ee4
    Faulting module name: inject.dll, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x4f130810
    Exception code: 0xc0000005
    Fault offset: 0x0000000000003a4d
    Faulting process id: 0x4ec
    Faulting application start time: 0x01ccda92d9b444a3
    Faulting application path: C:\Windows\explorer.exe
    Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Taskbar Tweaker\inject.dll
    Report Id: 181b3496-4686-11e1-9936-001fd0560bb8

    Changing 7TB options to defaults or reinstall application has no effect.

    It’s a very-very annoying bug.

    Thanks.

  21. David Campar says:

    Hi, I am wondering if in Taskbar Tweaker is possible to include an option, whereby the pinned apps have a number overlayed.

    This is explained well in the first post here: http://www.windows7taskforce.com/view/3500

  22. MaTi says:

    Thanks for the awesome app! This is what what Win7 really needed. I have a question though. Would it be possible for you to implement mouse4 and mouse5 buttons into the program? It would be really nice if I could open a new program instance or close the program with one of these buttons. Thank you in advance!

  23. Cam says:

    First off, thanks for 7 Taskbar Tweaker, it’s great.

    I have an enhancement request: When minimising a window on the second monitor, the minimisation animation that plays makes it look as if the application is squashing down into the taskbar on the first monitor. The actual behaviour is correct, i.e., it is minimised to the correct taskbar, but the animation is wrong.

    I’m running v2.1.7, so apologies if this has been fixed in a recent version.

  24. tray says:

    Hello,
    Could you add some tweaks for tray area?
    – less space between icons
    – sliding in hidden icons instead showing them in a popup (like xp/vista)

  25. Eain says:

    Hi Michael,

    I seem to be having a conflict between 7TT and Skype. Whenever 7TT is active and “Don’t group” is active, double-clicking in the Skype window to send someone an IM ends up crashing Windows Explorer, which then restarts. (Not Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer.) This may happen with other functions of 7TT, but definitely happens with “Don’t group”.

    This happens with version 3.33, but I haven’t been able to find any other versions to check against.

    Do you have any recommendations?

  26. Jesahmi says:

    Thanks very much for this terrific programme. It does exactly what I need.

  27. Ace says:

    I have 7tt on my Windows 7 x64 bit. I have a problem when I open a new window in skype. I double click on a contact and when the new window pops out, windows explorer crashes. After restarting windows explorer, everything works fine, except until I open a new window contact in skype.

    The crash error looks like this:
    Problem signature:
    Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
    Application Name: explorer.exe
    Application Version: 6.1.7600.16450
    Application Timestamp: 4aebab8d
    Fault Module Name: inject.dll
    Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
    Fault Module Timestamp: 4f130810
    Exception Code: c0000005
    Exception Offset: 0000000000003a4d
    OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
    Locale ID: 1033
    Additional Information 1: c8c7
    Additional Information 2: c8c709736a0ebcbe93bfc8038e63b3e7
    Additional Information 3: 75a0
    Additional Information 4: 75a0e79fc0f61ecc6c6e0622ea44823e

    If you know a way to resolve or the cause of this error, please reply as soon as posible. It’s really enoying this crash and I don’t want to give up on the nice tweeks this app has to offer.

  28. Slate Jones says:

    I am looking for an option to invert the taskbar. I have mine on the left side of the screen and would like to place the start button on the bottom of the taskbar. Please look into it for us.
    Thank you for all the work you have put into it so far.

  29. v3.3.2:
    * Fixed: Taskbar Inspector size didn’t get saved.
    * Fixed a crash in the 64-bit version.
    * Added a Version Info resource.
    * Other small fixes.

  30. Ken says:

    Great program. I like not having mouse-over popups. 7TT now in startup folder. A nice new feature would be to have a “silent startup” so there is no startup screen displayed and 7TT just starts, runs, and sits in the system tray if I want to change options.

