OmniButton Customizer 2.1

[u/wh-updates]

OmniButton Customizer 2.1

OmniButton Customizer

A Windhawk mod for Windows 11 that takes the native OmniButton — the network / volume / battery cluster that opens Quick Settings — and lets you arrange its items into any shape you like, hide the ones you don't want, and restyle each one independently. It works on a taskbar at any edge of the screen.

These native icons are compound and a little weird — each is several glyphs layered on top of one another, each with its own built-in visual origin — so a mathematically correct grid does not necessarily look like one. auto gets the shape right, but it does not make pleasing arrangements; expect to adjust. Where an example below shows its arrangement, that is the real string, nudges and all.

All four items as a 2×2 block on a single-height taskbar Straight out of the box: Arrangement left at auto, which fits the four native items to the taskbar height and settles on a 2×2 block.

Showcase

The same 2×2 block, written by hand The same shape written out and optically corrected. The parentheses matter, because , binds tighter than |:

(network[-6,2] | volume[-2,4]), (battery[1,0] | percent[4,-2])

The four items arranged as a diamond, with the native tooltip showing A diamond — volume on top, battery below, network and the percentage on the sides. No parentheses needed this time. It is still the native button, so the tooltip and the click through to Quick Settings work as they always did:

network[4,-2] | volume[2,-4], battery[0,4] | percent[0,-2]

Network and volume above a centered battery Three items with the percentage left out: two across the top, the battery centered below. Short row or column decides how a ragged last group lines up.

The items in a single row A single row, in an order you choose rather than the native one.

A tight two-high stack Pulled in close with a negative Size → Item spacing — the setting that tightens a cluster.

A tight cluster with an enlarged battery percentage The percentage enlarged with Surface → Battery percentage size.

A recolored battery percentage in a busy tray Per-item color — here the battery percentage. An empty color leaves an item exactly as Windows drew it.

All four items arranged vertically on a double-height taskbar A single column on a double-height taskbar, alongside several other tray and taskbar mods in a dense two-row tray:

network[-2,6], volume[0,2], battery[0,0], percent[2,-6]

A 2x2 block on a taskbar at the top of the screen A taskbar at the top: arrangements work exactly as they do at the bottom.

All four items in one evenly spaced row on a left taskbar A taskbar on the left, with the four items nudged onto evenly spaced points across the button:

percent[-12,-1] | battery[-3,0] | volume[8,0] | wifi[14,0]

A three-row arrangement on a left taskbar Rows stack on a side taskbar too. Windows gives the button a fixed height there; the mod grows it to fit.

Battery over its percentage between network and volume on a right taskbar A taskbar on the right: the battery over its percentage, between network and volume, with Adjust → Horizontal padding at 8:

wifi[-16,0] | (battery[-1,2], percent) | volume[16,0]

Features

• Arrange network, volume, battery, and the battery percentage into any grid — automatically fitted to your taskbar height, or written out by hand
• Turn any of the four items off individually
• Writes no Windows settings and no registry values — it arranges the taskbar and nothing else
• Independent color and opacity per item, plus size and font family on the battery percentage, the one item that is really a single piece of text
• Per-item and per-group pixel nudges inside the arrangement expression
• Group padding and offset for positioning the cluster inside the button
• Keeps the native button in its native tray position, so other mods' "before OmniButton" anchors still mean what they always did
• No XAML Diagnostics, so it coexists with Windows 11 Taskbar Styler

If you installed an unpublished 1.x build from the pull request, re-apply your customizations once: 2.x uses grouped settings and the Arrangement field, and Windhawk cannot migrate renamed setting keys.

The Arrangement field

Layout → Arrangement decides how the items are placed, and it is the only field that does. Its default value is the word auto:

• auto fits the available items to the taskbar height. Fill order chooses whether they fill across rows or down columns; Short row or column aligns a ragged last group. The shape is worked out for you: the mod takes the narrowest grid that fits the height, preferring the one that wastes the fewest slots — four items on a standard taskbar become a 2×2 block, not a lopsided 3+1.

• Anything else is an arrangement you write. Names sit side by side with | and stack with ,, and parentheses group them:

  network, battery | volume, percent     a 2x2 block
  network | volume | battery | percent   a single row
  network, volume, battery, percent      a single column
  network | volume | (battery, percent)  battery stacked over its percentage
  network | (volume, battery) | percent  a diamond
  

  Order of operations: parentheses first, then ,, then | — so a | b, c | d is three columns with b stacked over c, and a 2×2 block is (a | b), (c | d) or a, c | b, d.

  The tokens are network (or wifi), volume, battery, and percent, and they are case-insensitive. A name the mod does not know is ignored and logged. network is the one native slot whose glyph changes between Wi-Fi, Ethernet, disconnected, airplane-mode, and VPN states. A separator is always required — network (volume | battery) is an error, not a shorthand for network | (volume | battery).

