Taskbar Button Grouping - Enable or Disable

How to Enable or Disable Taskbar Button Grouping in Windows 7​

   Information

A taskbar button represents an open window on the desktop. These buttons appear on the taskbar as a horizontal bar or icon button.

This tutorial will show you how to have similar open window buttons to group to one button or separate buttons in Windows 7.

   Note

When you have more than one similar window open, say Notepad windows, you could set the taskbar to group the same Notepad taskbar buttons to just one button instead of multiple buttons. This can help organize the taskbar and save space when you have multiple windows open.

   Tip

Microsoft has made available a hotfix that will resolve a problem where the taskbar customizations are lost and reset to defaults when automatic logon is enabled in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

More details are available at FIX: The Taskbar is reset to the default settings when you use the "Automatically Log On" feature in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2.

EXAMPLE: Taskbar Buttons Grouped

EXAMPLE: Taskbar Buttons Not Grouped

OPTION ONE

Enable or Disable Taskbar Button Grouping in Taskbar and Start Menu Properties

1. Right click on an empty area of the taskbar, and click/tap on Properties. (See screenshot below)

2. Click on the drop down arrow menu to the right of Taskbar buttons, and do step 3, 4, or 5 below for what you would like to do. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: If this option is grayed out, then see this tutorial to "Allow" it: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/118986-taskbar-button-grouping-allow-prevent.html

3. To Always Group Taskbar Buttons
NOTE: Taskbar buttons for the same opened program or window will always be grouped to one icon button.
A) Click/tap on Always combine, hide labels to select it, and go to step 6 below. (See screenshot below step 3)
4. To Only Group Taskbar Buttons when the Taskbar is Full
NOTE: Taskbar bar buttons for the same opened program or window will be grouped to one icon button when the taskbar runs out space for the buttons.
A) Click/tap on Combine when taskbar is full to select it, and go to step 6 below. (See screenshot below step 3)
5. To Never Group Taskbar Buttons
NOTE: Open windows will remain as separate bar buttons on the taskbar and not be grouped together.
A) Click/tap on Never combine to select it, and go to step 6 below. (See screenshot below step 3)
6. Click/tap on OK. (See screenshot below step 3)

OPTION TWO

Enable or Disable Taskbar Button Grouping using a BAT File

1. Do step 2, 3, or 4 below for how you would like your taskbar buttons set to do.

2. To Always Group Taskbar Buttons
NOTE: Taskbar buttons for the same opened program or window will always be grouped to one icon button.
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
Always_combine_hide_labels.bat


Download


3. To Only Group Taskbar Buttons when the Taskbar is Full
NOTE: Taskbar bar buttons for the same opened program or window will be grouped to one icon button when the taskbar runs out space for the buttons.
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
Combine_when_taskbar_is_full.bat

Download


4. To Never Group Taskbar Buttons
NOTE: Open windows will remain as separate bar buttons on the taskbar and not be grouped together.
A) Click/tap on the download button below to download the file below, and go to step 5 below.
Never_combine.bat


Download


5. Save the .bat file to your Desktop.

6. Double click/tap on the downloaded .bat file to run it.

7. If prompted, click/tap on Run.
NOTE: If you like, you can stop getting the Run prompt by unblocking the downloaded .bat file.

8. You will now notice your screen quckly flash as explorer is restarted.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Pin or Unpin a Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Pin or Unpin a Program to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Use Small or Large Icons on the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Enable or Disable QuickLaunch in Windows 7
• How to Lock or Unlock the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Move the Windows 7 Taskbar Location on the Desktop
• How to Show or Hide the Windows 7 Taskbar with Auto-hide
• How to Change the Windows 7 Taskbar Icon Width Size
• How to Restore All Windows in a Windows 7 Grouped Taskbar Icon
• How to Change the Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnail and List Mode Threshold
• How to Enable or Disable Internet Explorer 8 Individual Tabbed Browsing Taskbar Preview Windows
• How to Pin or Unpin a Drive to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Allow or Prevent Taskbar Button Grouping in Windows 7
• How to "Pin to Taskbar" Transparent Invisible Icons for Programs in Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Taskbar Last Active Click in Windows 7 and Windows 8

 

[Brink]

Hello Hengehog, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Not by default, but your can left click and hold on them, then drag the icon to another location on the taskbar to manually group them.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[JMUT]

I was wondering if there was a way to group unopened applications on the task bar?
to turn this:

You can unpin all your programs and create a toolbar for launching. This would be similar to how it worked in Windows XP/Vista.

See http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/888-quick-launch-enable-disable.html

 

[Teex]

Hello. I have looked through the previous replies, and I can't find a solution to my problem. Any help would be greatly appreciated...

My problem is that everytime I open up a new World of Warcraft client, I get 2 icons on my taskbar, while there should only be one. I have it pinned to the taskbar, and every other program combines the windows, just not World of Warcraft... The problem started yesterday, I don't know exactly what triggered it (as I have not messed with any settings), and I have tried the "Right click on taskbar -> Properties -> Always combine, hide lables" method (it has always been on this setting)...

