Windows 7 displays the taskbar with large icons by default. Large icons look nicer and are easier to reach and interact with. One side effect of large icons is that the height of the Windows taskbar is relatively large, which can be solely attributed to the icon height.

Microsoft has added a simple configuration option to switch from large icons to smaller icons. The main effect is that this change reduces the height of the Windows taskbar considerably.

You will on the other hand notice that smaller icons may reduce visibility and accessibility. The menus, like jumplists or the start menu, on the other hand retain their design and are displayed as before.

Take a look at the two screenshots. The first is showing the taskbar with standard large icons, the second with the smaller icons. The smaller icons are about half the size of the larger ones, not only in height but also in width.

Changing to smaller icons can therefor be interesting for users who have lots of icons pinned or programs open under the operating system.

Here is how you switch the taskbar icons from large to small.

Right-click the Windows taskbar and select Properties from the context menu that opens up. Make sure you right-click on a blank part of the taskbar. You can alternatively right-click the start menu orb, select Properties and switch to the Taskbar tab when the configuration menu opens.

Locate Use small icons and place a checkmark in the box. A click on Apply or OK changes the icon size to small which is immediately visible on the desktop.

Changing the icon size on the taskbar has several advantages. Windows users get more space for open program windows and display more icons on the taskbar at the same time.

The only downside is that the icons themselves are smaller and therefor less visible and accessible on the screen.

Taskbar Resize Tool is a small program for Windows Vista that can alter the heights of individual items in the Windows Vista taskbar. The software requires the installation of the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package (download) before the program can be executed. The software itself comes with a English and Chinese interface.

The software is portable and will display a slider after execution which can be used to change the height of the taskbar items.

A click on the Apply button will change the size of each item immediately. All settings will be reverted after a restart which is why the only option in the program interface is to add the application to system startup.

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.