Taskbar Iconizer: Utility to Iconize Taskbar in Windows XP and Vista

Recently we posted a small tutorial on how to get Windows 7 Iconized Taskbar feature in Windows XP and Vista:

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

The above tutorial shows how you can get the iconized taskbar easily by modifying Windows registry.

And now we are very pleased to announce that our very close friend "Solo-Dev" aka "Villain" has created a very small standalone utility exclusively for AskVG.com readers which can do the same task automatically.

"Taskbar Iconizer" is a small portable tool which uses the same registry trick to provide iconized taskbar feature in XP and Vista. You just need to download the file, run it and it'll show following window:

Simply click on the right-side image which shows "Windows 7 Type Iconized" and you have done. You'll need to log off or restart the system to take affect.

To restore default settings, click on the left-side image.

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This article was posted in Software Zone, Windows Vista, Windows XP.

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63 Comments

hexaae

Yes, I've read it and I'm the first to say it's very strange it could have corrupted my registry as a collateral effect.... When I'll recover my backup I'll try again this hack and report back here if has been this the cause (= if it happens again right after this hack).
hexaae

Well, after many looong tests (HP Recovery to the original laptop defaults with nothing extra installed etc.) I have the final word about the problem: it's a Vista bug!
It starts with the folder buttons on the taskbar showing the correct icon for the folder you're in... at this point if you keep these folders open and start copying back and forth many files simulteneously Vista will loose this feature and will start showing the "ugly icon" for all open folders! I've done nothing to alter themes, icons and the rest. No hacks or patches. Just used it after a clean reinstall and noticed that without apparent reason it looses this feature!
Win7 Iconizer has nothing to do with it actually (as expected)...

Would be great if you could find a way to re-establish this feature and what goes wrong in the registry, cache or whatsoever after a while. Very very strange indeed....
VG

^^ Glad to know it was not due to iconizer hack. There are many such bugs in Vista which can't be fixed.
hexaae

...At least I hope I don't have a HP corrupt version of Vista (you know, they add a lot of useless pre-installed trash) which causes this weird trouble...

Just for curiosity, it is the same for you? When you enter sub folders the icon in the folder button on the taskbar gets correctly changed reflecting the folder icon you're in at the moment? Or does it use what I call the "ugly image" for all folders (even C: root)?
hexaae

This bug has been confirmed on a forum by other Vista users too!
Priest

Hi guys, I just recently did this as well, I like the clean look it gives, but as most people have discovered, as soon as I changed visual styles I noticed I had one letter visible after the icon.

The fix for this is in fact not a terribly big deal. The VS I used simply had the icons spaced a bit closer because it used a slightly more compact font for labels than most Luna or Vista based styles.

To fix it, simply go to advanced appearance settings and increase the Horizontal Icon Spacing by a few pixels, that will push the text back out to the right beyond the area affected by the registry change.

Here's a pic :: http://xs840.xs.to/xs840/09255/fix512.png

Hope that helps ^^
VG

^^ Very nice.
iWolf

Hi, i have been using this tool for a while now, however today when i started my computer up, my icons looked like this:

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/7830/damnthis.jpg

Can you tell me how i can sort out this horrid problem please?
iWolf

They were much wider last night.
VG

^^ Did you change the theme? It depends upon the theme.