Language bar ugly and changes taskbar height

[j7n]

I have recently switched over to using the Windows language bar from a custom utility to switch keyboard layouts. The utility leaked GDI objects and was often too chatty. The built-in bar replaces it, and also allows to pick from several keyboards for the same language. Turns out windows hardly needs any localization add-ons at all.

I recall the old language bar in Windows 98 could only switch languages and it was possible to have only one keyboard per language. But this also made the single icon more compact than the bar is.

Whenever I have the language bar showing it increases the height of the taskbar by 2 pixels. This means that if move the mouse pointer to the bottom left corner of the screen, it is no longer over the Start button, and clicking doesn't bring up the Start menu.

When a new icon is added to the systray (notification area) the language bar also becomes partially obstructed by the systray, and I must run "adjust the language band position" from its menu to realign it.

This occurs in the classic theme on WinXP SP1 and SP3, with the menu font at both standard 8pt as well as 10pt.

Is it possible to either stop the Language Bar from resizing the taskbar or as a last resort return to the basic single icon mode from Win98?

[Tripredacus]

It looks to me that the taskbar has increased the height due to the size of the icon next to the system tray.

[j7n]

The icons inside the system tray are from AIDA64/Everest, which I launched to demonstrate what happens if any new icon are added there. Next to it is the keyboard layout and language indicator. Indeed, if it is hidden, the taskbar behaves normally: A click on the lowest pixel moves the pointer up by two and whichever button is there is activated.

[vinifera]

I don't think its the issue of icon as issue of button

take a look what happens when you give Quick Launch icons "large" size
usually they should be sized 32px but they are not

and this is not issue of icons itself, but OS that forces the button to be over 40px (think its 48px)

I'd assume its same crap with language button, icon itself is irrelevant since it should be resizable no matter which dimension it is

but button itself may be fixed in size

[j7n]

Yes, that is correct. The issue is new to XP, which switched from an icon to one or two buttons. I'd forgo the secondary layout button, if that moved the language icon back into the tray.

I want to have the icon visible, because when I use shortcuts to switch, they often don't register (pressing Alt sometimes activates a menu).

Edited April 4, 2014 by j7n