How to change the design of the Windows 10 Taskbar icons without third-party applications

"One of the options that most attract PC users and gadgets with a screen in general, is the ability to customize and in Windows the options, without having to resort to third-party applications, are enormous . We can change themes, wallpapers and also the appearance of the icons on the Taskbar."

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We can use several types of icons on the Taskbar so that the same application can present different designs depending on the configuration chosen. And that is what we are going to see in this tutorial: where the options are hidden and which ones are available."

Minimalist design or retro look

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We can choose between different ways in which to display the icons of applications that we have open in the Taskbar>From a more minimalist design to another more crude and reminiscent of the past Windows."

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To be able to access the different options, the easiest way is to click with the right mouse button on the empty area of ​​the Task Bar that It is to the right of the applications that we have open. Another method is to access the menu Settings and look for the section Personalization but the first method is more Quick."

"When clicking on the Taskbar>minimize the size of the icons. Just turn on the Use small taskbar buttons switch>"

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Another option to optimize space is Show badges on the taskbar This option is the one that allows you to disable the indicators of the number of notifications that appear next to the icon. In this way we will not see the number of notices that we have pending in each open application."

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But the option that allows a more global change is the one that appears in the Personalization section. We will have to click on the text titled Combine the buttons on the taskbar to open a drop-down menu with three different options."

Depending on the aesthetic that interests us the most, we can choose one or the other option, taking into account that we can revert the changes at any time :

• Always hide labels: with this option we access a minimalist design, especially if we use small icons. With this design, the icons of the open applications will not show their names and if, for example, we have several windows open, they will be grouped together. It is ideal for small screens because of the little space it needs.
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• When the taskbar is full: In this case, the icons of open applications display the name in a coarser box and also they will only be grouped if they fill all the space on the Taskbar."
• Never: Lastly, this option causes all icons to display the name and never be grouped together. A layout option that displays an icon look similar to that used in earlier versions of the operating system, such as Windows 7 and earlier.

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In addition, among the customization options, the Taskbar> has a section in which we can make it hide automatically and it only unfolds when the mouse is brought closer, an option that I really like as it shows an even cleaner desktop."

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As we can see, it&39;s about taking advantage of the options offered by Windows 10 and not having to resort to third-party applications to be able to change the design offered by the Taskbar."

Edit Icons

We can also customize the icon of each of the applications that we have in the bar and the previous step is to edit the access icon direct which is the one on the desktop.

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To do it, just click with the right mouse button or trackpad on the one you want to modify. We will see a window with several options and choose Change icon within the tab Shortcut With the search engine we must find a file on the hard disk whose extension is .ICO, since PNG, JPG, SVG, etc. files do not work. However, these can be converted to .ICO format with many web pages"

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With the icon already changed, just drag it to the Taskbar keeping in mind that if you are changing an icon that is already pinned, you must remove it from the bar and re-pin it for the changes to take effect."