Unevenly sized icons in Windows 7 taskbar
September 23, 2013 6:55 AM Subscribe
I'm having an odd issue with the display of the Windows 7 taskbar.
In Windows XP, the taskbar would always display the current task icons all the same size (for a given number of icons - they would obviously become smaller as I opened more windows). It would also display the same number of icons per line, unless it was an odd number of windows, in which case one line had one more, and one line had an open space.
In Windows 7, I'm getting icons that are different sizes on each line, and that aren't splitting evenly. See the current example: the icons in the top row are smaller than in the bottom, and there are 13 on top, 11 on the bottom.
Is there anything I can do to change this? I find it surprisingly irritating.
In Windows XP, the taskbar would always display the current task icons all the same size (for a given number of icons - they would obviously become smaller as I opened more windows). It would also display the same number of icons per line, unless it was an odd number of windows, in which case one line had one more, and one line had an open space.
In Windows 7, I'm getting icons that are different sizes on each line, and that aren't splitting evenly. See the current example: the icons in the top row are smaller than in the bottom, and there are 13 on top, 11 on the bottom.
Is there anything I can do to change this? I find it surprisingly irritating.
height: although it doesn't seem like it, they're all the same height.
width: the width of single programs vary because windows is trying to fill up and make use of all the space available. So the width of single programs on the second line is wider because there are less programs/tabs of a single program listed there.
icon: If you mean the program icons (the envelopes for mail, speech bubbles for chat, etc) are different sizes, that's not accurate either. The icons for the same program (mail) are the same size between both lines. Any other size differences is just dependent on how the graphic designer made that icon.
Here's the bars if you place them side by side. There's a missing pixel of dark/black under each icon from the second bar that might be contributing to the illusion that they're a different size then the first bar.
You might fare better if you try using the icon-only option. There are a couple of options you can play around with if you right click an empty part of your taskbar and select "properties"
posted by royalsong at 7:30 AM on September 23, 2013
width: the width of single programs vary because windows is trying to fill up and make use of all the space available. So the width of single programs on the second line is wider because there are less programs/tabs of a single program listed there.
icon: If you mean the program icons (the envelopes for mail, speech bubbles for chat, etc) are different sizes, that's not accurate either. The icons for the same program (mail) are the same size between both lines. Any other size differences is just dependent on how the graphic designer made that icon.
Here's the bars if you place them side by side. There's a missing pixel of dark/black under each icon from the second bar that might be contributing to the illusion that they're a different size then the first bar.
You might fare better if you try using the icon-only option. There are a couple of options you can play around with if you right click an empty part of your taskbar and select "properties"
posted by royalsong at 7:30 AM on September 23, 2013
Response by poster: Maybe I wasn't clear, my apologies. Understood that the height is the same, and that Win7 groups associated icons and leaves a little space between them. But there is a clear difference in icon width between the two lines that I don't expect.
Take a look at what is up currently. Look at the fifth icon on the top (an Outlook email starting with 07535) and the fourth icon on the bottom (a Lotus Sametime message to a person named Carvell). They both start at almost the point, but the Sametime icon is clearly extending farther right than the Outlook icon. You can see the same if you look at the rightmost icons - the top row Outlook icon is narrower than bottom row Trillian message icon.
I do pin some of my heavily used programs, but I don't care for Aero Peek and prefer to see what is open in the taskbar. If the width variance is a designed change in behavior from XP, okay, but it's not one I expected.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:50 AM on September 23, 2013
Take a look at what is up currently. Look at the fifth icon on the top (an Outlook email starting with 07535) and the fourth icon on the bottom (a Lotus Sametime message to a person named Carvell). They both start at almost the point, but the Sametime icon is clearly extending farther right than the Outlook icon. You can see the same if you look at the rightmost icons - the top row Outlook icon is narrower than bottom row Trillian message icon.
I do pin some of my heavily used programs, but I don't care for Aero Peek and prefer to see what is open in the taskbar. If the width variance is a designed change in behavior from XP, okay, but it's not one I expected.
posted by Chrysostom at 7:50 AM on September 23, 2013
That difference is due to what royalsong pointed out:
width: the width of single programs vary because windows is trying to fill up and make use of all the space available. So the width of single programs on the second line is wider because there are less programs/tabs of a single program listed there.
As long as you have space to do so, Windows is going to try to display as much of the associated icon text as possible. Switching to icon-only would fix that, but you'd get less info, obviously.
posted by donnagirl at 8:03 AM on September 23, 2013
width: the width of single programs vary because windows is trying to fill up and make use of all the space available. So the width of single programs on the second line is wider because there are less programs/tabs of a single program listed there.
As long as you have space to do so, Windows is going to try to display as much of the associated icon text as possible. Switching to icon-only would fix that, but you'd get less info, obviously.
posted by donnagirl at 8:03 AM on September 23, 2013
Response by poster: Right, but then why is it putting uneven numbers of icons in each row? If there are 14 icons, there should be seven in each row, of identical sizes. Win7 is putting 8 and 6, and making them uneven.
posted by Chrysostom at 8:32 AM on September 23, 2013
posted by Chrysostom at 8:32 AM on September 23, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
You'll also notice that the buttons are grouped, so there are a little extra space where there's not that separator between window buttons. So that's probably where things are looking a little different, but just eye-sighting it, the buttons look the same across each row, even though there are one less on bottom.
Any reason you're not pinning some of your most used programs and just looking at the Aero Peek previews?
posted by deezil at 7:17 AM on September 23, 2013