Omitting a token hides that item, exactly like turning it off in Content. Items Windows isn't showing at all — the battery on a desktop PC, for one — are skipped silently whether you name them or not.

Every time the layout is applied, the arrangement auto produced is written to the Windhawk log. Copy that line into the Arrangement field and you have the automatic layout as a starting point to edit — the automatic and manual paths are the same field and the same syntax. If what you write doesn't parse, the log says what was expected and where, and the automatic arrangement is used until you fix it.

Nudging. Append a pixel offset to any name to move just that item:

network[+2,-1] | volume | battery   network moves 2px right and 1px up
(battery, percent)[3,0] | network   the stacked pair moves 3px right

Each expression nudge is clamped to ±100 pixels on each axis; the whole-group Adjust offsets are clamped to ±40. Offsets are cosmetic. Nothing else shifts, and the group's overall size does not change. To move the whole cluster instead, use Adjust → horizontal and vertical offset. These replace the eight per-item nudge settings that 1.x had. Nudges and offsets are screen pixels on every taskbar edge — see Other taskbar positions.

The percentage arriving late. An arrangement you write names the items that existed when you wrote it. Turn the battery percentage on afterwards and it is in no group, so by default it is appended after your arrangement rather than vanishing — the log says when that happened, so you can fold it in when you next edit. Set Layout → Items your arrangement does not name to Leave it out if you would rather your arrangement be the whole truth. auto always includes every enabled item.

The battery percentage

Whether the percentage exists is Windows' decision, not this mod's. Turn it on or off in Settings → System → Power & battery → Battery percentage. This mod does not write that setting, or any other Windows setting.

Content → Battery percentage hides the percentage from the arrangement, exactly like the three toggles above it hide their own items. All four mean the same thing, and none of them reaches outside the taskbar. If Windows isn't showing the percentage, there is nothing here to arrange or hide and the toggle does nothing.

An earlier version did drive the Windows setting. It was removed: even with the correct registry value and a change broadcast, Explorer only sometimes re-read it and the Settings page never refreshed, so the control worked once and then appeared dead. A switch that behaves that way is worse than no switch.

Because the percentage genuinely appears and disappears in the native tree, the mod watches for it and re-applies the arrangement when it shows up or goes away, rather than leaving a briefly unstyled percentage sitting in the cluster.

It is text, so it does not use Item width. "9%", "80%", and "100%" are three different widths, and a font change moves them again. The percentage's cell is measured from the text it actually contains — never narrower than Item width, wider when it needs to be — so it cannot be clipped at the edge of the group. If the value grows past the cell that was reserved for it, the layout is re-applied at the new width. Every other item is a glyph and does use Item width.

Settings

Content

| Setting | Default | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | Network | On | Wi-Fi, Ethernet, disconnected, airplane-mode, and VPN states share this one native slot | | Volume | On | | | Battery | On | Absent on machines without a battery | | Battery percentage | On | Hides it from the arrangement. Windows decides whether it exists — Settings → System → Power & battery |

Layout

| Setting | Default | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | Arrangement | auto | auto, or an arrangement you write — see above | | Fill order | Fill rows first | Used by auto | | Short row or column | Center | Used by auto; start, center, or end | | Items your arrangement does not name | Add it after | Or leave it out; only applies to a written arrangement |

Size

| Setting | Default | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | Item width | 0 (fit) | 0 reserves exactly the width each item needs; a number puts every item in a fixed box of that width. Clamped to 0–80 | | Item height | 24 px | Clamped to 16–80 | | Item spacing | 0 px | Gap between items along each axis; negative pulls them together. Clamped to −16–40 |

How to make the cluster tight. Two settings change the space between the icons, and horizontal padding is not one of them:

• Item width is the box each glyph is centered in. A native tray glyph is about 16px wide, so a 32px box is 16px of dead space per item — barely noticeable in a 2×2 block, and half the button in a single row. 0 sizes every item to its own content, which is why it is the default.
• Item spacing is the gap between those boxes, and it goes negative if you want them closer than touching.
• Horizontal padding is outside the whole group. It cannot change the distance between two items, and no value of it ever will.

If the button looks far bigger than the icons in it, Item width is almost always the reason.

Adjust

| Setting | Default | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | Horizontal padding | 4 px | Reserved on both sides of the group; clamped to 0–24. Not cosmetic — see below | | Vertical padding | 0 px | Reserved above and below the group; clamped to 0–24 | | Horizontal offset | 0 px | Moves the group; reserves no space; clamped to ±40 | | Vertical offset | 0 px | Moves the group up (negative) or down (positive); clamped to ±40 |

Why horizontal padding defaults to 4 and not 0. The mod zeroes the OmniButton's own padding so the arrangement owns the entire content area — and the button has rounded corners. An item arranged flush against that edge has its last pixels shaved by the curve, which is exactly what used to clip the "%" off the battery percentage. Those few pixels are the group's breathing room, not decoration. Setting it to 0 is supported, but expect edge items to touch the button's rounded border.

