By George Norman
Added on 14 Dec 2009(12054 Views)



By default, the Windows 7 operating system will group together similar taskbar buttons in the taskbar. Let’s say that you have two instances of the same program open, or that you have several files in a single program open. Windows 7 will automatically detect windows from the same program and group them into a single taskbar button. You can preview the open windows by hovering the mouse over the taskbar button.

Just point to a button on the taskbar -> then point to a thumbnail and you will notice that all other open windows will temporarily fade out to reveal the selected window. Point the mouse away and the preview will go away. Click the thumbnail and the window you’re previewing will open.

Under one taskbar button Windows 7 will group all instances of a specific program, or all the files you’ve opened with a specific program. Some users may not like this. There is a simple way of stopping Windows 7 from groping similar taskbar buttons on the taskbar.

Here is what you have to do to:

Step 1. Right click the Taskbar and select Properties.
Alternatively you can click Start -> right click an empty space in the Start Menu -> click Properties.
Or if you want to take the long route, you can click Start -> Control Panel -> Appearance and Personalization -> Taskbar and Start Menu.

Step 2. Click the Start Menu tab from the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties window that appears.

Step 3. Click the Taskbar tab -> from the dropdown menu next to Taskbar buttons, under Taskbar Appearance, select Never Combine.

Step 4. Click Apply -> click OK and you’re done.

Tips and warnings
  • If you want to remove the Recycle Bin icon from the desktop (see here) but would still like to easily access it, then you should know that you can pin the Recycle Bin to the windows 7 taskbar (see here).
  • You can also pin Windows Update to the taskbar.




Don't forget to:

Tags: Microsoft, Windows 7, Taskbar

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Comments

Pomax - 31 Mar 2011 21:05
As it turns out, turning grouping on/off only turns off "collapsing into one button". It does NOT turn off grouping buttons by application ID, and you cannot tell Windows 7 to allow you to reorder task bar buttons for multiple instances of the same application. The only way to do this is to use a utility that modifies the DLL hooks for the functions that tell windows which ordering to use. The only one I know of right now is "7 Taskbar Tweaker", which offers actually ungrouping, both in terms of "every instance has its own button" and "every button is independent of every other button".
Pomax - 18 Jan 2011 21:35
Note that even if you turn off grouping, programs will still be "glued" together. If you open notepad two times, windows 7 will glue the taskbar buttons for two instances together, and refuses to let you move just one of them. Even if they're not related in the slightest. If you know how to turn that off, too, please let us know.
secret - 09 Jun 2010 21:54
i did that and it still grouping icons shows me all IE pages under same icon hate this crap
Chris Robertson - 06 Jan 2010 22:34
skip to step 3 - The taskbar tab
Chris Robertson - 06 Jan 2010 21:39
Step 2 is not available. I am using Windows 7 Ultimate. It only shows power button options, start menu customize button, and 2 Privacy settings.

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