RetroBar is a free, open-source Windows taskbar replacement with classic visual styles and controls for running applications. It provides task buttons, Quick Launch shortcuts, a notification area, a clock, and an input-language selector. The Start button opens the modern Windows Start menu.
Taskbar themes
The theme selector changes the bar’s visual design and shows a preview in Properties. Included choices cover Windows Classic, Watercolor, several XP color schemes, and Vista styles. The appearance controls apply to the replacement bar and its menus.
Custom themes use XAML resource dictionaries, and the theme list can include local theme files alongside the supplied designs. Font smoothing has separate switches for the taskbar and its menus. Transparent themes also have a control for the blur behind the bar.
Position and size
An unlocked bar can move to any screen edge. Dragging changes its position, while resizing a horizontal bar adds rows and resizing a vertical bar changes its width. Properties also exposes row-count and width controls. Locking the taskbar prevents those drag adjustments.
A scale setting changes the bar’s size. Auto-hide retracts it when it is not in use, and a separate setting controls the thin line that remains at the edge.
Working with windows
The task list includes conventional desktop applications and UWP apps. Clicking a task brings its window forward; clicking an active task can minimize it. Dragging task buttons changes their order. Optional Vista-style thumbnails preview windows.
A task’s context menu offers window operations such as restore, move, minimize, maximize, and close, according to the window’s state. An optional End Task entry terminates the associated process. Middle-click behavior can do nothing, open another instance, or close the task. Holding Shift reverses the configured open-or-close action.
Quick Launch
The Quick Launch toolbar reads items from a folder that users select in Properties. Its buttons launch those items directly. Dropping files onto the toolbar creates shortcuts to them, and dragging existing items changes their order. The program saves that order for later use.
Windows-number shortcuts can retain their normal behavior, switch task buttons, or open Quick Launch items. In task-switching mode, adding Shift opens a new instance. After RetroBar overrides these shortcuts, Windows regains them only after the user signs out and back in.
Notification icons
The notification area displays application icons and balloon notifications. Its collapsible layout can hide inactive icons while leaving active or urgent notifications visible. Users can drag icons into a different order and open the notification customization list for individual behavior.
Each entry can remain visible, stay hidden, hide when inactive, or disappear from the notification area. Always hide also suppresses that icon’s balloon notifications. A separate inversion setting adjusts system icons when the theme needs different colors, or applies inversion always or never.
Clock actions
The clock can show seconds or disappear from the taskbar. Clicking it can open an Aero calendar, the modern calendar, or Notification Center, according to the available Windows controls. Another choice leaves the click inactive.
Language and desktop buttons
The input-language selector lists installed languages and keyboard layouts, then switches to the user’s choice. An optional Show Desktop button reveals the desktop. Dragging a file over that button can also trigger the desktop view.
More than one display
RetroBar can create taskbars across multiple monitors, including notification areas and clocks. Task buttons can appear on every bar, only beside their window, or beside their window and on the primary display. A separate option shows Start buttons on all taskbars.
Startup preferences
Properties can enable automatic startup at login and update checks. Another setting selects the interface language. Settings persist for subsequent launches. Exiting RetroBar reveals the Windows taskbar again.
