Windows 7: REALLY Never Combine icons on taskbar

Hello World,

what a nice forum here! A lot of questions have been answered so far, but unfortunately not all!




I want that the icons on the taskbar of the related programs I have started will NOT be combined anyway.
Therefore if I want to open Internet Explorer at first, then Notepad at second and another Internet Explorer at last. The Icons should be orderd in the way I have opened them WITHOUT any combining!


The three given possibilites won't fit for my situation:

• Always combine, hide labels (I want NO combining)
• Combine when taskbar is full (will display label text) (I want NO combining)
• Never combine (will display label text) (unfortunately same programms (like Internet Explorer) will be combined also)

Within this forum I found some interesting ideas and suggestions, but nothing led me to the solution I am looking for.

For example changing the registry entry (HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVerion\Explorer\Advanced\TaskbarGlomLevel) gave me the possibility to select on of the three given possibilites, but nothing more.


It seems that it is impossible with Windows7 to deactivate the combining completely.


I would be very nice if anyone can give me some comments if it is possible or not!


*EDIT*
Meanwhile I found a post here to use 7 Taskbar Tweaker. If possible I would like to use no additional software or is NON combining only possible with this software? Is there any other software available, perhaps from Microsoft?
Sorry for increasing the number of questions.

Kind regards,
Schnacke

Try enabling quick launch then unpinning all of the programs from the taskbar.

Quick Launch - Enable or Disable

Hi FliGi7,

thanks for your help.
If I understand the tutorial right, this generates a Quick Launch where I can start easily some applications (like the Quick Launch of XP).
But after they have been started, they will still be combined in the way I want to disable.

I think that this is not solving my problem, so any other reactions are still welcome!


Kind regards,
Schnacke

It seems as though we say this on a daily basis, but don't blame the OS, if the OS is not the culprit. If it was Windows 7..everyone would experience this problem. I've configured nearly 100 Windows 7 machines in the 18 months it is has been available, and each one gets set to Never Combine....and it works for any and all programs, including IE.

Now, that being said, if it doesn't work for you, that likely means something you "tweaked" or an app you installed is affecting the setting.

I would still go through the steps above, just to get it reset to the way you want. If that doesn't work, I'd consider running the sfc /SCANNOW command, or installing SP1 if you haven't already.

That makes me wandering !

I am unsure if I did explain it in the wrong way or if I am still doing the wrong things to disable the combining completely.

Interestingly I found several places (including a tutorial) in this forum that are telling me that it is still impossible with Windows 7 to REALLY disable combining.

• Taskbar Button Grouping - Enable or Disable
• taskbar help?
• Taskbar button grouping advice needed

All of this is leading directly to the fact that the combining is forced and impossible to disable with the given Windows 7 possibilites (without the '7 Taskbar Tweaker').



DeaconFrost, I think that we are not talking about the same things!?



Kind regards,
Schnacke

You could try posting a screenshot of your taskbar with an example, but combining is definitely not forced. I'm not sure if we are talking about the same things, but once I set any computer to Never Combine....it stays that way, for all apps and programs. I'll post an example of mine.

Hi DeaconFrost,

your screenshot is already discribing what I meant:
the two Internet Explorer applications are combined. I can show you the same with some screenshots I have prepared ...

I will do this in a seperate post for a better overview ...

Quick launch is only a part of the solution. The second part of my response above is unpinning all the programs so they don't combine. This should give you what you want.

Going by my screenshot...are you saying you don't want the IE windows to be next to each other, assuming they were opened separately? If so, I think you just need to remove the icon for IE from your taskbar.

Huh? The two ie windows are clearly not combined in his screenshot.