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Change Title Bar Buttons without Changing Title Bar Size


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Yes, making the caption buttons fit the full height of the title bar is something Microsoft pulled out of its... hat right at the end.

 

You can make caption buttons a few pixels shorter in the theme atlas, but I'm not sure there's any way to make them anything like the way they looked in Win 7 through just atlas graphics changes. 

 

It's possible Big Muscle's companion .layout file could be used to help with the task, but it's not documented yet as he hasn't released his Windows 10-compatible Aero Glass tool.

 

This is the best I've been able to get them to look with what we know today (noting that the title bar is shorter owing to changes in the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics] key).

 

CaptionButtonHighlights.gif

 

-Noel

What changes did you do in WindowMetrics to get narrower title bar buttons? In my application I have a very narrow window so the title bar buttons are displayed from the left border to the right border of the windows, thereby making it impossible to move the window.

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Maybe they got narrower when I reduced the height of the title bar.

 

Here are the commands:

 

 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "BorderWidth"         /t REG_SZ /d "-15" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "CaptionHeight"       /t REG_SZ /d "-255" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "CaptionWidth"        /t REG_SZ /d "-225" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "IconSpacing"         /t REG_SZ /d "-885" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "IconVerticalSpacing" /t REG_SZ /d "-1095" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "MenuHeight"          /t REG_SZ /d "-225" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "MenuWidth"           /t REG_SZ /d "-225" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "PaddedBorderWidth"   /t REG_SZ /d "0" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "ScrollHeight"        /t REG_SZ /d "-225" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "ScrollWidth"         /t REG_SZ /d "-225" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "SmCaptionHeight"     /t REG_SZ /d "-255" >nul
 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" /f /v "SmCaptionWidth"      /t REG_SZ /d "-255" >nul

 

-Noel
 

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@NoelC which of those registry settings change the size of the icons next to the clock on the taskbar? I added all the registry keys but want to make those icons just a bit bigger.

Edited by groomp
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I'm not sure; I think they may be tied to the caption button sizing.  I've always had the particularly small icons accompany the reduced window chrome, even back to Vista to the best of my memory.

 

I've never broken the settings down and tried them one by one.

 

-Noel

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I'm not sure; I think they may be tied to the caption button sizing.  I've always had the particularly small icons accompany the reduced window chrome, even back to Vista to the best of my memory.

 

I've never broken the settings down and tried them one by one.

 

-Noel

 

Thanks Noel, I'll do some testing with one at a time and see how I go.

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With some setting there IIRC I think the Taskbar gets a little bit shorter as well.  That's probably why the icons get smaller.

 

I've just been experimenting with the negative numbers for BorderWidth and PaddedBorderWidth.  If you're not looking for really thin borders those might be better left at 0.

 

-Noel

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With some setting there IIRC I think the Taskbar gets a little bit shorter as well.  That's probably why the icons get smaller.

 

I've just been experimenting with the negative numbers for BorderWidth and PaddedBorderWidth.  If you're not looking for really thin borders those might be better left at 0.

 

-Noel

 

I left the BorderWidth at -15 and PaddedBorderwidth at 0 and it looks good. Luckily I backed up the windowmetrics reg key so I can revert at any time.

Edited by groomp
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It's the "CaptionHeight" and "CaptionWidth" that affect the size of the icons in the taskbar next to the clock as you suspected Noel.

Edited by groomp
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