taskbar help?

On every version of Windows I've ever used, open programs appear on the taskbar in the order in which they were opened.

For instance, if I opened a Firefox browser, and then an MS Word doc, and then another FF browser, they'd appear in that order.

Now, it seems they are being grouped together by program. Not in groups, like you click on the taskbar and get the popup menu for the six open browsers you may have in FF, for example, but now I have 4 FF browsers right in a row, and then 3 Word docs right in a row, instead of in the order in which they were opened.

Hope that makes sense. I know what I'm trying to say but not sure if I'm saying it correctly.

Anyway, if this DOES make sense and someone knows how to make it go back the old way, I'd be grateful. I liked it better that way because it made it easier for me find programs to go between.

I've already turned off grouping in the taskbar prefs, but is there something else I can do?

And before you ask, tabs irritate me, which is why I don't use them. I need to be able to see what browsers I have open in case I'm not in Firefox - which is why I don't like the tabs.

Thanx,
Jamie

In Vista/XP if you turned off "Group similar taskbar buttons" then buttons would simply appear in the order in which the windows were opened. The Windows 7 taskbar got rid of that behavior and will group buttons of a similar process together even with the "never combine" setting. The "never combine" setting just means the buttons will never collapse down to a single button (called a glom). There is no setting you can set to get back to the old behavior.

MrJukes said:

In Vista/XP if you turned off "Group similar taskbar buttons" then buttons would simply appear in the order in which the windows were opened. The Windows 7 taskbar got rid of that behavior and will group buttons of a similar process together even with the "never combine" setting. The "never combine" setting just means the buttons will never collapse down to a single button (called a glom). There is no setting you can set to get back to the old behavior.

Yeah, I found that out after myriad Google searches. :) Fortunately, I found an add-on that takes care of the problem. Taskbar Tweaker is awesome, for anyone who wants it. It even lets you drag/drop open windows on your taskbar to reorder them.