Purpose - What's New - Usage - Options - Language Packs - Known Issues - Installation - Uninstall - Requirements - History - Contact - Legal
TaskArrange is a simple utility that lets you rearrange the buttons of the Windows taskbar.
Sometimes we open our programs in a specific sequence, to keep their taskbar buttons in a desired order. But what happens if a program crashes or we close it, and then we open it again? That's right - its task button ends up last in the taskbar. Windows itself does not allow us to move the task buttons around, so we are stuck with two options: either accept the new order, or close everything and reopen them in the preferred order. TaskArrange brings an end to this annoyance, by letting us do exactly what we want: reorder the task buttons.
When you start TaskArrange, it displays a list of the taskbar windows. You can rearrange this list in several ways:
When the desired order has been set, press the OK button to rearrange the actual buttons in the taskbar and quit TaskArrange, or press Apply to perform the action and keep the program running.
Refresh will update the list with the current buttons, in case new windows were opened while TaskArrange was running.
WinXP has an option to group similar taskbar buttons. If this is in effect, TaskArrange will display the grouped buttons indented under the name of their application. You can move the whole group by selecting the application. You can also rearrange the buttons within the group, but you cannot move them outside the group or insert a button from a different group. If the grouped buttons in the taskbar have been replaced by their application's button, their titles will be grayed in TaskArrange. Otherwise, the application name will be grayed instead.
TaskArrange uses a special method to accurately identify the taskbar buttons. Should this method fail for some reason, TaskArrange will enter a safe mode, displaying a relevant message in its caption. In safe mode, the order of the taskbar buttons cannot be determined, so they will be listed randomly. Furthermore, it is possible that some buttons will not be detected at all. However, even in safe mode, you can still rearrange the list and apply the changes.
You can configure TaskArrange by clicking on Options. The available options are:
You can install language packs in order to use translated versions of the program's interface and help:
You can easily translate TaskArrange's interface and/or help, by downloading the translation pack from the program's webpage. You'll need a resource editor to edit the template DLL; you can use MSVS6/7 or the free Resource Hacker, among others.
There are a few possible problems you might run into:
Due to its small size, TaskArrange does not come with an installer. Instead, you should extract the contents of the zip package into a folder of your preference and optionally create a shortcut for the program file.
In the downloaded package you'll find two versions of the program:
To uninstall TaskArrange, simply delete the files you extracted from the zip file. TaskArrange does not store any settings in the Registry or alter any system files.
There are no specific requirements for running TaskArrange. It has been tested successfully in the following operating systems:
Win 95, 98, ME, 2000, XP
It is recommended (but not required) to have IE4+ installed, in order to better manipulate the taskbar buttons.
| Version/Date | Notes |
| 1.1 - 2004.12.20 | Better support for WinXP grouped buttons. Localization support. List keyboard shortcuts; OK button; per-user settings stored in INI file. Both Unicode and non-Unicode versions included. Bug fix: taskbar grouping in combination with button sliding effect no longer prevents button arrangement in WinXP. |
| 1.0 - 2004.09.02 | First public release. |
Comments and suggestions are welcome. Just send an email at:
efotinis@pat.forthnet.gr
For future updates and more freeware, please visit my website at:
http://users.forthnet.gr/pat/efotinis/
This program is provided "as-is". The author cannot be held liable for any damages caused by the use or misuse of this program. You can redistribute this program in its unmodified form, but you must not charge any money for its usage. All trademarks mentioned in this file are the property of their respective owners.