I like nice long buttons where I can easily read the text. I have no issues with the buttons being too short to read them on my taskbar.
This is one of the many benefits of having your taskbar on the side and extending it as far as it will go, and putting it on autohide.
The first 2 screenshots in my post here will show you how I have it:
https://www.donation....msg238489#msg238489Yes, I am running XP with classic theme there, but you can do it in Win7 as well, and with aero, or whatever crap they have for themes now. And it is easy to do...just unlock your taskbar and drag it to the side and stretch it. (I don't lock mine because I like the little bands that separate each toolbar, and they disappear if you lock the taskbar)
The only time my buttons get shortened is when I have a ton of open windows, enough to fill all the space on the taskbar, resulting in Windows making 2 columns of them, at which point they become about half the length, which is still pretty wide compared to what you have now.
It will take a little getting used to but once you do, you may never go back to that sliver of a taskbar at the bottom of the screen. I have had my taskbar like this for the last 13 years, ever since my first PC was given to me with it preconfigured that way, back in the Win98 days.
But be careful...if you get too used to it, it will make using another OS very uncomfortable. I have issues with Ubuntu because I can't take my Windows taskbar with me.