Can Dashes Be Removed Below Taskbar Icons?

Are the small dashes under each icon open in the taskbar something that can be turned off? I find it a bit distracting (and I'm not seeing the point of it).

The point of it is to show you that the programs represented by the icons are running, with a longer dash indicating which one has the focus. Apps can also use it to show progress of lengthy operations.

What @barreleye said.

The only app I know with which you can disable those dashes is Windhawk.
That is software to modify the taskbar (and many other Windows 11 UI things).
It is a rather huge packet: it takes about 600-700MBytes on your system drive for just a few UI-modifications.
But it is very flexible, if you understand it's 'language'.
About two month ago I tested it and got very neat results with it, but decided not to use it (I have a licence for Start11 v2).

The dashes can be removed in the mod 'Taskbar Styler'.
With the command:
Target: taskbar:TaskListLabeledButtonPanel@RunningIndicatorStates > Rectangle#RunningIndicator
Styles: Height=0

So if you have some test-environment like Windows on VirtualBox or a separate test-PC, you could try to use that package to tweak the taskbar UI to your wishes.

A little list of all settings I made in Windhawk is included in the attached text file.
It does not pretend to be absolutely correct and maybe the used words here and there are incorrect (I originally made the notes in the list in Dutch language). I am not able to check it with the last version of Windhawk (if there is a newer version after end of April 2024), because I don't have it installed anywhere anymore on my systems.

Windhawk is a fully free package!

As stated, the "Dash" under the icon lets you know the app is open and running. As opposed to just being a shortcut in the taskbar to the app.
If you removed that you wouldn't know which is a shortcut to an app or an app that is open in the background.

Spunk said:

If you removed that you wouldn't know which is a shortcut to an app or an app that is open in the background.

Click to expand...

That I would like to contradict.
In my system, where I changed the taskbar color, the active window is clearly viewable, much clearer than the dash below it.
So I would not mind, if that dash would not be there.



But I know in the original Windows taskbar (and light theme) it's white all over the place.

I changed the taskbar color by using Stardock Start11 (which is payed software), but in Windhawk you can do that as well.
That's included in my text file in #4.
------- Taakbalk: change color -------
Target: Rectangle#BackgroundFill
Styles: Fill=#B4B4B4