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?

dalchina said:

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!

dalchina said:

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,
mck

mck said:

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.

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,
mck

dalchina said:

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,
mck

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.