Windows 7 Taskbar Large Icons

[Edjsch]

blawson,

Thank you for your info. I'm stuck with V. 8.5 for now.

You're correct: The XP taskbar only supported the 16x16 icons. Vista introduced the ability to use larger icons.

Both my exe and shortcut icons are the same 32x32 icon (to which Win 7 adds the little arrow in the lower left corner). No matter if I launch my exe from the shortcut or directly, they both exhibit the same behavior, as I described above (and is different, apparently, on different PCs!).

The executable has all of the icons that I built, in my case 16x16, 32x32, and 64x64, all 8 bit color. It is the OS to choose which icon to display where and when. So I'm skeptical that it is a LV build or run-time engine problem, but who knows. Do you have any info on how this could possibly be a LV problem? After all, it is Windows 7 that is substutiting an up-scaled 16x16 icon for the 32x32 icon that is stored in the exe?

The V8.5 icon editor does not support 64x64, but I used a different icon editor to create my icon. Is it possible that application Builder can't handle that one? I doubt it because the 64x64 shows up fine in Windows Explorer's "Large Icons" view.

Thanks,

Ed

[blawson]

The reason I think it's a labview issue is that it works perfectly fine in 2010.  Don't you see the same behavior with (older versions of) LabVIEW itself?

My guess is that LabVIEW used to explicitly set the icon as 16x16 for each window it created, and then when Vista added the many-icon-sizes feature NI updated 2010 to match the new standard.

Here's a link to a discussion about someone's app in Delphi that had this problem.  I bet that the first response almost exactly represents how labview was and then is coded.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2621814/delphi-form-icons-are-blurry-on-windows-7s-taskbar-with-m...

I actually do see a 32x32 when the buttons are combined regardless of exe or shortcut (though the source can be different for those two).

If you're seeing a 16x16 even then, maybe "small icons" is checked and the DPI adjustment makes them look larger?

In any case, the upshot is that there's nothing you can do.

[Edjsch]

blawson, thanks for your reply. I believe you that this issue has been fixed in V2010, but I still don't see why (I'm not getting something.)

First of all, why does the "Always combine, hide labels" taskbar setting work on one Win7 PC (Home Premium) but not on another (which happens to be Professional)?

Secondly, that Delphi link says, "Anyway, Windows 7, still, by default returns 16x16 for the small icon (SM_CXSMICON/SM_CYSMICON) and 32x32 for the large icon (SM_CXICON/SM_CYICON), but the large taskbar displays the large icon, if there is one that is.." I DO have a 32x32 icon. He seems to be indicating that the 16x16 icon is up-scaled ONLY IF there is no 32x32 icon. No?

The answer to your question, "If you're seeing a 16x16 even then, maybe "small icons" is checked and the DPI adjustment makes them look larger?" is: NO, "small icons" is NOT checked, and I'm seeing the 16x16 icon up-scaled to 32x32 (when "Combined when taskbar is full" on the Home Premium PC, and in either case on the Professional PC).

Ed

[blawson]

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Edjsch wrote:

blawson, thanks for your reply. I believe you that this issue has been fixed in V2010, but I still don't see why (I'm not getting something.)

Secondly, that Delphi link says, "Anyway, Windows 7, still, by default returns 16x16 for the small icon (SM_CXSMICON/SM_CYSMICON) and 32x32 for the large icon (SM_CXICON/SM_CYICON), but the large taskbar displays the large icon, if there is one that is.." I DO have a 32x32 icon. He seems to be indicating that the 16x16 icon is up-scaled ONLY IF there is no 32x32 icon. No?

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My theory is that labview pre-2010 is overriding the default behavior by explicitly setting the icon for the taskbar, and doing it only with the 16x16 image.  If I'm right, it doesn't matter whether you have the larger image in your icon file, labview will only ever use the 16x16, and win7 has to upscale the small icon.

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First of all, why does the "Always combine, hide labels" taskbar setting work on one Win7 PC (Home Premium) but not on another (which happens to be Professional)?

The answer to your question, "If you're seeing a 16x16 even then, maybe "small icons" is checked and the DPI adjustment makes them look larger?" is: NO, "small icons" is NOT checked, and I'm seeing the 16x16 icon up-scaled to 32x32 (when "Combined when taskbar is full" on the Home Premium PC, and in either case on the Professional PC).

Ed

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I can't explain what your're seeing.  A scaled-up small icon when it is combined does seem to be something windows is doing (as I've said before, when it's combined, it should be using the application's icon, not anything LV substituted.) Could you go check out the post I did on LV itself and see if the images there don't match what you're seeing?

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/How-To-Setup-your-LV-Icons-so-you-can-tell-versions-apart/m-p/125907...

  I understand that Win7 changes some elements of the GUI in relation to the screen's DPI.

1)Could your two PCs have unusual DPI ratios (super fancy vs. super old display?)

2)Does either machine have a non-default DPI adjustment in the control panel?

3) Is "Use XP Style Scaling" checked or unchecked in the "Custom DPI Scaling" section of the control panel?

[Edjsch]

blawson - I read your post "How-To: Setup your LV Icons so you can tell versions apart." Nice job.

I understand your "theory" on pre-2010 LabVIEW, but still cannot understand how/why Win7 correctly displays the 32x32 icon when the taskbar property "always combine" is selected, but uses the up-scaled 16x16 icon otherwise. It seems to me that this indicates that the OS (Win7) can access both icons, and it chooses which to display where.

Update on the second point: Now that person's Win7 Professional is displaying the correct 32x32 icon (when "always combine" is selected, as it was!)! He said he didn't reboot and didn't change any settings. Bizzare! Whatever!

Thanks much.

Ed

[kyleleon3.14]

I have found a way to get the 32x32 to work in the task bar in win 7, with lv 8.5

if you "pin" it to the task bar it will take the 32x32 and not scale it to 16x16

[Edjsch]

Thanks for the post.

So there does seem to be some interaction with Win7 and versions of LV. Anyway, that person's Win7 Professional that we thought was displaying the correct 32x32 icon: If he pins it to the task bar it looks OK on the task bar (32x32), but the icon on the desktop looks a little fuzzy, like it's the 32x32 upscaled to what looks like 48x48 (it might be 64x64; I can't tell and he was busy so I couldn't get a screen shot and/or magnify it to see.). I have another icon for another program, built the same way (with the same LV version), and that looks fine (not fuzzy) on the desk top. We don't understand this. If I find out, I'll post.

-Ed