Where windows open on taskbar.

Hey.
Just got Win7 a few days ago, and I've managed to root around and find solutions to most of my issues either on here or just by pressing buttons until it works, but...

There are two problems I have with the way the Taskbar works at the moment that I was hoping I could get a little help with.

Problem 1:

The new Pinned Programs function of the Taskbar is driving me up the wall.
I'm pretty sure the attached screenshot explains sufficiently well, but just in case:

In XP and Vista, when you put an icon (I call it a taskbar-icon) in place next to the Start menu button, they will be opened by pressing Win+1, Win+2 etc.

The program opens into a working window at the end of the line of taskbar-icons, and leaves the taskbar-icon in place.

Can I arrange it so that windows open in this way, rather than the current default way?

Problem 2:

Pressing Win+# twice will open two separate windows. I can do this in Win7 by pressing Shift+Win+#, but the two windows stick together so I cannot move one window to a place not adjacent to it's partner.

For example, I apparently cannot change [Firefox][Firefox][Explorer] so that the order is [Firefox][Explorer][Firefox].

Is there a way to separate windows, or ideally settings that will not stick windows together by default?

Oh, and a way to have the pinned programs take up less space, as in the bottom screenshot, would be nice.

Not quite what I was looking for on the Toolbar front, but thanks for the suggestion.

I'm looking into the Quick Launch business now.

Thanks.