RainbowTaskbar vs Taskbar Groups

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.

Taskbar Groups is a free Windows utility for organizing shortcuts into groups on the taskbar. Groups can contain .exe and .lnk shortcuts, folders, Windows Store apps, and Steam games or software. Users can choose group colors and opacity, pick an icon, edit shortcut names, and set how many shortcuts appear on each row. Optional launch settings include working directories and arguments; Ctrl+Enter can launch all shortcuts in a group, while number keys 1–0 launch shortcuts in positions one through ten. The utility stores group and shortcut icons in each group’s local configuration folder and can regenerate the cache when the group is saved again. A release note lists support for multiple monitors, vertical and top taskbars, and hidden taskbars. Setup involves downloading the latest release ZIP, unpacking it, and running TaskbarGroups.exe. The project is MIT-licensed. Group names are limited to 49 characters and cannot contain special characters; shortcut entry names are limited to 27 characters. A moved shortcut may stop launching until the group is edited again.