taskbar

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?

Thanx,
Jamie

Right -click on the Start Burton,. choose properties,. click the Taskbar tab and choose Combine when taskbar is full.

No, that's precisely what I DON'T want it to do.

In other words, if I open a FF browser, then a Word doc and then a FF browser, in the old days, they would appear in my taskbar in that order. Now I see a FF, FF and then the Word doc.

I want it the way it used to be.

jamieresearch said:

No, that's precisely what I DON'T want it to do.

In other words, if I open a FF browser, then a Word doc and then a FF browser, in the old days, they would appear in my taskbar in that order. Now I see a FF, FF and then the Word doc.

I want it the way it used to be.

Why open so many instances of FF? Why not open tabs instead?

I hate tabs. They irritate me. I like having the open windows at the bottom of the screen so I can see them at a glance if I'm not in the browser.

jamieresearch said:

I hate tabs. They irritate me. I like having the open windows at the bottom of the screen so I can see them at a glance if I'm not in the browser.

ah.

The simple answer is Windows 7 has changed dramatically from Previous operating systems

Thanx, Brink, but that's not really what I'm looking to do.

What is inconvenient with having a dozen windows open and being able to hover the mouse over the browser button to see all 12, clean your desktop by clicking the red X in the thumbnails themselves, or instantly open the window you want by clicking it's image by sight?

BTW when you pin a program to the taskbar (like Word) you get it's entire history by right clicking.