Windows 7 are coming and there is more and more tips and tweaks for the current operating systems every day. People like the new Windows 7 look and feel and starting to find how to change the Windows Vista to Windows 7 style.

Taskbar changes are very popular tweaks. Windows 7 will come with new buttons for better switching between the running apps and for faster starting the programs. There are simple tricks you can do to have the Windows 7 Quick Launch style in your Windows Vista installation.

Windows 7

Setting up the taskbar in Windows Vista

At first, you have to enable the Quick Launch. Right click the main panel, go to the Toolbar menu and enable the Quick Launch. Now, right click again and disable the Lock the Taskbar option. You will see two sliders. Drag the right slider and move it to create more space for the Quick Launch panel.

Windows Vista Quick Launch

Now right click the free space in the Quick Launch panel. You will see a little bit different menu than the previous. Go to the View menu and select the Large Icons. After that Lock the Taskbar again. The result should look like this:

Windows Vista with Large Icons

As you can see, the running windows’ buttons don’t correspond with the new taskbar height. You can solve this problem using the Taskbar Resize Tool. Download this utility (it’s RAR archive), go to the en-us folder and run the Taskbar Resize.exe file. Set up the button height by moving the slider and clicking the Apply button.

I highly recommend to enable the auto startup option to have the panel displayed correctly after each system start. It’s much better than manual starting and setting up the slider.

Taskbar Resize Tool utility

If you will notice some problems by running the Taskbar Resize utility, you have to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package. The x86 version is needed for the 64bit Windows Vista too, however here is a link to x64 if you like. This package you will need for another useful software, so don’t worry about its installation.

Windows Vista after the changes

You can try the trick with removing the texts from the windows buttons. Run the Registry editor (Win-R, regedit), go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics section and create a new text value (right click) named MinWidth. Then setup up its value to –255. The result will be available after the restart/logoff, but I think the Taskbar Resize Tool change without anything other looks better.

Windows Vista after the WindowsMetrics trick

What do you think? Are you looking forward for the new Windows 7 look?