Pinned Taskbar Items Disappearing when Program Opens

VicVicVic · 25 Sep 2009

Hello, I hope you are doing well.

When I open a program that has been pinned to the taskbar, the icon for that program disappears immediately. I understand that this is a feature of Windows 7, but my girlfriend finds it rather annoying. Is there any way to stop this behavior? By the way, I am using the "Never Combine" option for my taskbar.

For example, the first icon pinned in the taskbar is Mozilla Firefox. When I open Firefox, the icon disappears, and only the other pinned icons remain. I would like to change this behavior so that the icon, once pinned, will remain, even if I open the program associated with it.

Thanks,
Vic

valtonray · 25 Sep 2009

i'm not sure thats a feature, i havent heard of anyone having that problem yet. have you by chance hacked any files for custom themes or icons, or played around in the registry?

VicVicVic · 25 Sep 2009

I have not tweaked anything for my girlfriend's computer yet (this behavior shows up on my own Windows 7 as well though, which I have tweaked). This is with the "Never Combine" option for my taskbar, not the default listing of programs ("Always combine, hide labels"), which seems to make a difference.

I am tinkering with this myself right now and will give any updates I come across.

Thanks,
Vic

Antman · 25 Sep 2009

What build number?

VicVicVic · 25 Sep 2009

Windows 7 Professional Build 7600. It's the RTM one, if that helps.

Airbot · 25 Sep 2009

Kind of confusing when you say disappears. Never heard of them disappearing when activated. You mean when the programs icon is closed, it's a small icon like this...

Pinned Taskbar Items Disappearing when Program Opens-wmp1.jpg

Then when you open the program from the taskbar icon, it morphs into this..

Pinned Taskbar Items Disappearing when Program Opens-wmp2.jpg

Another example, using a custom Firefox icon, which will change into the original FF icon when activated..

Pinned Taskbar Items Disappearing when Program Opens-ff1.jpg

Pinned Taskbar Items Disappearing when Program Opens-ff2.jpg

If that's what you mean, that's normal behavior for having Never Combine. I don't think there's a way of changing that, not even sure how you want it to be changed. If she doesn't like it, have her use Always combine, Hide Labels. The icon will basically stay the same closed or open.

Pinned Taskbar Items Disappearing when Program Opens-ff3.jpg

Pinned Taskbar Items Disappearing when Program Opens-ff4.jpg

harpua · 26 Sep 2009

The last image in the post above is how I have mine set up and I really like it. When the app is open, you get that little clear box around it so you can tell it's open and when closed, the icon always stays visible in the exact same spot. When you hover on the icon of an open app, it gets colored with the predominant color of the icon. Looks cool, imo. Took a couple of days to get used to this setup but now works great for me.