Taskbar height and labels mods: please add support for Windows Classic theme

[Anixx]

There is a mod (and Explorer Patcher option) that fixes Windows 10 taskbar appearance in Classic theme. But Win10 taskbar is going to be removed from future Windows versions.

I think, the appearance of Win11 taskbar also can be fixed, at least, to look acceptable, as part of "Taskbar height" or "Taskbar labels" mods by Michael @m417z . I wrote a small AHK script that showcases the approach. Here is how Win11 taskbar can be made to look so far:

Here is the code:

WinSet, Style, +0x400000 , ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
WinSet, Style, -0x400000 , ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
Control, Hide,, ReBarWindow321, ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
Control, Hide,, Windows.UI.Composition.DesktopWindowContentBridge2, ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
Control, Show,, Windows.UI.Composition.DesktopWindowContentBridge2, ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
Control, Show,, TrayNotifyWnd1, ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd

First part adds and removes the window caption, it fixes the 3D border, the same trick is used in Classic theme mitigations for Win10 taskbar (in mod and in EP). It is needed only once upon load.

Then it hides two bars that should not be visible. And then adds the 3D border for tray (in a similar way to the fix for Win10).

The code needs a lot of improvement, particularly:

• The tray border needs to be refreshed on each tray update (change in the number of tray items), so this should be hooked.
• When the height of taskbar is small, the task buttons do not fit vertically
• Positioning ot text in tray can be made better
• The fonts should be made to support subpixel hinting (ClearType) as the fonts systemwide
• Maybe, the immersive buttons can be replaced with classic ones, as can be done on Win10 taskbar

P.S. The classic theme can be enabled with this mod: https://winclassic.net/post/15761/thread

[Anixx]

It would be also great if the mod could set the classic taskbar height (28px, I think)

[Anixx]

Currently the Win11 taskbar at 28px height (using the Taskbar Height mod) looks like this under classic theme:

The tray text and taskbar buttons are positioned too low.

[m417z]

I won't be working on it anytime soon, since classic theme doesn't interest me so much personally. Meanwhile, perhaps you can achieve some improvements with Windows 11 Taskbar Styler.

[Anixx]

What about things like:

• Adjusting padding between tray icons (the option that was in 7+TT)
• Replacing immersive tray and taskbar elements with classic ones (such as clock and layout indicator)
• Fixing the font so that it to use system font settings (the font name at least instead of hard-coded SagoeUI) ?

[m417z]

• Adjusting padding between tray icons (the option that was in 7+TT)

I want to create a dedicated mod one day, but for now see: https://ramensoftware.com/uwpspy/comment-page-1#comment-14753

• Fixing the font so that it to use system font settings (the font name at least instead of hard-coded SagoeUI)

See https://github.com/ramensoftware/windhawk-mods/issues/208.

[Anixx]

Thanks for the links. The mod Taskbar Styler looks like it can be powerful.