Windows 7 shows all the running applications in the taskbar in form of buttons. The width of these buttons decreases as more and more applications populate the taskbar. The default minimum width of these taskbar buttons is 225 pixels. But you can increase or decrease this minimum width if you want. Here is how :
- Press the key combination Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog.
- In the Run dialog, type regedit and press Enter to open the Registry Editor window.
- In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key :
HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktopWindowMetrics
- Right click on the WindowMetrics and select New → String Value as shown.
- Give the new string value a name MinWidth. Then double-click on the newly created string value and give it a value of -(pixels × 15). Suppose you want the minimum width of the taskbar buttons to be 500 pixels wide, then set the value to be -(500 × 15) = -7500. You can increase or decrease this value as you prefer.
- Reboot your computer for the changes to take effect.
If later you want to revert to the the default setting of the taskbar width, then just delete the MinWidth value and reboot your computer.