Windows 7 What makes a vertical taskbar become narrow?

[loweb1]

I keep my taskbar on the right side of my screen, usually with auto-hide on, and I've noticed that after a while (maybe a day or two?) the taskbar becomes narrow.

I really like it narrow like this.

It's just barely wide enough to show the time, not wide enough to show the date, and the orb is just a little wider than the bar itself. I think it looks great, but I can't figure out how it got that way.

If I play with the size of it at all by dragging the width then it will revert back to the 'wide' version despite my attempts to drag it back to the narrow version. Then after some time it will randomly become narrow again.

I'm using the RTM version, by the way.

 

[nehoma]

after dragging it to the size that you want click on "Lock Taskbar" report back please

 

[loweb1]

Locking taskbar

Locking the taskbar doesn't shrink it down to the narrow size for me. It stays whatever size it was when I locked it which is still the wide size.

 

[nehoma]

Shrink it down to the size that you want it and then lock the task bar.

 

[loweb1]

Narrow Taskbar

Maybe I'm not explaining this correctly.

In my first post I attached two screenshots, one of a taskbar that was about half the width of the other.

When 'Lock the taskbar' is unclicked and I'm resizing the width of the taskbar with the mouse by 'grabbing' the edge and dragging it wider or slimmer, the smallest I can make it is as wide as the wider of the two screenshots I posted. Trying to drag the edge of the taskbar closer to the edge of the screen has no more effect once I reach that limit.

At this point if I enable 'Lock the taskbar' I'll no longer be able to resize the taskbar (as expected) and the taskbar will remain whatever size it was.... for a while.

Eventually (I don't know how long it takes, or what makes it happen) the taskbar will become narrow seemingly all on its own when I'm not watching (I have autohide on).

I want to know why that happens.

Is everyone but me able to make they're taskbar as thin as the narrow one in the screenshot I posted whenever they want?

 

[nehoma]

Right gotcha! No I cannot make my task bar that thin. It may do it in auto hide will try.
If I select small icons and auto hide it is nearly as thin as your thin one.

 

[loweb1]

Ok, cool. Thanks for the help.

 

[rickersilva]

I have same dream of yours. I really love my task bar when it becomes narrow, half the size of the standard vert taskbar.

I have a clue at whats going on. I don't htink it's randomly. It always happen to me when I log throu logmein and the pseudo-video driver it uses is activated.

Any way if anybody knows how to trick it tokeep it narrow. well, what a goal.

 

[brandnewsimmy]

I have noticed the same thing. It appears to me that every time I play a game and it changes my resolution when I exit the game and go back to my desktop my taskbar is narrow.

 

[loweb1]

I keep mine the same as your narrowest shot. It is on Auto-hide. After I made the size I wanted, I locked it... it just stays. Admittedly it is on the bottom but, I can't see that making any difference. Right click on it > Properties & lock it in there after it's how you want it.

Yeah when I have mine on the bottom it works like that too, it's only when it's on the side that I have an issue.

I have noticed the same thing. It appears to me that every time I play a game and it changes my resolution when I exit the game and go back to my desktop my taskbar is narrow.

Oh! I never thought about resolution changes being the trigger... I'll try this once I get home.

 

[biddy79uk]

Yeah when I have mine on the bottom it works like that too, it's only when it's on the side that I have an issue.

Same here guys,
When its on the botom & i use (small icons) it goes really narrow,
BUT...as soon as i drag it over to the right side of my monitor it reverts back to the normal half inch thick taskbar !!!
Hrrrmmm Strangeee

Oh! I never thought about resolution changes being the trigger... I'll try this once I get home.

I cant see the resolution making any difference at all mate,
The resolution is for "screen only" i mean of course your taskbar is going to shrink to keep in sync with your resolution choice
but its not going to be the same as the way the O.P means (ie) NOT the same way he gets it don.

