Cannot make taskbar as thin as horizontal taskbar, when vertical

[Anish-Mumbai]

On doing a clean install of the operating system from Windows XP to Windows 7, I am facing a weird problem that I cannot make taskbar as thin as horizontal taskbar, when vertical. I was able to work out with the feature while working with Windows XP. But, in Windows 7, the taskbar does not shrink from a particular size. Is this a bug in the Windows 7 operating system? Please provide the probable information on the same.

[SalVatore]

I suppose that the following thread will help you to resolve the problem that you cannot make taskbar as thin as horizontal taskbar, when vertical:
How to customize the Windows 7 Taskbar with 7 Taskbar Tweaker?
I dont think that there is any bug with the taskbar in Windows 7. There must only be a predefined size given to the taskbar that you are getting. As you are not used to this operating system, you are finding it as a problem.

[Devasis]

In the Windows 7 operating system, you are facing a genuine situation that the you cannot make taskbar as thin as horizontal taskbar, when vertical. The reason is very simple. You may know that the icons on the taskbar is of more size in Windows 7, when compared with Windows XP. This is why you are encountering a difference in the size of the taskbar in both the operating systems.

[Lillebror]

The authorities have done this setting purposely because if an option to make the taskbar as small as required would have been provided, then the particular icons on it would not have looked nice. It would have been blur or would have been not visible properly. I hope that your query is resolved now. If you have more doubts, then you can reply here.

[Solomon]

There are many third party applications available in the market that help to customize the Taskbar as we want. You can search for the same on the internet. Make sure that the application that you are downloading is compatible with the Windows 7 operating system. Otherwise, it will have conflicts with the operating system and thus, wont work properly.

[drange17]

I have a solution that I am using right now. I spent hours coding this and am very satisfied that it works perfectly for me. Go ahead and use it if you want, just credit me (drange17) if you wanna post this code online in forums. I would like to, in turn, credit Lexikos for the code for ConsoleSend.

Firstly, I placed a shortcut to Command Prompt called "cmd.lnk" in C:\Program Files\. I go to this shortcut's properties>>shortcut tab>>advanced>>enable run as administrator.

Secondly, I downloaded AutoHotkey and put it to run at startup (place a shortcut to AutoHotkey in the Start Menu Startup folder), with the following code (which is definitely not very elegant, I'm sure someone can do better, but it does the job of narrowing the vertical taskbar for me):

Sleep, 15000
SendInput {LWin Down}r{LWin Up}
IfWinExist, Run
    WinActivate
    Sleep, 500
    SendInput {Raw}RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 1
    SendInput {Enter}
WinWait, Taskbar and Start Menu Properties
    SendInput {Tab}{Space}{Enter}
WinWaitClose
    Run C:\Program Files\cmd.lnk
WinWait, Administrator: cmd ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass
winwaitactive Administrator: cmd ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass
ConsoleSend("net stop uxsms", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
ConsoleSend("`r", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
Sleep, 3000
ConsoleSend("net start uxsms", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
ConsoleSend("`r", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
Sleep, 3000
ConsoleSend("exit", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
ConsoleSend("`r", "ahk_class ConsoleWindowClass")
WinWaitClose
SendInput {LWin Down}r{LWin Up}
IfWinExist, Run
    WinActivate
Sleep, 500
SendInput {Raw}RunDll32.exe shell32.dll,Options_RunDLL 1
SendInput {Enter}
WinWait, Taskbar and Start Menu Properties
SendInput {Tab}{Space}{Enter}
Run outlook.exe
ConsoleSend(text, WinTitle="", WinText="", ExcludeTitle="", ExcludeText="")
{
    WinGet, pid, PID, %WinTitle%, %WinText%, %ExcludeTitle%, %ExcludeText%
    if !pid
        return false, ErrorLevel:="window"
    if !DllCall("AttachConsole", "uint", pid)
        return false, ErrorLevel:="AttachConsole"
    hConIn := DllCall("CreateFile", "str", "CONIN$", "uint", 0xC0000000
                , "uint", 0x3, "uint", 0, "uint", 0x3, "uint", 0, "uint", 0)
    if hConIn = -1
        return false, ErrorLevel:="CreateFile"
    VarSetCapacity(ir, 24, 0)       ; ir := new INPUT_RECORD
    NumPut(1, ir, 0, "UShort")      ; ir.EventType := KEY_EVENT
    NumPut(1, ir, 8, "UShort")      ; ir.KeyEvent.wRepeatCount := 1
    Loop, Parse, text ; for each character in text
    {
        NumPut(Asc(A_LoopField), ir, 14, "UShort")
        NumPut(true, ir, 4, "Int")  ; ir.KeyEvent.bKeyDown := true
        gosub ConsoleSendWrite
        NumPut(false, ir, 4, "Int") ; ir.KeyEvent.bKeyDown := false
        gosub ConsoleSendWrite
        Sleep, 10
    }
    gosub ConsoleSendCleanup
    return true
    ConsoleSendWrite:
        if ! DllCall("WriteConsoleInput", "uint", hconin, "uint", &ir, "uint", 1, "uint*", 0)
        {
            gosub ConsoleSendCleanup
            return false, ErrorLevel:="WriteConsoleInput"
        }
    return
    ConsoleSendCleanup:
        if (hConIn!="" && hConIn!=-1)
            DllCall("CloseHandle", "uint", hConIn)
        DllCall("FreeConsole")
    return
}