Get Windows 7 Iconized (Icon Only) Taskbar Feature in Windows XP and Vista

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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:

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:

Download Registry Script

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This article was posted by VG in following section: Windows Vista, Windows XP.

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Lek

Thanks VG you rock! got my pc with a new GUI and yet the same good old reliable stable xp!
Paul

i did this but now i wanna undo it an idk how any help
Paul

i did this but now i wanna undo it an idk how any help
VG

^^ Simply delete the MinWidth DWORD.
Carl

Its really cool..but i have problem with the taskbar button (image of the taskbar button is not as big as Windows 7 that it fits in the box but it is like the old vista..) Please help me..hehe its actually nice only the taskbar button image does not fit in th box or its designed box.

Thnx..

More power VG ^_^
VG

^^ Its a limitation of Windows. You can use ViGlance.
Dasher928

What if you click install and it keeps saying that " Registry Editing has been disabled by your administrator " then what do i have 2 do?? please help me... please??
Nick

I cannot seem to get the button size any bigger. I cannot extract the RAR files. windows says it is not a valid Win32 application
Karim

yo it didn't work every time i open the styler i only find windows Xp
geoff

On windows 7, Do u know how to make the icons on the taskbar back into little bars like on windows vista?