In Windows 10:
Is there a way to use Powershell to modify the taskbar functionality? I know 7++Taskbar Tweaker does this, but I was curious if this can be done via Powershell as I can't use Taskbar Tweaker.
Goal:
Have multiple icons of same program open, next to each other, with no labels.
For example if I have a copy of PROD open in SSMS, and DEV in another instance of SSMS, I would like to click once just on the PROD (or DEV) without waiting for the hover to come down. I know this is not a major deal, just curious if powershell can do it and how.
Thanks for your help.
You mentioned 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. There's a library of the same author, 7+ Taskbar Tweaking Library, which you can use. Regarding PowerShell, this might help: Run my third-party DLL file with PowerShell.
Related
i have been trying to get a windows startup/shutdown sound to play, i couldn't get the sounds to play so i asked on Microsoft, here is the link https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/cannot-change-windows-start-up-sound/8bbcb0a0-1402-4f1e-b080-9c8d526bc205
and i was told that its not possible. well too bad because i am not going to stop there, so i went to local group policy editor on windows 10 where you can choose scripts to run during shutdown and start up. i then wrote a very small PowerShell command with the file name of "shutdown.ps1" the code inside of shutdown.ps1 is
start "C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Shutdown\TADA.wav"
this file is located in the C:\Windows\System32\GroupPolicy\Machine\Scripts\Shutdown directory along with the TADA.wav file that it plays when it shuts down.
now the issue i am having is that when windows is shutting down, its ending all processes so it does not play the sound. what can i do to change that?
I'm pretty new to all of this and am very grateful for any input you can give.
thanks in advance,
Devin
From How to Change the Windows 10 Logoff, Logon, and Shutdown Sounds in Windows 10:
...
While you can still customize what sounds sounds play for most OS events, Windows 10 hid shut down, logoff, and logon from view. They’re still around, though. You just need to make a few mild changes in the Windows Registry to get them back.
Add the Actions Back to the Sound Control Panel by Editing the Registry
To add the shutdown, logoff, and logon actions back to the menu in the Sound Control Panel app, you just need to make a few little tweaks in the Windows Registry.
...
Open the Registry Editor by hitting Start and typing “regedit.” Press Enter to open Registry Editor and then give it permission to make changes to your PC.
In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\EventLabels
You’re going to be making one small change in each of three different subkeys inside that EventLabels key. First, we’ll tackle the shutdown sound or, as Windows likes to call it, System Exit. Under the EventLabels key on the left side of Registry Editor, select the SystemExit subkey. On the right side, double-click the ExcludeFromCPL value.
Note that by default, the value is 1, meaning that the action is excluded from the Control Panel. Change the value to 0 and then click “OK.”
Next, you’re going to make exactly the same change in two other subkeys inside the EventLabels key: WindowsLogoff and WindowsLogon. Head into each of those folders, open the ExcludeFromCPL value inside, and change the value from 1 to 0.
No need to restart Windows. You can go ahead and test your changes right away. Open up the Sound Control Panel app by right-clicking the speaker icon in your Notification Area and selecting “Sounds.” 1
You should now see the new actions (Exit Windows, Windows Logoff, and Windows Logon) available in the selection window and you can assign whatever sounds you like to those actions.
If, for whatever reason, you want to hide those actions from the Control Panel again, just head back into Registry Editor and change each of those ExcludeFromCPL values back to 1.
1: On my machine, to get to the Sounds control panel, I had to go into the Settings, choose "Personalization", then "Themes", then `Sounds".
UPDATE:
And indeed, all three sound events show up in my Sounds control panel once I re-enable them in the Registry. However, I tried assigning audio files to them, and although Windows remembered the assignments, nothing played when invoking those actions.
So, I guess the playback functionality is simply not implemented for those events anymore. This seems to be confirmed in your discussion with a Microsoft Insider on answers.microsoft.com (with an 89% upvote rate of 143K replies, I would think he knows what he's talking about):
In Windows 10 there is no way to change the Windows Startup Sound, that sound is set permanently in a DLL in Windows, it is not an audio file like the other system sounds, and even when you turn on the Startup sound on that dialog, sometimes the startup sound will play and other times it will not, this is a known bug in Windows 10, which seems to have been fixed in Windows 11
Windows10 does not support a shutdown sound like previous versions of Windows, you wil find many methods posted online, sadly, none of them work.
I'm looking a way to inject PowerShell window to Windows Taskbar since I often use it to do many tasks by my local PS-modules
Maybe it can be done by some external toolbars? I didn't find any information about it.
The result I look for:
I want to enable users to view the windows Quick Launch bar via DLL call (I checked the registry modification option but it's the route around).
I know the functionality is stored in shell32.dll and it the DLL can be accessed by rundll32.exe.
rundll32.exe shell32.dll
My question is:
Can anyone point me to a through reference of the shell32.dll entry points and arguments, or knows of a program that extracts it from the DLL itself?
Raymond Chen from the Windows shell team discusses this in a blog article.
In short there is no documented, supported way to do this on XP. You'll need to continue using the hack you've found. In Vista you can use ITrayDeskBand. Windows 7 task bar is, of course, different again.
Raymond also points out that programs should not be changing the user's choice of visibility for the Quick Launch bar.
That's not something a program should be doing. Whether
the Quick Launch bar is shown or hidden is an end user
setting, and programs should not be overriding the user's
preferences. Explorer consciously does not expose an
interface for showing and hiding taskbar bands because it
would just be a target for abuse. Much like the program that wants to uninstall other programs, the taskbar would become a battleground among programs that each wanted
to force themselves on and force their opponents off. The user is the arbiter of what goes into the Taskbar.
I am trying to write a very limited taskbar replacement without the start menu and the standard desktop.
But now i wonder how explorer.exe works internally.
1.) How does the taskbar catch minimizing windows?
2.) How do the taskbar get to know when a window opens or closes or somthing? (Is there an api?)
3.) How does explorer.exe enable visual styles? (If it doesn't run all styles are disabled and it looks like win9x)
Review the SetWindowsHookEx() documentation in the MSDN Library. The important hook type here is WH_SHELL.
SetWindowsHookEx with a WH_CBT or WH_SHELL hook (I'm not sure if WH_SHELL works 100% on all systems when explorer is not running)
As far as #3 goes, I don't think I have seen that problem.
Explorer uses a lot of undocumented functions, you should take a look at some of the open source replacement shells or google RegisterShellHook, ShellDDEInit and ARW_HIDE
Check RegisterShellHookWindow, I believe Microsoft added it to avoid having to maitain a 32-bit and a 64-bit hook on newer x64 OS versions.
new Windows 7 hides systray icons by default.
what is the recommended way to show information to users now?
I need to have a small clickable icon visible to user so user can access my "tool" anytime. Should I use the gadget to show my GUI instead? Can it communicate with my Delphi app somehow?
Without more information it's a little difficult to provide a recommendation.
However, I would imagine that a sufficiently important tool, the user would simply keep minimized. They could then use Jumplists to access quick functionality.
For example, Live Messenger uses this setup on Win7.
If your users really like your icon/application they can always choose to not hide your application.
The only difference is that only the user can choose which icon is shown, instead of every application claiming it's "real estate".
In my opinion this is a good functionality and if I were you I wouldn't change the application, just provide a first run GUI which explains how to make your tray icon visible in windows 7.
The entire reason why change was made, was to stop programs like yours. If you need to show information, go ahead and do so. But the notification areas ("systray") is not where shortcuts go. For that, you've got the start menu, desktop and/or the quick launch bar (and please let the user decide).