Tweak the taskbar in Windows 8, 8.1 and Windows 7 with hidden secret registry settings

As you might be aware, Windows 7 introduced a redesigned taskbar which abandoned much loved classic features but introduced some really nice improvements like large icons, jump lists, draggable buttons etc. The taskbar does not have many configurable settings exposed in the GUI to tweak its behavior but there are some hidden secret registry settings which you can fine-tune.

We already saw previously how you can bring back all the classic taskbar behavior and power user features using the excellent third party app called 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. But if you don't wish to run an app constantly in the background, there are still some useful taskbar tweaks that you may find useful. Here are some of them (note that you must restart the Explorer.exe shell for any of these to take effect):

All of the values are DWORD values and it's easier to set them in decimals. So be sure to switch from hex to decimals when setting all these DWORD values in the Registry. If you are not comfortable with registry editing, see this primer.

• When taskbar button grouping (combining) is on, you can make the taskbar switch to the last active program window in the group with a single click using this registry tweak. A DWORD value data of 1 means it will switch to the last active window in the group, 0 means it won't switch to the last active window but will instead show you the list of thumbnails to choose from.

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
  "LastActiveClick"=dword:00000001

• The next registry value controls the time after which taskbar thumbnails show when the mouse hovers over a taskbar button. In this example, I set it to show the thumbnail after 850 milliseconds of hovering over any taskbar button (It's a DWORD value to be adjusted in decimals).
  

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
  "ExtendedUIHoverTime"=dword:00000352

• The following registry value is the time in milliseconds after which hovering over the thumbnail shows you a preview of that app (Aero Peek). I have set this DWORD value to 3000 milliseconds (3 seconds) so it will show me the live preview only after hovering over the thumbnail for 3 seconds. You can enter your own value in milliseconds, after switching from hex to decimals.

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
  "ThumbnailLivePreviewHoverTime"=dword:00000bb8

• The following registry value completely disables the live switching (Aero Peek) behavior when you hover over the thumbnails, if you set the value data to 1, meaning the live switching won't occur.
  

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
  "DisablePreviewWindow"=dword:00000001

• The next registry value controls the time after which the Desktop shows when you hover over the Show Desktop button at the end of the taskbar. I have set this DWORD value to 400 milliseconds.

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
  "DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime"=dword:00000190

• The following registry value changes the threshold after which the thumbnails turn into a list. I have set this to 1 meaning for a single app window, it will show a thumbnail but for more than 2 grouped apps or group of tabs (in case of browsers like IE or Firefox), it will show a list.
  

  Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
  
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband]
  "NumThumbnails"=dword:00000001

In case you are curious how the list looks vs thumbnails, see the following image:

There are other tweakable registry values too, for example, a set of values exist to tweak the size of taskbar thumbnails but we already have an easy to use GUI tool to control them in Winaero Tweaker:

We also have many other tools for the taskbar: Taskbar Pinner for Windows 7 to allow you to pin more stuff to the taskbar than what Windows allows. For Windows 8/8.1, use Pin to 8 which does the same thing.

If you wish to make the Windows 8/8.1 taskbar non-transparent, use the option "Opaque taskbar" of Winaero Tweaker:

You can also pin Modern apps to the taskbar although once you launch them they won't show on the taskbar until Windows 8.1 Update 1 arrives.

For all our taskbar related tips and tricks, follow this link.

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