Windows 10: How to make taskbar labels wider?

I always have labels showing in my taskbar so I can see exactly what I have open with the titles of each spreadsheet for example listed in my taskbar rather than hidden behind an icon.

However it is frustrating how narrow the labels are because the titles are always cut off. This is more of a problem when document have log prefix's.

Does anyone know if this can be edited at all? I know that it can't be edited just using settings.

:)

 

Icon missing from Shortcut in Taskbar

I want to have a shortcut button on the Taskbar to open the Control Panel. I added a Control Panel shortcut to the Desktop and dragged it to the Taskbar. That created a Control Panel button/shortcut on the Taskbar, but the button/shortcut has no icon -
it is just blank.

I have set the Taskbar setting for "Combine Taskbar buttons" to "Always, hide labels". If I change this setting to show the labels, the label for this Taskbar shortcut includes a small Control Panel icon. But it disappears when the setting is changed back
to hide labels.

My other buttons/shortcuts in the Taskbar and in the Notification area all have appropriate icons.

How can I get an icon for the Control Panel in the Taskbar? I did have one displaying properly until I reset Windows 10.

 

Just Icons on the Task Bar

Hi,

To hide the labels,

Right-click the taskbar>Taskbar Settings.

Under Show Labels, choose Never show labels from the dropdown.

 

How do you make them wider?

Well, you might try this trick- but no guarantees as it was for Win 7. But the registry key is still there.

*Arrow Change Width of Taskbar Buttons in Windows Windows 10 Tutorials

As ever, make a backup before trying such changes, at least of the key, and a system restore point as well.

 

Thank you very much. It works fine in Windows 10, a very easy tweak.

 

Good, bear in mind any such changes will be overridden when you upgrade, so keep the reg file aside to reapply as necessary.

 

I've written a very simple GUI that may help.

• It uses a slider to adjust the label width value.
• It shows the width values as the slider is moved.
• It creates the 'MinWidth' registry key if it doesn't exist.
• It changes the 'TaskbarGlomLevel' registry key that can prevent the setting from working.
• It offers a choice of whether to immediately sign out.

I created it using AutoHotkey (to give me practise using a slider control) so you'll need this installed if you just use the script itself [use a 'Custom install' and choose the '32-bit (Recommended)' option]. I've tested it with Windows 10 Home 1709 Build 16299.125 x64.

The script is as follows (and heavily commented - anything after a semi-colon [;] is a comment):
Code: ; Prompted by Always, Sometimes, or Never Combine Taskbar Buttons in Windows 10 #SingleInstance Force ; Only allow one instance of the script to run at a time #NoTrayIcon ; Prevent showing a tray icon ; Allow registry commands in a 32-bit script to access redirected keys in the 64-bit registry view and vice versa ; Thanks to qwerty12 (see Unable to write registry key/value - AutoHotkey Community) SetRegView 64 ; TaskbarGlomLevel settings: 0 = Always combine, hide labels; 1 = Combine when taskbar is full; 2 = Never combine (the only setting which can be used) RegWrite, REG_DWORD, HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced, TaskbarGlomLevel, 2 RegRead, SliderVal, HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics, MinWidth ; Read the current width setting and store it in a variable if ErrorLevel ; i.e. if it doesn't exist { RegWrite, REG_SZ, HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics, MinWidth, 38 ; ... then create default value SliderVal = 38 ; ... and store it in a variable } ; Set up the GUI slider Gui, Add, Slider, x32 y30 w350 h50 gSliderUpdate vSliderVal Range38-500 ToolTipTop TickInterval10 Thick20, %SliderVal% Gui, Add, Text, x10 y34 w25 h40 , 38`n(Min) Gui, Add, Text, x380 y34 w50 h40 , 500`n(Max) Gui, Add, Text, x50 y10 w420 h20 , The current label width is %SliderVal%. Use the slider to make changes. Gui, Add, Button, x90 y80 w90 h30 , Cancel Gui, Add, Button, x250 y80 w90 h30 , OK Gui, Show, w420 h120, Taskbar Labels - Width Changer return SliderUpdate: ; Update the text control with new value when slider is released GuiControl, Text, Static3 , The current label width is %SliderVal%. Use the slider to make changes. return ButtonOK: ; What happens if the OK button is clicked MsgBox , 36, Commit change now?, You need to sign out/sign in for the change to take effect.`n`nSign out now? IfMsgBox, Yes { RegWrite, REG_SZ, HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics, MinWidth, %SliderVal% SetRegView, Default ; Set the registry back to its default Run shutdown -L,, hide ; Log user off immediately } IfMsgBox, No { RegWrite, REG_SZ, HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics, MinWidth, %SliderVal% ; Write the new value to the registry SetRegView, Default ; Set the registry view back to its default ExitApp ; Close the script } return ButtonCancel: ; What happens if the Cancel button is clicked GuiClose: ; Close the GUI without making any changes ExitApp ; Close the script[/quote] Just copy the code above and paste it into Notepad then save it as something like Taskbar Label - Width Changer.ahk. (Make sure the filename ends with .ahk, not .txt.)

Alternatively, I've attached a Taskbar Labels - Width Changer.zip file with both the .AHK script itself and a compiled version with custom icon.

VirusTotal - analysis for the script.
VirusTotal - analysis for the compiled exe. (Note the 2 warnings, which are false positives, and the comments.)

Hope this helps...

 

Just copy the code above and paste it into Notepad then save it as something like Taskbar Label - Width Changer.ahk. (Make sure the filename ends with .ahk, not .txt.)

Alternatively, I've attached a Taskbar Labels - Width Changer.zip file with both the .AHK script itself and a compiled version with custom icon.

VirusTotal - analysis for the script.
VirusTotal - analysis for the compiled exe. (Note the 2 warnings, which are false positives, and the comments.)

Hope this helps...[/quote] Wow, that's impressive! Thanks very much. It makes a huge difference to be able to see the file names when you have lots of windows open.