Open windows in the Windows Taskbar are always starting on the left side if the taskbar itself is located at the top or bottom of the computer screen. Each window in the Taskbar has a maximum and minimum size. A few open windows usually means that part of the Windows Taskbar is not displaying anything and that the user has to move the mouse to the left side of the screen to interact with the open windows.
What many users do not know is that it is possible to change the size of each Windows Taskbar item so that all of the space of the taskbar will be used no matter if one or ten windows are open. This option can be activated in the Windows Registry. To go there press [Windows R], type [regedit] and press [enter].
Locate the Registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Double-click the entry MinWidth and change the default value of 154 pixel to one reflecting the current monitor resolution. You should always subtract about 300 from the monitor resolution and enter this as the value. Users with a resolution of 1024×768 would pick 724, those with 1280×1024 could select 1000 and those with 1920×1200 could select 1620.
Before:
After:
You can naturally select a different minimum size for each taskbar item depending on your preferences. The setting will have no effect on taskbars that are aligned vertically. The computer has to be rebooted for the changes to take effect. This has been tested on a Windows XP SP3 test system.
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9 Responses to “Change The Size Of Windows Taskbar Items”
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Hello Martin!
You may have been asked the question like a million time (and maybe by me once) but what’s your xp theme?
It think it’s Gant something but I can’t remember the rest of the theme name.
Thanks for your help and all my best wishes for 2009 !
Hey, I was wondering something since I read another post about a program that shortens task bar items to just an icon.
When I used that program I always had the icon and one annoying letter. I also tried using this regedit trick, but I still get that lone letter that appears with all my task bar items even when I shorten the value to 3.
I’m using windows xp sp2, Zune theme, res 1024×768. Think there are any reg edits I can use to get rid of that one annoying letter? Even if it means removing all of the text but keeping the icon.
Thank you in advance, love the site by the way :)
Chris C here you go: http://www.ghacks.net/2009/01/02/windows-7-like-taskbar-in-windows-xp/
Kazounet the theme is called OpusOS.
Thank you again Martin :-)
hi martin, great tip thanks a lot, but.. do you know if there’s a way to center the text of the windows taskbar items? once I have the (let’s call em) tabs wider, the text (when short) is all on the left and imho it’s not cool at all… any help really appreciated, 10x again
Roy, I have not heard about a way to do this.
Hi Martin,
Is there a way to adjust the overall height of the task bar itself. I wanted to make my Title Bar larger in the display properties, but makes my Task bar larger also.