Some programs look ugly in the taskbar.

I'm enjoying Windows 7 and I really like how the taskbar functions (I use it as a application launcher pretty much, as an alternative to using icons on my desktop)... except with some software. For example, I have a game I play often. I pinned the updater to the game on the taskbar, since it's necessary to run that before launching the actual game.

I launch the game and it looks normal, the updater is open and the object I pinned to the taskbar is in use. However, when the updater is finished and I launch the actual game, it creates another object in the taskbar. So now I have 2 icons for the same game clogging up my taskbar.

I guess this doesn't sound like a huge problem, but I'm a little OCD with my desktop as it is... so this bugs me a little bit. Is there anything I can do to make this look nicer? Force the object for the updater and the game to group together in the taskbar maybe? Or something?

Thanks!

Instead of pinning the updater to the taskbar, why don't you enable the Quick Launch and put it there? I usually only keep 4 of my most often used programs visible, and simply access the others via the >> link on the right side, so that the taskbar doesn't get too cluttered.

valtonray said:

see if this can solve your problems Alastria Software :: Software :: 7stacks
it's a program that creates stacks similar to how mas doc does. fully customizable.

Wow, that looks perfect! Looks like it should be a feature Microsoft included in the first place. I can't try it right now, but does it conflict with the feature to hold your mouse over the object in the taskbar and see a smaller version of it (called Peek I think)?

Also, if I used 7stacks for Microsoft Office and I open Microsoft Word using the icon created by 7stacks, will it create another unsightly object in the taskbar? Or will it group all open Office programs into the 7stacks icon?

Does the objects opened with 7stack (looks like the better one IMO) open in the taskbar as well though? Like will a Microsoft Word object appear on the taskbar after opening it with the 7stack icon? Or does everything happen within the single 7stack icon? I can't wait to get home to try this lol.

If it still creates the taskbar object for whatever I open, then that doesn't really solve my problem, because I'll still have 2 icons for the same program...