Can Windows 7 place a task bar on each monitor, which only shows applications running on that screen?

I would like to have a task bar on each of my monitors, but I only want applications that are currently on that monitor to be displayed on its taskbar.

This can be accomplished using UltraMon. However, the taskbar shown on the secondary and tertiary monitors is not the native Windows 7 taskbar, but rather made to try to simulate how it looks and feels. As good as it is, it is missing a ton of the features I find to be the best about the taskbar, such as program grouping, "peeking" at applications and so forth.

Is there is a way to make Windows 7 actually display its native awesome taskbar on multiple monitors?

OverloadUT

Posted 2009-09-29T17:24:08.913

Reputation: 1 258

Answers

Nope. Not the native toolbar at least. Sorry mate, you are out of luck here. There's MonMan for Windows XP - send an email to the dev to see if you can encourage him to make it 7 compatible.

caliban

Posted 2009-09-29T17:24:08.913

Reputation: 18 979

1this is actually VERY cool! and 'portable'... nice find. +1 (although not compatible with Windows 7 and thus not really an answer :) – None – 2009-09-29T17:40:44.857

@Molly :) One more reason to stick with XP! Gawd I simply can't find a really good reason to get rid of XP besides all the eye-candy and windows-management features of 7. – caliban – 2009-09-29T17:44:00.700

only using 7 just so i know 'what's new' ... as a working environment? thanks, but no thanks :) playing with MonMan as we speak, funny: it minimizes Total Commander to the (secondary) taskbar whereas TC goes into the tray when on the primary display. to restore TC from the Monman taskbar, it requires 2 clicks. – None – 2009-09-29T17:58:54.413

caliban: Your statement makes no sense as this is not possible in XP either. Furthermore, the whole point of my question is I like the extended functionality of the Windows 7 taskbar, which you will of course not get in XP. :) – OverloadUT – 2009-09-29T18:08:34.550

3on another note, i find it disgrace that Microsoft keeps ignoring multi-monitor setups as if they were some exotic occurrence. proper multi-monitor support should have been a native feature in their latest OS. – None – 2009-09-29T18:12:49.300

@Molly: While it is a rising trend, especially among corporate circles, to have two or more monitors, majority of users are still single monitor lifeforms. :) The urgency is not there - even Mac OS X has terrible multi-monitor support (Dock, menubar on one monitor only). – caliban – 2009-09-29T18:15:19.450

1In between getting security + performance right, and adding multimon support, I'd rather MS just devote resources to the first option. – caliban – 2009-09-29T18:16:41.040

This is one of those places where a third party can do the work. I don't care to know the processes on each monitor (becasue most of my processes are in the background as services) – Matthew Whited – 2009-09-29T19:33:03.443

For Windows 7 I'm using DisplayFusion. I find it better than UltraMon.

It shows the thumbnail preview, but minimize to taskbar goes to the native taskbar on the primary display :(

Molly7244

Posted 2009-09-29T17:24:08.913

Reputation:

Only paid version allows taksbars on multi monitors :( – tutejszy – 2014-12-15T11:57:05.917

Thanks for this. Sadly the only thing it seems to have over Ultramon is thumbnail display. Grouping is what I'd really like. :( +1 – OverloadUT – 2009-09-29T18:17:50.863

Multiple screens isn't supported by the taskbar's API (as far as I know), but there's an alternative to UltraMon: MultiMonitor Taskbar

Note that it's freeware, though the Pro version actually has some cool features. It supports Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7.

Before:

enter image description here

After:

enter image description here

Features:

It adds second taskbar to the extended desktop on Monitor 2
It can add third taskbar to the second Extended monitor if you have 3 monitors setup.
It shows only applications from that Monitor
It hides the applications on Monitor 2 and 3 from normal Windows Taskbar
Adds a Move to Monitor button to windows applications (XP).
Add Text Clipboard Extender
Buttons to roll-right the taskbar (good for full screen Remote Desktop)
Very carefully written, I don't want to crash my own desktop!

Ivo Flipse

Posted 2009-09-29T17:24:08.913

Reputation: 24 054

yep, this one not bad. pro: i like the clicpboard manager, con: no theme support (in the free version). – None – 2009-09-29T17:54:38.290

Thanks for mentioning it. Even if it doesn't do what I want I always like to know of interesting (especially if free!) alternatives to popular software. :) – OverloadUT – 2009-09-29T18:11:49.333

Can it add a taskbar to more than 2 monitors? – Franck Dernoncourt – 2014-06-04T19:45:51.767

Another FREE option is ZBar utility. Extremely simple, few options, very basic appearance customizing - so it looks a bit ugly on W7 (no Aero). But it works and is for free!

enter image description here