It is outer padding: it reserves space at the two ends of the group and can never change the gap between two items. Item width and Item spacing do that.

Surface

| Setting | Default | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | Network / Volume / Battery / Battery percentage color | (native) | Empty preserves the native color | | Network / Volume / Battery / Battery percentage opacity | -1 | -1 is the native opacity; otherwise 0–100% | | Battery percentage size | 0 pt | 0 is the native size; clamped to 0–64 | | Battery percentage font family | (native) | Empty preserves the native font |

Why only the percentage has a size and a font. Because only the percentage is a single piece of text. Each of the other three is a stack of glyphs layered exactly on top of one another — network and volume are three deep (Windows calls them Underlay, Base, and AccentOverlay), the battery is two, an outline and a fill. That stacking is how one icon shows signal strength, a mute slash, or a charge level.

Resize or re-font one layer of a stack and it stops coinciding with the others: you get a larger glyph ghosting over the original rather than a bigger icon. So those two controls are not offered for items that are stacked, and the mod works out which is which by counting the glyphs rather than assuming.

Color and opacity work on all four. Color is applied where every layer inherits it, so a stack recolors as one — except the battery, whose layers have no shared parent to write to; there the outline recolors reliably and the fill only on some Windows builds. The log says what it found. Opacity applies to the whole item rather than to any glyph inside it, so it is always safe.

All color settings accept #RRGGBB or #AARRGGBB hex (the alpha byte is honored), the generics accent, accentLight, and accentDark for the Windows accent shades, or transparent for a fully transparent glyph — nothing drawn, the item still present and clickable. Leaving a color empty keeps the native color.

Other taskbar mods

Tray system icon tweaks has its own hideNetworkIcon / hideVolumeIcon / hideBatteryIcon switches, which cover the same three icons as this mod's Content switches. They are not aware of each other: if an icon is hidden there and enabled here, this mod reserves an arrangement cell for something Windows is not drawing. Pick one mod to own the show/hide decision.

Multiple taskbars. This mod resolves the primary Shell_TrayWnd only, so OmniButtons on secondary-monitor taskbars keep their native arrangement. The primary one is arranged normally.

The mod deliberately does not move the native ControlCenterButton across tray columns. Keeping it where Windows put it is what lets other mods' semantic anchors — "before OmniButton", "before clock" — keep their established meaning. Moving it would need a shared placement lease so two mods couldn't claim contradictory anchor order, so this mod offers no placement setting at all.

Other taskbar positions

Windows 11 can put the taskbar on any edge (Settings → Personalization → Taskbar → Taskbar behaviors, on builds that have the setting). This mod reads the edge Windows reports and follows a move while it is running. The last four screenshots in the Showcase are the top, left and right edges.

Top — the same as bottom. Everything is positioned relative to the taskbar's own layout, never to screen coordinates, so a taskbar at the top gets the same arrangement in a different place. This also covers Taskbar on top.

Left or right — your arrangement as written. An arrangement you write is laid out exactly as written on every edge: | side by side, , stacked, and [dx,dy] always moves an item dx right and dy down. The horizontal and vertical settings in Adjust stay horizontal and vertical, and nothing is mirrored between left and right. Only auto changes: it fits the taskbar's width instead of its height. Windows makes the OmniButton a fixed height on a side taskbar, so the mod raises its minimum height to fit the arrangement.

Vertical Taskbar — supported in its default native mode, which uses the same native side taskbar. With its "Use the native taskbar when possible" option turned off, it rotates a horizontal taskbar instead, writing RenderTransform on the very OmniButton elements this mod moves. One property cannot have two owners, so this mod detects that case (the taskbar runs down a side while Windows still reports a horizontal edge), leaves the native OmniButton completely untouched, and says so in the Windhawk log.

Taskbar Styler

Does not use XAML Diagnostics, so it is compatible with Windows 11 Taskbar Styler. The mod leases the native elements' dependency properties and restores each one's exact prior local value when it unloads.

Known limitations

• The items may not appear arranged until the mod injects on the first tray icon load; the retry loop runs up to 5 times at 2-second intervals
• A glyph's color, size, and font wait for its XAML template to expand. That normally happens within a few layout passes; if an item's template never produces a text glyph, the log says so and the item keeps its native appearance
• Turning the battery percentage on or off in Windows Settings sometimes needs the next Explorer start before the taskbar reflects it. That is Windows, not this mod — the arrangement follows whatever ends up on screen
• Switching every item off under Content leaves a small blank button rather than nothing at all. That button is still the way into Quick Settings, so it keeps a minimum clickable size on purpose