Can WindowBlinds 7 change the width of the pinned application icons in the Windows 7 taskbar?
Friday, March 12, 2010 by Ricoware | Discussion: WindowBlinds
Hello, I'm liking the new WindowBlinds shareware version so far. Before I renew my sub though, I need to know if the icon width of pinned applications in the Windows 7 taskbar can be changed. I saw the Taskbar.PinnedApp property in a tutorial, but it's not clear that this will do what I want. I pin a lot of apps to the taskbar and I would like to decrease the margins around each.
Ricowan
Reply #2 Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:18 PM
Thank you for your reply! Isn't SkinStudio simply an editor for WindowBlinds though? I guess my question is really "Can a WB7 skin/theme change the width of the pinned app icons?" 
Reply #3 Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:11 PM
pinned apps are and or should be the same size as the taskbar buttons since they both sit on the taskbar, why would you want it longer? it dosent matter how long you make it in skin studio, its still going to only be a certain length when its applied in wb.
Reply #4 Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:12 PM
The Windowblinds are made in Skin Studio, piece by piece. If you are making the Windowblind, you can change the width of the button. All Windowblinds can do is have you choose either small or large icons. You do that by right cliicking on the taskbar, select properties from the menu, In the Taskbar tab, there is an option to use small icons. If you look at any of my Windows 7 blinds, you will see what small icons look like.
Reply #5 Saturday, March 13, 2010 8:14 PM
I don't want the icons to be longer, I want them to be less wide but the same height (I don't like the look of the small icons).
Here's an example of what part of my toolbar looks like right now:
I want it to look like this instead:
Yes, I know the spacing isn't consistent in this example, it's just a quick cutup job. 
I hope everyone can see what I'm asking for now. Can this be done with WindowBlinds (with or without SkinStudio)?? Is there a skin available that does this already? I don't mind making my own skin, I just want to know if it's even possible to do.
By the way, this small example would allow me to have eight icons in the space of six. I have 20 apps currently pinned to my taskbar, so adjusting the width of the icons (for both pinned and running apps) would allow room for six or seven more than I can currently have without Windows creating a second row (which I also don't like).
Thanks for the replies so far!
Reply #6 Saturday, March 13, 2010 8:38 PM
Have you tried what jazzymjr said in comment 1, the text margins control where in button icon is, you can even set margins negative to get button as small as icon, do the same for the taskbar buttons.
Reply #7 Saturday, March 13, 2010 8:43 PM
that would be great if the left and right text margin settings had any effect.......something that doesn't work at the moment
Reply #8 Saturday, March 13, 2010 8:46 PM
If the icons on left are quicklaunch adjust the text margins for them also.
Reply #9 Saturday, March 13, 2010 8:50 PM
Hey 2of3; Ahh, they no workie on Windows 7, is that just pinned or all taskbar buttons. Is it another of those 7 hard coded things.
Taskbar and quickie launch left/right works fine on XP.
Reply #10 Saturday, March 13, 2010 11:35 PM
So.. I guess that means I can't do what I want to do yet? I wish I could try it out, see what works and what doesn't, but my subscription expired a few months ago and I don't want to re-subscribe unless this specific tweak is possible.
Reply #11 Sunday, March 14, 2010 8:27 AM
If you simply want the icons closer together (as opposed to actually making them narrower), you could use the Quick Launch instead. It's a simple tweak available on How To Geek. Not sure why it's not enabled by default. I thought the Windows 7 pinned icons took up too much real estate so I (and many others) went back to the Quick Launch. Here is the link: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/add-the-quick-launch-bar-to-the-taskbar-in-windows-7/
Reply #12 Monday, March 15, 2010 12:02 AM
Thank you, that does indeed take up less space. However, the Aero Peek and jumplist functionality doesn't carry over to the QuickLaunch toolbar and I use them both quite a bit. <sigh> I guess I just have to live with the wasted space until either Microsoft opens it up or StarDock figures out how to adjust it via WindowBlinds.
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
Welcome Guest! Please take the time to register with us.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
- Richer content, access to many features that are disabled for guests like commenting on the forums and downloading skins.
- Access to a great community, with a massive database of many, many areas of interest.
- Access to contests & subscription offers like exclusive emails.
- It's simple, and FREE!
Reply #1 Saturday, March 13, 2010 6:45 AM
Windowblinds itself cannot alter the margins of the icons. That would have to be done in Skin Studio, by setting the text margins of the icon.