  31. mathrick says:

    Would it be possible to make it rearrange the items within a combined group when I click-and-drag a thumbnail with the left mouse button? That’s the most natural behaviour, and one I expected win7 to implement, only to be surprised to learn it doesn’t actually do that. The rest of the tweaks are nice (FINALLY a way to change the volume with my mouse wheel, something my Linux desktop had 6 years ago), but I really just wanted something like TaskbarShuffle for win7. The rest are extras as far as I’m concerned.

      • mathrick says:

        I see. Is it “non-trivial but I’d like to have it eventually”, or “I’d like to avoid it altogether if possible”?

        Also, what I just discovered is that I can use 7TT to switch to the most recent window in a group with left click if I set it to “cycle through windows”, which is excellent and almost perfect: I’d like it to do “switch if it’s not active, otherwise pop up the usual thumbnail group” instead. That way it’d be 100% DWIM for me. I don’t like cycling, since “go through all the windows one by one in an arbitrary order I don’t want to memorise” is never a useful behaviour. When I click on a group, I want exactly one of:

        1. Most recent window I interacted with -> already happens!
        2. Switch to a specific other window I have in mind -> I need the thumbnail list
        3. Get an overview of what windows are in the group -> I need the thumbnail list

        In fact, based on the description of supertaskbar, I assumed it worked exactly that way. With 7TT, I’m almost there and would love you endlessly if you got me through the last mile.

        Tangentially related: would modifying the way dwm.exe tints the windows if you have Aero enabled be something that can be reasonably done with your injected DLL? If so, I totally have a request for another tweaker 🙂

        • Is it “non-trivial but I’d like to have it eventually”, or “I’d like to avoid it altogether if possible”?

          It’s “non-trivial but I might look at it when I have some spare time”.

          I’d like it to do “switch if it’s not active, otherwise pop up the usual thumbnail group” instead.

          That shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll take a look.

          would modifying the way dwm.exe tints the windows if you have Aero enabled be something that can be reasonably done with your injected DLL?

          Nope.

          • mathrick says:

            That shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll take a look.

            Great, thanks a bunch.

            Nope.

            Bummer. Is it really that specific to explorer.exe? All I want to do is to have active and background windows tinted with different colours, so I can finally stop wondering which window I’m currently interacting with. It sounds like it should really boil down to changing one value in memory, which would hopefully be trivial if you have an evil injection system in place already. Do you have the injection scaffolding you use published somewhere? I kinda don’t want to read through all those “how to inject code in winAPI” writeups, then debug a bunch of code just to recreate something you’ve already done, for a single tiny injection.

            • Do you have the injection scaffolding you use published somewhere?

              Nope, I use plain WinAPI.

              It sounds like it should really boil down to changing one value in memory

              The difficult part is finding that value. Then, you might not even need to do complicated injections – just use WriteProcessMemory to patch the needed code/data.

  32. ᵔ‿ᵔ says:

    This wonderful little hack successfully achieves the god forsaken “Always Combine, SHOW labels” option which Microsoft took away in Vista/7. Just spraying some keywords here to let future searchers know…

  33. Taylor says:

    Ahh! Something to remove the gap between pinned items! AHH! A Show Desktop button remover that actually works~! <3 I love this thing.

    Thanks a lot.

    Will you be able to make it so the gap size can be customised?

    And how about – since I've been toying around here – having an option for "Don't combine grouped items" to still inherit the program's taskbar icon?

  34. rndbit says:

    This is amazing tool. I found it while looking for something that could prevent folders from being grouped, and this tool is almost that. I was wondering if i could request a feature – ability to group everything except for folders. That would be a kicker feature.

  35. Евгений says:

    Есть предложение в настройках
    Двойное нажатие\Средння кнопка
    добавить:
    – автоматическое скрытие панели задач
    – Ctrl+Win+Tab (3D flip)

  36. Евгений says:

    Спасибо за каторжный труд!

  37. Tam-Tam says:

    Thank you for this program. I have problems with moving windows inside Firefox group. You program solve it. Thank you!

  38. Bageste says:

    Hello. Volume control, often opens late. The interface would be great. Please consider it. Thanks.

  39. Bryan says:

    RaMMicHaeL,

    First, thank you for a wonderful utility… just was I was looking for, and I will be sure to give you a donation and to recommend to others.

