Also check free tools to get iconized Taskbar: Taskbar Iconizer and Taskbaric
Windows 7 taskbar doesn't show text in application buttons, it only show their icons. On the other hand previous Windows versions used to show icon as well as text in all application's taskbar buttons.
Actually Windows 7 new iconized taskbar feature looks good and it also saves space in taskbar area. If you want to have the same feature in Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003, 2008, etc, then you can get it after following a few simple and easy steps.
Before applying this tutorial:

After applying this tutorial:
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So here are the steps to follow:
1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box and press Enter. It'll open Registry Editor. Now go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
2. In right-side pane, create a new String value MinWidth and set its value to -255

3. That's it. Log off or restart your system and get ready to have iconized taskbar in your system.
4. To restore default taskbar behavior, delete the MinWidth String value and log off or restart your system.
PS: If you want a ready-made registry script which can do the task automatically, then download following ZIP file, extract it and then run the Install.reg file. It'll ask for confirmation, accept it:
This article was posted by VG in following section: Windows Vista, Windows XP.
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Talha Rana
i spend my more than 12 hours in a day on a desktop with windows 2000 on and rest of the time on xp/vista and i am not able to make any changes in windows 2000 which is so disappointing these changes should also work on window2000 which is the first complete operating system any help will be appreciated.Thanks
VG
^^ I have not checked it on Windows 2000 but it should work. Did you try the ready-made registry script?
Sabeur
Thanks much needed
palz2015
Um.. VG
In XP, it shows the first character...
Any way to fix that?
VG
^^ Its a problem in theme. If you use SevenVG R2 theme, you'll not face this problem.
TimM
VG this really rocks, I was using a vtp and have abandoned it for your excellent work and easy instructions, thanks!
But one thing: I like the bottom panel in the windows but is there a way to have it display the details? It displays in the side panel but not in the bottom. In otherwords I would really rather have a bottom details pane than a bottom common tasks pane.
VG
^^ Sorry but its not possible because of XP limitations.
senthil kumar
hey...how come you are so good at this....?......i am very glad to visit your site man...so cooooool............
VG
^^ Thats a concept image not real.
solnyshok
set MinWidth to 54 if you want icons to be centered nicely.