In Windows XP and Vista we used to be able to prevent taskbar button grouping easily. Microsoft with Windows 7 has removed such feature. They only allowed what they call in their vocabulary “Never Combine” which practically separates taskbar buttons but keeps buttons representing the same program grouped together. So, even if you try to organize the buttons on the taskbar (by dragging them with the mouse cursor, which is a new cool feature in Windows 7), buttons belonging to the same program will be moved together.
To make the taskbar buttons always separated, you have to set the settings for them in Taskbar properties and use a small utility to tweak the Windows Taskbar buttons behavior.
Setting Windows 7 taskbar properties,
- Right click the taskbar then click “properties”
- For the Taskbar buttons drop down menu, select “Never Combine”
- This part is optional, but I also like to check the “Use small icons” checkbox. Just to make it more like our beloved Windows XP :)
- Click the “OK” button
Making the taskbar buttons never “group”,
- Go to this page to download “7 Taskbar Tweaker”. If the author’s page is not available, you can get the program from Softpedia.
- If you have 32-bit version of Windows 7, choose “7_Taskbar_Tweaker.rar” as your download. If you have 64-bit Windows 7, choose 7_Taskbar_Tweaker_x64.rar
- Extract the RAR archive file. The download is a RAR archive file, you should have WinRAR program to extract its content.
- Move the program directory to any place you want, I prefer to put it in “Program Files”
- start the program by double clicking its file
- In the grouping section, select “Don’t Group”
- click the “Apply” button
- Now, click the “settings” button
- The settings apply while the program is running, so you should check the “Run at startup” checkbox
- then click the “OK” button (you could also hide the tray icon if you check the “Hide tray icon” checkbox)
- click the “x” (close) button to close the window (the program will remain running)
(it should be noted that after you setup the utility as instructed above, you should close opened windows and open them again for the new taskbar behavior to be in effect)
That’s it, another Windows 7 annoyance defeated :)
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5 Comments
Thank you so much for that fix!
Thanks alot this problem really annoyed me.
Looks like Windows 7 Taskbar tweaker has updated since your original post, as the installation was much easier than you posted. Once installed, it did exactly as you said, and as I hoped. Stupid grouping of running programs on my taskbar is gone, I can now move instances of Windows Explorer (for example) to different areas of the taskbar instead of having to have all the explorer icons stay together! THANKS!
Thank you. It would be great if all versions of windows had a simple button to “set to XP style”. There are many things about Windows 7 that upset me, and even if they are “better”, I don’t care becuase I am fine with XP (or with win2k plus google desktop for that matter).
You mention that “another Windows 7 annoyance defeated :)”
I have a fair few more…
I wish that there were less emphasis on virtual folders (which I would like to be able to eradicate completely other than the “recently used”) because I use a portable solid state hard drive to store all files since I use several computers, and I don’t want to be searching for my files in various places, nor do I want to break virtual files when my hard drive is not plugged in. I have eradicated virtual folders (Library, Home Group, my username) with only limited success. I want one simple “Bannish Virtual Folders” button. If I had a server that I could acess from anywhere then virtualisation might be a good idea but I do not. I have to carry something with me, use hard folders, so virtual is a big pain.
I wish “My Computer” would remain open so I that I can see my hard disks.
I wish that in general the folder tree would remain open a lot more than it now does so that I can get to the place where I was before quicker.
I wish that I could click on folder icons to open the folder tree in the left hand pane rather than have to click on those d*** tiny yellow triangles. (AARGH!)
The “recently used folders” idea is an interesting solution to the above annoyance (Windows 7 tries to cure its own annoyances!) but there are far too many folders displayed despite my attempts to reduce them to about 2 or 3.
I wish that there were an easy way of bringing back a full list of programs rather than having the programs overlay the start menu and require scrolling.Grr. I use something that may be called “vistastartmenu” but it has issues, and a pro version that I don’t want to (and have not) bought.
I wish that the whole screen would not go black for a second when I execute java (jucheck.exe) or whatever. It might be an okay feature, that I might use, to prevent rash execution of malware if it had a whitelist for “do not warn me for this programme next time either”.
Basically I hate the fact that a lot of people are keeping themselves employed by effecting changes to systems that I know and like by selling stuff that causes pain. I want a “classic look and feel” button yesterday. Personally I think that MS are not providing this deliberately forcing people to get used to new technology. If we could revert to a classic (e.g. XP) look and feel then we’d realise that we don’t need the latest and or that many flavours of Linux (which look like XP last time I checked) would do fine too.
Any way thanks for the above.
Thanks. This is more than annoying when you have Linux running in a VirtualBox with dual monitors. As windows 7 groups the the two monitors together, you just ‘lose’ one! End up having to restart the VM.