    Two questions:
    1. Is there any way to search the comments section (so that I don’t ask a question that you have already answered)?
    2. I have “don’t group” selected and have “when not grouping place new items next to the existing ones” unchecked, and for most all apps this works as expected, but when I open a new instance of Excel it opens at the end of taskbar but shifts all my other Excel task buttons to the end as well, so that I have to move them back to where I had them before. Is there an option to prevent this, or is this something that could be fixed in your next 7TT revision?

    Thanks much!

    • 1. I don’t think so.
      2. I’ll see if I can fix it.

      1. I looked at it, and, well, that’s just how Excel works.
        When a second document is opened, Excel removes it’s main taskbar button, and creates one for each document. That’s why they both end up on the right of the taskbar.
        You might want to enable grouping for Excel only, or use two instances of it. Otherwise, it’s something that needs to be fixed in Excel, not the tweaker.
  40. twig says:

    WOW!
    This has evolved so much since I last written a blog post about it.

  41. oroboros says:

    RE Updates:
    Would it be possible to have automatic updates or something similar?

    It would also be great to see the changelogs….!

    BTW, this is kick ass!! 😉

    • Automatic updates would be nice, but requires some coding. I might add it in the future.

      As for the changelog, there’s no detailed one, but there’s this:
      http://rammichael.com/tag/7-taskbar-tweaker
      for x.y versions.
      You can find changes for x.y.z versions (mostly bugfixes) in the comments of this page.

      • oroboros says:

        As for the changelog, I had 3.3.1 and noticed that there was a 3.3.2 out, but I was curious to what was changed. I couldn’t find that info easily anywhere. Once your on the website, it’s not intuitive where to check out the changes are for, I think.

        How about just a simple “Check for updates” which would check against whatever’s available?

  42. Nick says:

    I really like your tool, thank you very much for making it available. Favorite feature so far is probably the right-click dragging to move windows within a group (and by extension, the inspector), good stuff.

    I would like to add a suggestion. Would it be possible to have number overlays show up on pinned icons when you press the windows key? I like the windows feature that enables you to switch to or launch that pinned shortcut (winkey + {num}), but sometimes I don’t remember the number or find it annoying to count. This is made more difficult when a different number of windows or groups are already open.

    Again, thanks for the app.

  43. Ogg Dossev says:

    Hello!

    Great work!

    Do you think it would be possible to start the Tweaker minimized?

    I’ve put it in the startup, modified the shortcut to run minimized, but it still pops up.

    Thank you!

  44. V@no says:

    This a must have addon especially if you have small monitor (laptop).

    There is one issue is bugging me, is when both the “Decombine on hover” and “show labels” activated, the preview thumbnails don’t show any labels. I guess it assumed that the taskbar items already showing it, but when many windows opened there are not enough room at taskbar for the labels..

    Thanks you for this so much needed program!

  45. Федор says:

    Жду с нетерпением версию для Windows 8

  46. Matthias says:

    When the taskbar is moved to the left side of the screen, icons on hovered items disappear until I click on an empty space within the taskbar.

    Thumbnail preview does not work, I get list view instead.

  47. V@no says:

    One more issue:
    When middle click set to close window and one of the decombined windows closed it combines everything.

  48. aLiN says:

    Hello,
    How about an option to scroll under mouse pointer ? It would be very nice to implement it. This way I [ and other users ] will not have to install a different application just for that. Please make this available RaMMicHaeL.

  49. great app, any plans for a windows 8 release, couldnt get it to work on the consumer preview. Thanks

  50. DrAzzy says:

    I’ve been using 7 Taskbar Tweaker since I got windows 7, and I rely on it.

    Last night, it stopped working after rebooting to apply windows updates.

    I now get the error “Could not extract resource” – it then starts, but the most important function doesn’t work – windows still groups taskbar entries by type, instead of chronological order.

    How can I fix this error and get 7TT working again?
    I can’t multitask like this, the taskbar is horrible without 7TT.

    Thanks

Leave a Reply