Taskbar Auto Organizing?

[Mulsiphix]

I noticed today that my Win7 taskbar is doing something new. I don't remember it happening before and I've been using this for over a month and a half now. What is happening is that when a program is already open (say Notepad) and I open a second instance of Notepad, the new Notepad window opens directly to the right of the current Notepad instance. I'm used to new windows/instances being opened at the far right end of the bar with no auto-sorting whatsoever. Is it possible to disable this behavior?

 

[logicearth]

It has been doing that since the first beta release...you just now noticed? o.o

 

[Offsprung]

I am actually enjoying this one. Along with the ease of pinning/unpinning. Depending on current project I pin what I need rather then navigating the new clusterF of a start menu each time.

 

[Mulsiphix]

Does anybody know what the feature is actually called (only been using Win7 for a week btw)? I know it isn't Grouping unless it is considered an extension or addition to Grouping behavior.

 

[Offsprung]

Right click on start button...task bar...taskbar buttons
Combine has 3 options.

 

[Mulsiphix]

I have it set to never combine but this behavior is still present. I've tried switching between the options just in case another program changed whatever registry value or setting that controls this. Still no luck. What is killing me is I can't even find a mention of this feature anywhere on the internet.

EDIT
I found this spreadsheet created by Microsoft which details the Group Policy Editor settings functions and what each setting actually changes in the registry. Listed in here is "" which affects the taskbar grouping functionality. When I set the key it described to be active (versus default) the grouping setting in my Taskbar settings was grayed out completely. I think we can safely rule out that this functionality has anything to do with Taskbar Grouping feature.

Registry Location
1. HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
2. Create New DWORD (32-bit) Value: NoTaskGrouping
3. Set ValueData to "1"

Taskbar Preference Window After Change Is Applied

 

[Offsprung]

Works on mine, no reg editing.

 

[Mulsiphix]

It works on mine as well. I'm saying that if I get into the Registry and disable grouping, then the option becomes inaccessible. The point of sharing that info is to prove that the application auto-sorting has nothing to do with the Taskbar Grouping feature in the taskbar preferences menu.

 

[Offsprung]

I see, I misunderstood. But even xp does that, do not know of a way to disable that.

 

[Mulsiphix]

I used a heavily tweaked version of XP for over five years. I had disabled the majority of services and done a lot of tweaking with various programs when I first installed it. I never had this behavior which is why I'm noticing it now. Time to plow through old XP feature press releases and articles on the internet. Maybe I'll get luck and find this feature has a name.

 

[logicearth]

It doesn't actually have an official name. It is new in Windows 7, it keeps multiple window processes (the .exe files) together. This is to help with the combined grouping. After a while you get used to the idea of all the explorer windows being together and the browser windows in another group, regardless of when they are opened.

 

[Mulsiphix]

I finally figured it out! This behavior was bundled under the program grouping feature found in the Start Menu/Taskbar options under WinXP. In Windows 7 this auto-sorting is no longer a part of grouping (confirmed by editing registry to completely disable grouping functionality). I have found a program called 7 Taskbar Tweaker which is freeware and has an option which successfully disables auto-sorting! Yay me

 

[PhilaPhan80]

I'm having the exact same problem!! Google research led me to 7 Taskbar Tweaker, but the download link is not working on the author's website. Can anyone help?

 

[Mulsiphix]

I'm having the exact same problem!! Google research led me to 7 Taskbar Tweaker, but the download link is not working on the author's website. Can anyone help?

I downloaded mine from the website, back when the link worked, and as far as I know the program has not been updated since. If this is true you can find the most current version (v1.1) of the program here. The rar includes both the 32bit and 64bit versions. Let me know if you have any trouble.

 

[PhilaPhan80]

That's perfect! Thank you so much.

For anyone else looking for this gem, I can vouch for its authenticity. One main RAR file contains two other RARs -- one 32-bit and one 64-bit -- which then contain the EXEs. All files scanned with Norton Internet Security 2010 and everything is clean. My taskbar now makes much more sense to me.

 

[Mulsiphix]

Just want to add that I scanned both the 32bit and 64bit versions with AVG, MalwareBytes, and Kaspersky Anti-Virus before I recommended the link above and all three said it was clean

EDIT
You can find this program for download from Download.com (32bit here, 64bit here). However when the download window pops up it is for a file named index.php. If you download this file and change the extension from .php to .rar you'll find it is indeed a rar file with the program inside just waiting to be unpacked.

Note: I tried downloading this with Opera, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. All attempted to download the file index.php. Enjoy!