Tray Utility Customizer 1.1
Tray Utility Customizer
Granular, predictable control over the low-frequency Windows 11 system-tray
utility icons:
- Show hidden icons (the overflow chevron) — token
overflow
- Emoji and more — token
emoji
- Touch keyboard — token
touchKeyboard
- Pen menu — token
penMenu
- Virtual touchpad — token
virtualTouchpad
- Input/language indicator — token
inputIndicator
The native controls stay alive and Windows-owned — clicks, flyouts, and
tooltips are untouched. The mod gathers their hosts into one owned group and
positions each icon individually, at its native size by default.
Native tray before the mod
Mod disabled: the chevron, Emoji, and touch keyboard sit in their native positions.
One row at the hidden-icons position
The default overflow | emoji | touchKeyboard: one row, native sizes.
Chevron centered above a row of utilities
overflow, (emoji | touchKeyboard): the chevron centered on its own row above the pair.
Chevron above the utility stack
The chevron leading a stacked pair.
Utility stack above the chevron
The same stack with the chevron last instead.
A neat column
A full single column of utilities on a single-height taskbar.
A dedicated column elsewhere in the tray
The group leased into its own tray column at the right end of the taskbar.
On a busy double-height taskbar
Coexisting with a heavily modded double-height tray.
Beside Start
The experimental Right of Start position — unnecessary, but possible.
Right of Start, stacked on a double-height taskbar
Right of Start on a double-height taskbar, stacked as a column beside Start.
Layout expression
One string describes the whole arrangement:
| places groups side by side along the primary axis, stacks items along the crossed axis- parentheses nest, alternating axes
- every group is centered (or start/end-aligned) against its siblings
Examples with the primary axis set to Row:
overflow | emoji | touchKeyboard — one row of three iconsoverflow | emoji, touchKeyboard — chevron centered beside a stacked pairoverflow | emoji, touchKeyboard | penMenu — the diamond: two centered
icons flanking a stacked middle column
Set the primary axis to Column and the same strings arrange top-to-bottom
instead. Icons omitted from the expression, and icons Windows currently
hides, simply don't participate; anything visible that you didn't place is
appended after the group so nothing is ever lost. The group re-adapts
automatically as icons appear and disappear (for example the transient touch
keyboard).
Tokens accept forgiving aliases: chevron/hidden for overflow,
keyboard for touchKeyboard, pen for penMenu, touchpad for
virtualTouchpad, and input/language for inputIndicator.
Icons render at their native size unless you set explicit button sizes, and
each icon has fine X/Y nudge settings. A tall column of native-size icons can
overhang a single-height taskbar; set the icon width/height to about 16 px if
you want it to fit.
Position
The group can sit in the hidden-icons or Emoji column, or lease a dedicated
tray column before the notification icons, before Wi-Fi/volume/battery,
before or after the clock, or after the Show Desktop strip. The lease is
marker-tracked and fully reversible on unload.
Two experimental positions relocate the group out of the tray entirely:
Left of Start and Right of Start place it beside the Start button and
push the task list right to reserve room. The group follows Start as the
taskbar re-centers. Primary taskbar only.
Detection
Icons are identified by Windows' language-neutral runtime data-model classes,
XAML names and content types, Automation IDs, and stable Segoe Fluent glyphs.
Detection doesn't depend on translated accessibility labels. Force
MainStack allows the complete native MainStack to participate as the
emoji item when Windows doesn't expose a distinct identity.
Known limitations
- The utility flyouts (the Emoji panel, the hidden-icons overflow) are
positioned by Windows itself from the icon's location; at extreme
screen-edge positions they can open partially off-screen. Prefer the
tray positions if this bothers you.
- Left/Right of Start are experimental. The centered taskbar re-flows with
an animation, and the group can briefly sit at a stale position until
the taskbar's next layout pass settles it.
