Windows 10: How to reduce system tray icon spacing?

My Windows 10 system tray looks like http://puu.sh/jB7xz/a2efac640e.png for both large or small taskbar icons. The spacing between systray icons are larger than in previous versions of Windows.


Nearly everyone's screenshots of W10 have systrays that are more like https://i.imgur.com/9BWDddU.jpg


How do I go about changing this? I normally use a vertical taskbar and this http://puu.sh/jB7BD/9b856ff94d.png is driving me nuts.

My DPI's at 100%, and the presence of Cortana and the Task View button don't seem to matter.

:)

 

No emoji keyboard in Windows 10 system tray

Trying to learn how to use emojis and all direct me to the keyboard icon in the system tray. There IS NO keyboard icon in my system tray. How do I get it?

 

System tray icon spacing in WIndows 10

Hi Jason,



Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I understand that you are facing some issue regarding Window 10 system tray icons. Let me help you.



I suggest you to go through the answer provided by Shawn ‘Cmdr’ Keene
and check.

Click on,
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-desktop/tray-icons-reduce-spacing/93991e6b-5c53-4df5-af4e-3bdf3fde17fe



I hope the information helps. If you have further queries, please reply with the details. We will be happy to assist you accordingly.

 

Hi, you need to change how your icons are shown in the notification area.

1. Right click the time on the taskbar
2. Click customize notification icons
3. Settings pane appears, click "select which icons appear on the taskbar
4. Turn off "Always show all icons in the notification area"

 

It's already off. Toggling it doesn't seem to change it (other than what it's supposed to change).

 

It's not possible, due to Touch Screen spacing.

 

That doesn't exactly explain why some people have smaller spacing in between. And when tablet mode is enabled, the spacing becomes even larger.

At this point I'm just suspecting that this is a bug and that the smaller spacing is actually unintended.

 

Even with show all icons enabled, my spacing is more like what's seen in the 2nd screenshot in the OP.

 

What is your resolution it might be based off that, i'm at 1440p and it seems fairly close.

 

There is a work around if you are willing to lose touch screen capability. In Device Manger disable HID-compliant touch screen. If you need touch screen, a powershell script will toggle it fast.

 

xips - What would the PS script be? Denis

 

Are you ready for dependencies? *Smile There are probably many ways to solve this but one method is to import PowerShell Device Management Module. If you have issues see the Q & A tab. Then something like...

Code: Get-PnpDevice | Where-Object { $_.FriendlyName -match 'HID-Compliant Touch Screen' } | Disable-PnpDevice[/quote] This is a quicky I ganked off the net. You can get elegant and go deep, I leave mine off 24/7. First world problems *Smile

DeviceManagement.zip

 

After a closer look at Win 10 Powershell I see it has evolved and the DeviceManager addins are not needed. Big difference between Win 7 PS but I'm learning. The following script toggles touchscreen. If touchscreen is on, it disables it. If touchscreen is off, it attempts to enable it. It requires admin rights and the only qualifying it performs is identifying the touchscreen device. It is quick and dirty and may bomb when PS evolves. Tested and ran in PS ISE.

Code: $TouchScreen = Get-PnpDevice -FriendlyName 'HID-Compliant Touch Screen' if ( $TouchScreen.Status -eq 'OK' ) { $TouchScreen | Disable-PnpDevice -confirm:$false } else { $TouchScreen | Enable-PnpDevice -confirm:$false }[/quote]

 

xips,

Thanks, I'll experiment with it. Oh & thanks for the links as well, they are interesting.

And adding in elevation using one of the links you provided gives this as the final result [tested a few times already and it seems reliable] -

# Escalate privileges if not admin
If (-not ([Security.Principal.WindowsPrincipal][Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent()).IsInRole([Security.Principal.WindowsBuiltInRole] "Administrator")) {
$Arguments = "& '" + $MyInvocation.mycommand.definition + "'"
Start-Process powershell -Verb runAs -ArgumentList $Arguments
Break
}
$TouchScreen = Get-PnpDevice -FriendlyName 'HID-Compliant Touch Screen'
if ( $TouchScreen.Status -eq 'OK' ) { $TouchScreen | Disable-PnpDevice -confirm:$false } else { $TouchScreen | Enable-PnpDevice -confirm:$false }

The system tray icon spacing does close up / open up as the touchscreen is disabled / re-enabled.

Denis