# [SOLVED] Taskbar buttons/Icons too small



## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

Sorry if this has been talked about before, I tried searching but I got an error so I figured you guys could just link me to previous posts if it has been.

Anyway my problem is that for the past week the buttons/icons in the taskbar have been about 1/2-1/4 smaller than they're supposed to be. No text even shows up next to them.

So far I've tried changing every visual setting I can think of (taskbar menu, dpi, res., visual effect, etc...) but nothing has worked. I compared my registry entries for explorer to my girlfriend who is also running vista and everything is exactly the same. It's really bugging me and I have no idea what happened.

I have object dock installed, but I've disabled it for now and nothing has changed.

I've searched all over the net for a solution but no one seems to have one, so any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Hello & Welcome, *carelcapek*.

Please, before you continue posting there's some information I'll need about your system such as:

*I.* Is your operating system legit? *How do I tell?*
*II.* What are your system's specifications? *How do I tell?*

Regards,
_Undocked Windy & TSF Staff_


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Hi, your desktop icons are stored in the Icon cache and this can get corrupted, lets clear the cache windows will create new ones.

Go to Start all programs accessories and right click on command prompt select “run as administrator”


```
type "taskkill /im explorer.exe /f" without quotes  press enter
```
Now type each line and press enter after each line. 
Note the spaces.


```
CD %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local

attrib -h IconCache.db

del IconCache.db
```
Now type exit and press enter
Reboot to take effect


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

View attachment System_Specs.rar


Well I rebuilt the icon cache, but that didn't work. So here are my specs. I'm running a legit copy of Vista home premium x64 bit and it's only like two weeks old.

Also here's two screenshots of the taskbar on the right side of my screen (left cap) and on the top (right cap).


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Thanks for the response.

A few questions :

*I:* How do you know for SURE your OS is legit? I'm not accusing you of anything, I'm simply trying to resolve your issue a lot quicker!

*II:* Have you changed your default "style" in Windows Vista at all, lately, or perhaps, ever?

If you want, please take a look at one of my guides regarding this issue, hopefully you'll get something out of it to resolve this.

[ Guide ]


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

It is genuine:

I did install a trial version of windowblinds by Stardock for a day or so, but I didn't really like it so I uninstalled it and I've tried a few times to change the theme back to vista aero/vista standard and reboot but it doesn't do anything. That's the only thing visually I've changed though.


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Did you take a look at my guide (it was linked), it should have given you some decent information to go on, _hopefully_.


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Sorry I found it after I posted my last reply. Unfortunately none of those methods solved my problem. Very cool guide though, thank you.


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Thank you.

Try method #164 on THIS page. It says "XP", but don't worry - I've tested this with Vista/7. You MUST run these as Administrator, BTW.


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

I ran it but no change. There was no option to run as admin though, even when I went into properties. Actually the properties menu wasn't the standard .exe one, so I might have missed the option.

I also went through and tried pretty much every vbs that had to do with restoring the taskbar at kellys korner xp.


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Right-click, then select "Run as Administrator".

HERE's a more comprehensive and detailed guide, since to be quite honest; I didn't explain myself very well on how to run as administrator :

http://vistasupport.mvps.org/run_as_administrator.htm

OH, Also, you MUST reboot for the .reg file to take effect, so please do so after running as administrator! Thank you.


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Actually that's what I was trying to say, there's no option to run as admin in the right-click drop down menu. And I know that if you go into certain programs properties you can set it to run as admin there, but there's no option in this files properties.

Is the file supposed to be a VBscript script file? My choices are:


"Open
Edit
Open with Command Prompt
Print"


I rebooted, but no change still.


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Hi, right click in the taskbar and make sure "lock the taskbar is unchecked" then do this again this time select "view" then put a check next to Lage icons, Lock the taskbar and you are good to go.


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*



jenae said:


> Hi, right click in the taskbar and make sure "lock the taskbar is unchecked" then do this again this time select "view" then put a check next to Lage icons, Lock the taskbar and you are good to go.


I've tried that before actually, it only affects the quick launch and the system tray. But it's my taskbar buttons (the programs that are currently running) that are smaller. If you don't know what I mean, check out the picture I posted before.


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

What happens when you restart Explorer (.exe) in your processes list (CTRL + ALT + DEL) ?


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Nothing. Most fixes I read about required a restart of explorer, including the kellys korner xp ones, so I've done that at least 50 times since the problem started, but it's no help.


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Are the icons you are speaking about located on the lower-right of the screen?

Can you take screen-shot, please?


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*



jcgriff2 said:


> Are the icons you are speaking about located on the lower-right of the screen?
> 
> Can you take screen-shot, please?


Like I said, it's not the system tray icons, it's the quick launch and it's not any other type of toolbars that have the problem. It's only the taskbar buttons/open programs.



If you look up at one of my previous posts, there's a picture of what it looks like when the taskbar is on the the right side of the screen and what it looks like on the top of the screen.



Edit: Here I'll just repost the picture:


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## jcgriff2 (Sep 30, 2007)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

I did see that pic before, I couldn't place it on the screen as a whole. It is at the top of the screen? From here there is nothing abnormal about the size - nothing to put it in perspective for me. 

Maybe a FULL screen shot would help.


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*









Full screen. The abnormal thing is that there is no text next to the buttons. They're tiny.


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Disable then Enable your Quick Lauch ?


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Yeah I've tried disabling all of my different toolbars. Is there a way to restore back to before Windows says it can? It says I can only go back a few days, but I feel like if I could just go back about a week and a half (when this started) then it might make a difference.


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

http://www.colincochrane.com/post/2007/10/Windows-Vista-Disappearing-System-Tray-Icons-Fix.aspx ?


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

That didn't work either.

I have an idea though,

I know that you can change the amount of instances a program has before they're grouped in the taskbar (like if you have 5 instances of firefox open, then they will group into one button) in the registry. And I also know that when you have a lot of programs open at the same time, the icons become small and this is probably controlled by the registry also.

So my idea is that if I can find a place in the registry where the number of open programs/space that is required to shrink the buttons, I can change it to a larger number.

Of course I'm only an intermediate user and that might be really stupid I don't know. I just can't think of what else it would be if it weren't in the registry.


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## carelcapek (Jul 26, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Ha yes!! It turns out it was the registry. Thank you all so much for the help, for future reference the entry is called "MinWidth" and it's located at

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

It was set at -255, so I deleted it and when I rebooted it was completely fixed. I don't know what the point of that entry was.

Like I said, thank you so much for all the suggestions, now we all know. In fact if someone wanted a Windows 7 looking Taskbar they could always use large icons and add that entry the reg.


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## deleted122510 (Mar 18, 2009)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Glad we could be of some assistance, hopefully you learned a few things, ray:


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

*Re: Taskbar buttons/Icons too small*

Hi, actually "MinWidth" is not a standard registry entry it is a reg mod it is designed to have only Icons in the taskbar (why you did not get any text). So most users will not see this, so something did this and most likely Object Dock.


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