Decrease size of icons in Windows 7 taskbar

Microsoft has done away with the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 7. The Taskbar stands up to the ‘task’- bad pun, I know… couldn’t help myself! You can place shortcuts to any program in the Windows 7 Taskbar and it works just like the Quick Launch found in earlier versions of the operating system. Obviously, the Taskbar has retained its old functionality – showing an icon of any program window that’s currently open and running on your computer.

Default icon size on Windows 7 is much larger that in XP and Vista

On a fresh installation of Windows 7, the Taskbar has icons for Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer and Windows Media Player (in that order) – and you can place more shortcuts in this space. The Taskbar icons can be dragged and shuffled around to suit your whims and fancies. The icon of a program which is currently running has a glassy background to differentiate it from others. Also, placing the mouse cursor over a program icon that has an open window displays a thumbnail – thumbnails of multiple windows are shown horizontally side by side – and each has it’s own close button.

FYI, the default height of the Windows 7 Taskbar is 40 pixels, which means the icons are much larger than those in the Quick Launch toolbar of Windows XP or Vista – check image below.

How to decrease the size of icons in the Windows 7 Taskbar

To decrease the size of these icons (and, thus, the Windows 7 Taskbar height), simply right click on a empty area on the Taskbar and select “Properties” from the menu.

Put a checkmark in front of “Use small icons” and click “Apply” followed by “OK“.

The icon size will be reduced which means you can put many more program shortcuts on the Windows 7 Taskbar.