Taskbar customization in Windows 7

[Customods]

Hello,

In Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit whenever i open more than 13 windows within an application,
in this case Mozilla Firefox, the windows become condensed vertically, no longer showing the
pages themselves, only the title of each window. Is it possible to customize it so that it
shows up to 26 windows on two horizontal rows (13 on each row)?

See photoshopped examples below to see what I mean:





Thanks

 

[Jonathan_King]

Welcome!

I believe there is. Right-click on the taskbar and select Properties. Tell it to Never Combine in the resulting window.

 

[Customods]

Hi Jonathan_King,

Unfortunately that has no effect on increasing the number of horizontal rows. All it does is expand each window to it's own taskbar tab as opposed to having them all grouped together for each individual application. As soon as 14 Firefox windows are opened the arrangement changes from horizontal to vertical and the little thumbnails for each window are condensed into just the title names.

Is it at all possible? If not, is there any way to modify it myself? I don't have any programming knowledge...

 

[KremmenUK]

Not sure whether this will help:

http://www.sevenforums.com/customization/22606-make-taskbar-never-combine-but-hide-labels.html

Removes the wide buttons with text - far neater IMO

 

[Customods]

Not really, but it's a step in the right direction. I suppose the solution to my problem is to modify the registry? I'd contact the OP there on how to do this but it seems he doesn't frequent this forum

Is there anyone on this forum i could get in touch with that would know how to do this?

 

[Customods]

The maximum number of thumbnails that are displayed for any given application in the taskbar is directly proportionate to the screen resolution Windows 7 is running at. So in my case i'm running at a maximum resolution of 1680X1050 which currently nets me a maximum of 13 viewable thumbnails per application. If I exceed that amount, like i said, the arrangement is then automatically changed to a scrunched vertical list without the thumbnails present. I've also tested this on my HDTV capable of 1920X1080, and the maximum was 15 thumbnails. My goal is 25+ on two rows @ a resolution of 1680X1050.

After a couple hours of googling around the net i came across a thread that explains how windows does this. I don't know if i'm allowed to post the link, so i'll just quote the OP:

"every time your mouse hovers over a button, explorer makes some calculations based on your resolution, and makes a second value of maximum thumbnails to show (which is 10 on a 1280x1024 resolution). Then it takes the smaller of the two, and if you have more buttons than this value, it shows a list instead.

To change the default value, which is 16, create the following value in your registry:
NumThumbnails as a DWORD in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband

And set it to the desired maximum number of thumbnails to show."


I've created that value in the registry, set it to 24, rebooted and still no dice, stuck on 13. Anyone here got any ideas?

 

[kookster]

You might also need to adjust this setting in firefox to allow more tabs. I believe firefox will only allow 20 as the default. To change this follow these steps:

1. Open up firefox
2. Type in the address bar "about:config"
3. Click "I will be careful, I promise"
4. Type in the filter bar "browser.taskbar.previews.max"
5. Right click on "browser.taskbar.previews.max" and select modify
6. Set it to the max amount of previews you want.
7. Close and restart firefox.

 

[kookster]

Hmmm I checked that registry edit I don't think its correct, but can someone double check that.

 

[kookster]

So i tried both my self, it might have to do with there being a minimum resolution to the previews. In other words the more previews you have the smaller they get, and windows wont allow them to get smaller than a certain size. That's just my guess.

 

[valtonray]

i can't think of a single instance where this could be a problem for me. why would you need that many instances of any program open?

 

[kookster]

its not instances of the program, its firefox's tabs. It displays them in the preview. so if you have 12 tabs open it will show all 12 tabs in the preview

 

[Customods]

@kookster, No, IT IS instances of a program, NOT firefox tabs. I hope we're all clear on that. I'm just using firefox as an example.

@valtonray, I play online poker and i need to be able to preview all 24 tables at the same time as thumbnails so that i know when i'm sitting out at certain tables, waiting in line, no longer sitting, etc. And scrolling thru 24 tables one by one is time consuming and tedious.

 

[Prisoner]

Simple solution for that: Don't play 24 tables. Other than that, hope you figure it out, I personally think it's impossible... Good luck.

 

[Thorsen]

I think the registry key is just for the default max number of preview screens. this number is diregarded if the resolution calculation says to change to list after 13. I dont know if any developers here know how to edit the explorer.exe so I don't know if you can change this.

 

[Thorsen]

Oh btw...If you are playing 24 tables for Money and making a living doing that then mad props. If you are just playing for fun, then you my friend are an expert at multislacking

 

[Thorsen]

Quote: "every time your mouse hovers over a button, explorer makes some calculations based on your resolution, and makes a second value of maximum thumbnails to show (which is 10 on a 1280x1024 resolution). Then it takes the smaller of the two, and if you have more buttons than this value, it shows a list instead."

This calc. might be made to prevent the previews from running off the page and is not programmed to show rows of previews so you cant have 13-wide\2-tall you would just be capped at 13....even if you get it to force show 24 previews, it might center them all on one row and you will still see only 13 of then as those fit on the screen the first 5½ and last 5½ of previews will run of screen

 

[Customods]

Well this may seem obvious, but Alt+Tab allows me to view as many thumbnailed windows as my heart desires performing the function i was looking for. I also came across a free application called WinExposé which is a windows clone of a Mac OS X feature that allows you to view all your opened windows as thumbnails in one neatly arranged full-screen page.

 

[Thorsen]

Have you tried the windows-key + Tab ? it is awesome....

 

[Customods]

Never tried that b4, thx. Pretty cool for browsing through a photo album. I'm still learning my way around Windows 7, very different from XP.

 

[Thorsen]

Ok so I switched to 64x so some of my stuff didn't work I am lining up a whole new list here is what I am keeping from my last list of progs:

Autoruns
Process Explorer
Eraser
Firefox
Winamp
ALZip
ALShow
ALSee
WoW!!!!! lol
CCleaner
SuperAntiSpyware <--recently replaced with MSE