 

[reghakr]

I believe it's do to the fact that most all monitors are longer horizontally than vertically

Just a guess,. but it seems to make sense. Most monitors today are widesceen.

 

[drange17]

I have a solution that I am using right now. I spent hours coding this and am very satisfied that it works perfectly for me. Go ahead and use it if you want, just credit me (drange17) if you wanna post this code online in forums. I would like to, in turn, credit Link Removed - Invalid URL for the code for ConsoleSend.

Firstly, I placed a shortcut to Command Prompt called "cmd.lnk" in C:\Program Files\. I go to this shortcut's properties>>shortcut tab>>advanced>>enable run as administrator.

Secondly, I downloaded Link Removed - Invalid URL and put it to run at startup (place a shortcut to AutoHotkey in the Start Menu Startup folder), with the following code (which is definitely not very elegant, I'm sure someone can do better, but it does the job of narrowing the vertical taskbar for me):

Sleep, 15000
SendInput {LWin Down}r{LWin Up}
IfWinExist, Run
    WinActivate
    Sleep, 500
    SendInput {Raw}RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 1
    SendInput {Enter}
WinWait, Taskbar and Start Menu Properties
    SendInput {Tab}{Space}{Enter}
WinWaitClose
    Run C:\Program Files\cmd.lnk
WinWait, Administrator: cmd ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass
winwaitactive Administrator: cmd ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass
ConsoleSend("net stop uxsms", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
ConsoleSend("`r", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
Sleep, 3000
ConsoleSend("net start uxsms", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
ConsoleSend("`r", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
Sleep, 3000
ConsoleSend("exit", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
ConsoleSend("`r", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
WinWaitClose
SendInput {LWin Down}r{LWin Up}
IfWinExist, Run
    WinActivate
Sleep, 500
SendInput {Raw}RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 1
SendInput {Enter}
WinWait, Taskbar and Start Menu Properties
SendInput {Tab}{Space}{Enter}
Run outlook.exe
ConsoleSend(text, WinTitle="", WinText="", ExcludeTitle="", ExcludeText="")
{
    WinGet, pid, PID, %WinTitle%, %WinText%, %ExcludeTitle%, %ExcludeText%
    if !pid
        return false, ErrorLevel:="window"
    if !DllCall("AttachConsole", "uint", pid)
        return false, ErrorLevel:="AttachConsole"
    hConIn := DllCall("CreateFile", "str", "CONIN$", "uint", 0xC0000000
                , "uint", 0x3, "uint", 0, "uint", 0x3, "uint", 0, "uint", 0)
    if hConIn = -1
        return false, ErrorLevel:="CreateFile"
    VarSetCapacity(ir, 24, 0)       ; ir := new INPUT_RECORD
    NumPut(1, ir, 0, "UShort")      ; ir.EventType := KEY_EVENT
    NumPut(1, ir, 8, "UShort")      ; ir.KeyEvent.wRepeatCount := 1
    Loop, Parse, text ; for each character in text
    {
        NumPut(Asc(A_LoopField), ir, 14, "UShort")
        NumPut(true, ir, 4, "Int")  ; ir.KeyEvent.bKeyDown := true
        gosub ConsoleSendWrite
        NumPut(false, ir, 4, "Int") ; ir.KeyEvent.bKeyDown := false
        gosub ConsoleSendWrite
        Sleep, 10
    }
    gosub ConsoleSendCleanup
    return true
    ConsoleSendWrite:
        if ! DllCall("WriteConsoleInput", "uint", hconin, "uint", &ir, "uint", 1, "uint*", 0)
        {
            gosub ConsoleSendCleanup
            return false, ErrorLevel:="WriteConsoleInput"
        }
    return
    ConsoleSendCleanup:
        if (hConIn!="" && hConIn!=-1)
            DllCall("CloseHandle", "uint", hConIn)
        DllCall("FreeConsole")
    return
}

Here is the result: (Click thumbnail to expand image)