How to make Window 7 TaskBar thinner when on side of screen

I was searching around in the sevenforums for whatever and found a link to something I've been wanting to do for over a year, but could never find a way to do it. I wanted to make my taskbar, on the side of my screen, thinner. I do not like autohide, but I want it to be as thin as possible.

Then, I found this video:
How to make the Windows 7 Taskbar thin when on the side - YouTube

The 2nd version takes a little bit of tweaking, but it works fantastically. Download the files. Relocate "toggleTaskBarAutoHide.exe" to System32. It just runs the command to toggle the taskbar between autohide off/on. Then all you have to do is run the .bat for the taskbar to be hidden (autohide -off) or showing (autohide -on).

You can create a shortcut for the .bat you prefer and drop it into your %Users\"you"\AppData\Microsoft\Windows\StartMenu\Programs\Startup

The shortcut will need to be given administrator privileges. Right click > properties > Advanced > run as administrator.

Now, I have an SSD and I found that the batch file was running before the necessary boot processes had completed. So, it wasn't working. I instead created a Task in Task Schedule to run it at startup, but to delay for 11seconds. I also set it to run with the highest privileges, since I wasn't running the shortcut in the startup anymore.

Here's the difference:

 

Very nice man, I gave up trying to do this, will give it a shot I guess it should work with TB in the standard position. +1 rep

 

Oh that's nice.

 

Yeah, isn't it?

 

Wasn't this feature in win95?


little experiment....
right click on task-bar
check "use small icons"

 

If you do a search online, you'll find that "small icons" is not the solution to the problem. People who want the thinner taskbar, for the most part, have already selected for small icons.

This is a matter of selecting small icons and then attempting to resize the taskbar to be narrower. It was limited to being wider than the start orb area. There are TONS of forum threads about this exact complaint that many people have. I hope you don't truly think that the solution is as simple as small icons.

Have you rebooted yet?

 

I see now.... How windows manages to **** something they got right back in 1995 I don't know...

 

It is matter of The Balance in the World. If Microsoft creates something good, it must lose smth good too. Hmm... Somewhy it doesn't work with all bad Microsoft creates.

I personally have solution as simple as couple clicks. JUST MOVE IT TO RIGHT SIDE!

All you need is to get used to it. It will take a week or 2 max to stop clicking Start button instead of Close app/window button.
Besides it is actually very good for our F-series laptop where NumPad takes all the place on the right so we need to type working on the left side of laptop.

 

James D - please resize your images, remove them, or attach them as thumbnails.

This thread, and solution, is NOT about "getting used to it". Some of us don't like that the task bar is so wide on the side. Also, the problem occurs for both left and right sides - not just the left. I, personally, do not want my taskbar on the right side. That is the side my eyes scan first. I'd rather it have more useful information. Hence, my elaborate rainmeter setup.

 

Better now?

I know that your thread is good and it took time and other to find it out and write.

I am just saying that it is for people who is against losing precious space on the left. Especially if they have NumPad on the right. So I gave another solution. I know you understand this just don't like that I did not praise you first