Windows 10: How to reduce spacing between icons in the taskbar?

Have my Win10 taskbar on the right side. Set small icons for the task bar.
Is there a way to reduce the space between the icons in the taskbar so I can see more icons?

:)

 

Space allotted to desktop icons

My desktop icons have "extra" space in the name area. Is there a way to reduce this dead space?

 

Windows 10 desktop icons large space

Dear community

After Windows 10 upgrade, I'm having a problem with desktop icons with large space between each other. Not to mention the desktop icons cannot go to the edge of the taskbar or to the edge of right screen. The desktop icons can only be placed like 5 centimeters
from the edge of the taskbar and almost 3 centimeters from the edge of the right screen. Here is the picture with Recycle Bin and Chrome as only icons you can see: http://oi58.tinypic.com/x1dlza.jpg

I want my desktop icons to fit on edge on taskbar as well on edge of right screen like in Windows 7. And I also want not to have a large space between desktop icons, but just the same space between icons like in Windows 7. How can I do that?

 

Hi, not seen anything on that.. yet..

1. Save space:
You can remove things from the taskbar to create space. I assume with the taskbar on the right, you've disabled the Cortana search box already, for example. More here:
14 Ways to Customize the Taskbar in Windows 10

2: Increase space available:
Note the idea of increasing the taskbar's size "Resize the taskbar"

 

Thanks for taking the time to help. I previously saw the link you posted and hid the search and task view icons. That helps. I was just hoping there's a way to decrease the spacing between the taskbar icons to have more icons without that "switch" button appearing and some icons going on to an extended taskbar when I open several programs.

For now, I created a quick launch toolbar to store some less used icons to make space. But I hope someone figures out a way to decrease the spacing of the icons on the taskbar though.

Thanks!

 

Hi, rather than try to fill your taskbar with icons, when programs you launch want to use it, why not
a. Consider a free docked launcher which hides (if you wish) - free, small use of RAM, reliable



STabLauncher
sTabLauncher 2.2.3 free download - Software reviews, downloads, news, free trials, freeware and full commercial software - Downloadcrew

b. Use a good start menu (Classic Shell) - free- correctly expresses a complex start menu with subfolders - which Win 10's doesn't- and has an excellent configurable search field

 

sTabLauncher is a very interesting task launcher that I have not seen before. Seems like it could be a good solution. I never cared for the animated task launchers that increase the size of icons as the cursor hovers over them or do other animated things, so sTabLauncher looks good since it doesn't appear to do animations. I might give it a try after I get my new Win10 PC all set up. Could save one click that the Win10 quick launcher needs to open.

I already installed the Classic Shell in my Win10 PC since I used it with Win8 before. It's the first thing I do for Windows for myself and my friends, since Win8. It's a great program. One really nice thing it does for Win10 is it allows getting back the light gray color for the taskbar which is not available in Win10.

Thanks for your very nice suggestions,

 

Gave sTabLauncher a try but it turned out to be an annoyance for me. When mousing on the screen, sTabLauncher would open when not wanted. Tried it at the top and the bottom of the screen in normal and hidden modes but eventually it would pop up when I moused near the top or the bottom. There is no option to place it on the sides so was not able to try it on the left side (my Win10 taskbar is on the right side).

That experience did point out that "any" launcher that pops up when mousing around the screen won't work for me. I'm going to stay with the Win10 "Quick Launch" toolbar since it only pops up when I click on it. Did learn that the one extra click to display Win10's Quick Launch toolbar "only when I need it", works best for my way of using my PC. Others mileage will vary.

Just sharing my personal experience in case it might help someone,

 

Try changing an option- Options, Behaviour, click Open on Mouse click.

That way you move your mouse to the top of the screen (if that's where it's docked), then click to unhide sTablauncher.

Or, in the same options, change the Open delay. That way it takes longer to open, but can avoid spurious unhiding.

 

Hi Dalchina,

Thanks for your sTabLauncher tip.

I discovered that If I need to click to open a launcher, then clicking Win10's "Quick Launch" works well for me. I'm used to mousing to the right side since all of my Windows (7, 8 and 10) taskbars have been on the right, ever since I started using 16:9 aspect screens. So mousing to the right and clicking there for Quick Launch seems rather natural.

I did find that removing sTabLauncher is rather difficult. Using "Program & Features" to uninstall it still leaves it's icon on the desktop and leaves many remnants in the registry. I manually searched for and deleted sTabLauncher entries in the registry but there are about 4 that I wasn't sure about so did not delete them. After I do my next system backup, I'm going to run CCleaner to see if it can clean the remaining remnants.

It would be really nice if someone comes up with a way to decrease the spacing of the icons on Win10's taskbar. I'm using the small icons but the spacing between them is making the small icons a bit ineffective. Guess Win10 wants a lot of space around the icons for touch screen users, so mouse users are not considered.

Thanks,

 

If Stablauncher doesn't meet your needs, try Launchmate (which I used to use).
LaunchMate Introduction

LaunchMate is the program launcher that will end your search. It can dock to any edge of the screen just like the Windows taskbar. You can organize your programs in up to 50 categories -a sure a way to remove the clutter. LaunchMate is one of the most customizable programs you'll find. One of its standout features is the ability to set the display settings for each program so that when it is launched the screen will change to those settings.

You can have different coloured backgrounds so each category has a different colour. Just a straight rectangular bar with overlaid categories.

 

Get rid of the useless start up apps and customize the start menu with your frequently used programs. Pin them to the start menu instead of the task bar.

 

Suggest it as a feature for 7+ Taskbar Tweaker.

It used to have the option to minimize the spacing between the icons in the Taskbar for Pre-Windows 10 Operating Systems.

 

Hi Dalchina,

Thank you very much for your suggestion. I'll remember this thread and your Launchmate suggestion and return to it if I decide to try another launcher.

For now, I'm going to use the Win10 Quick Launch toolbar and see how it goes. I have moved enough shortcuts from the taskbar to Quick Launch so there is enough room on the taskbar now for multiple tasks to open and placing their icons on the taskbar without the taskbar going into two view mode. Really hated it when that used to happen.

Thanks,

 

Just FI - I found a nifty app called PD Tray Factory. Basically I have one icon for that and I can move whatever I want in the system tray to it leaving only the most frequently used outside of it. It's not the same as expansion of the bar because I can also hide what I want. But if I REALLY need access to something that's normally there that I've hidden, I just double click it and I have the full list to choose from. Still not ideal. I'd love to just get rid of that spacing. Seems ridiculous on a tablet pc when running in PC mode. Would make a lot more sense if it expanded when I flipped the keyboard over and then went back when I was using the PC mode.
What I can't figure out is that I have a desktop where the icons are much closer together. But I have an HP desktop with a touchscreen that has them far apart. It seems to sense whether or not you have a touch screen and adjusts it automatically. If there was a way to just turn that off or set it to use only when in tablet mode, that would solve everythign and should't be too hard. May be even achievable through registry edits but I'm not that good to do it myself.