How in the Tech

Tweaking the size of Windows 7 taskbar preview thumbnails

By Adam Myers ⋅ April 8, 2010 ⋅ Tags: Customization, Windows 7

Taskbar preview thumbnails, the window that pops up when you hover over running application’s taskbar window, is seen as handy usability enhancement. The preview windows aren’t new to Windows 7, they first appeared in Vista, but they have been enhanced subtly – most visually with Aero Peak. Mousing over the taskbar icon will reveal the live screen contents of the application, only in a miniature form. Applications that can open multiple windows, like Word or even Internet Explorer, provide an extra layer of usability. With the preview thumbnails you can effortlessly flip between open websites, visually.

Now for some users, myself included, the entire feature actually doesn’t lend me to being much more efficient. The demo’s of this feature typically include a loop movie file being played in Media Player with the thumbnail showing the same movie in real time. I struggle to find a typical use case for this. If I were a heavy Office user then the entire interface begins to make a bit more sense. Likely you have a couple documents open and are referencing a few as you compose a third. The visual switching could prove valuable here – assuming you can make out the differences between documents in the tiny thumbnails.

Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer is a free Windows tweaking utility that, amongst other things, allows for the resizing of the preview window. Usage is as straight forward as you would expect for such a niche utility – adjust the size by sliding the slider then click Apply Changes. Thumbnail Customizer will automatically restart Windows Explorer and apply your tweaks.

Before

After

Download Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail Customizer