UPDATE on Windows 8.1 Thin Taskbar

I love the feature of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker which was recently updated to enable making the Windows 8.1 Update vertical Taskbar, 1 small icon width thin. The issue with the notifications area has also been fixed making the toolbar truly thin.

However, one does not have to have the 7+ Taskbar Tweaker running all the time. So I wrote this simple c# program to start and stop 7+ Taskbar Tweaker after reboot or after changing the set of monitors the computer is connected to. The start and stop restores the thin taskbar. Of course if you are using other excellent features of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker (thank rammichaels for that) you can let it start at startup and leave it running.

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

namespace ThinTaskbar
{
    static class Program
    {
        #region Native API
        // The native API functions/enums/structs needed to access taskbar info
        // consult MSDN for more detailed information about them

        [DllImport("user32.dll")]
        private static extern IntPtr FindWindow(string lpClassName, string lpWindowName);

        // [DllImport("User32.dll")]
        // private static extern bool MoveWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int x, int y, int cx, int cy, bool repaint);

        #endregion

        ///
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        ///

        [STAThread]
        static int Main()
        {
            // Start and stop "7+tt"
            ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
            startInfo.FileName = "C:\\Users\\sandip\\AppData\\Roaming\\7+ Taskbar Tweaker\\7+ Taskbar Tweaker.exe";
            startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
            Process sevenplustt = Process.Start(startInfo);
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500);
            sevenplustt.CloseMainWindow();
            sevenplustt.WaitForInputIdle();
            sevenplustt.Kill();
            return 0;
        }
    }
}

IMO, thin vertical taskbar should be standard feature (make it an option) of windows desktop when used in traditional way - keyboard + mouse. I understand why the Taskbar needs to be little thicker for touch interface to work correctly, but it is not as if everyone has switched to touch interfaces. Also why can't this be an option, possibly even turned off by default Microsoft wants to discourage it. I do not like it when they know better that the users. This reminds me of debate on Mac OS as to why the windows cannot be resized from all side, which the Apple and their fanboys ridiculed for long time and now Mac OS supports it. Go figure!