7+ Taskbar Tweaker vs RainbowTaskbar

7+ Taskbar Tweaker is a free Windows utility for changing taskbar behavior beyond options normally exposed by taskbar properties or the registry. It provides dozens of customization choices, and Taskbar Inspector can group, combine, or label some taskbar items. The software is designed for Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10. The maker says it does not support the Windows 11 taskbar, although it can work on Windows 11 version 23H2 and older when third-party tools restore the old taskbar. Its installer can extract a portable copy to a selected folder. The utility injects a DLL into Explorer and modifies it directly; registry changes are limited to its own settings. Antivirus detections may be false positives because this behavior can appear suspicious. It has no ads or bundled installers, may be used commercially, and optional donations are supported.

RainbowTaskbar is a Windows app for changing the taskbar’s appearance with animations, colors, images, websites, and other effects. It supports web configurations as well as instruction-based configurations. Web configurations can respond to mouse input, use WebGL, canvas graphics, and video, and call the RainbowTaskbar API to adjust taskbar style and transparency. The app supports positioning and transparency controls, along with complex multi-monitor setups involving scaling and positioning. Through the RainbowTaskbar Workshop, users can download configurations without an account; uploading one requires signing in with Google or GitHub. The app is portable, but needs the.NET 8 runtime if that runtime is not already installed. The maker warns that RainbowTaskbar conflicts with TranslucentTB and says to close that app before running it. RainbowTaskbar is free and open-source, with a free plan listed at free. Its maker describes it as a passion project first released in 2021.