As you can see in the picture, I have 3 Firefox windows, and few MSN ones, they all combine... It's just WoW that doesn't.



Sorry for the wall of text. Thank you.

 

[Brink]

Hello Teex, and welcome to Seven Forums.

See if unpining your current pinned WOW taskbar icon, then run WOW and right click on the taskbar icon and pin it to see if it works properly afterwards. Since it's a game, you may need to press the Windows Key to see the taskbar after running WOW.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Teex]

Hello Brink, thank you for the warm welcome.

I have sadly tried that, and pretty much everything else I could think of... I have asked several friends who have Windows 7, and none of them have any idea/encountered this problem before.

But thanks for trying, really appreciate any help I can get.

 

[Brink]

It could be a issue specific to that game. You might check to see if there may be any updates or patches for the game at it's website available to download and install that may address this.

When both are open, check in Task Manager (CTRL+SHIFT+ESC) to see if they are both using the same process. If they are different processes, then there is nothing you can do.

• Under the Applications tab, right click on each listed opened window for it and click on Go To Process.

 

[Teex]

There are no new patches or updates at all...

The thing is, in the screenshot I posted, the icon to the left is always pinned to the taskbar, while the right one appears only when I have the game client running (I play in window mode), and if I start up 2 game clients, I get 3 icons in total (the pinned one + 1 more for each client)...

Just to be sure, this isn't suppose to be like this, right? Since every other program gets combined, except for World of Warcraft.

 

[Brink]

I would say that it seems to be just a issue with WOW. As long as it's running ok, I wouldn't worry about it. Hopefully a update for WOW in the future will resolve it.

 

[Muneem]

taskbar bin is disable
i want enable
what was i do?

 

[Brink]

Hello Muneem, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Do you mean pinning to the taskbar??

Could you give more details please?

 

[swiftouch]

Nice tutorial.

However, I have a complaint. MS seems to think it's great to introduce basic functionality and leave it up to the dev community to actually make the functionality useful. They didn't actually think people would NOT want to combine similar buttons...like multiple browser windows? Typical microsoft.

 

[Brink]

Nice tutorial.

However, I have a complaint. MS seems to think it's great to introduce basic functionality and leave it up to the dev community to actually make the functionality useful. They didn't actually think people would NOT want to combine similar buttons...like multiple browser windows? Typical microsoft.

Hello Siwftouch, and welcome to Seven Forums.

This may help with that instead.

How to Enable or Disable Internet Explorer 8 Individual Tabbed Browsing Taskbar Preview Windows

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Mad Ad]

Hi there was a registry hack for XP called TaskbarGroupSize to change up the number of taskbar slots before the OS decided it was 'full' and started grouping.

Is this something we can still use in win 7? I use a large screen so grouping early can be tedious. I had XP set on 20 something. Ive googled some and i cant seem to find anyone thats tried it (just lots of turn it on or off articles and minwidth doesnt really do the same thing.

Thanks a lot

 

[Brink]

Hello Mad Ad, and welcome to Seven Forums.

In Windows 7, you only turn taskbar icon grouping on or off instead. However you can change the Taskbar thumbnail previews and list Mode Threshold limit if you like though.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Mad Ad]

Thank you for the reply. Unfortunately due to instability running multiple instances of a favourite 3d windowed app I can not run aero themes (no complaints there, im not big on unnecessary fancyness).

Lets see if i can break this down a little. I am in 'combine when full' mode in Win7 and in XP there was a registry key that could be added to increase the number of slots on the taskbar.

Its an additive key so theres nothing there to begin but in XP somewhere there must be the default value somewhere. By adding a TaskbarGroupSize key and value it overrides that default and the number of open windows would then change the limit of what was 'full' and forced it to start combining. I increased mine to get more along the bottom, others reduced theirs to 1, effectively mimicking the newer combine methods (single tile lists).

I'm an avocate of minimising clicks wherever possible, over zealous combining or things like list modes add more work to my day by doubling the amount of clicks I have to make to fish something out of my hectic desktop rather than have an instantly clickable tile. These interferences and attempts to 'clean up' is an intrusion for the most part, change for the sake of change it seems, some may like it but its not efficient workflow for me.

So-after more reading the only thing I hear is its now not supported in win7, but does that mean supported, or exists? Or is there a new key to control whats 'full' with a different name? Right now I can get 14 browser windows open before it combines, that 14 must be in there somewhere as a default, or if not, what is the default?


Thanks a lot.

 

[Brink]

Mad Ad,

I'm not sure if it's possible, but I'll look into it and post back if I find anything on it for you.

 

[Mad Ad]

no news is bad news huh?

 

[Brink]

Hello Mad Ad,

Yeah, I'm afraid that I still have not found anything for this yet in Windows 7.

 

[shaolin]

hi, i wondering if there the posibility to group some program and other dont, for example

but this was for "combine when the taskbar is full".

 

[Brink]

Hello Shaolin,

Sorry, but it's either that taskbar button grouping is enable or disabled for all.