Fully disable taskbar grouping

[zakius]

Summary of the new feature/enhancement

Currently even when you disable taskbar grouping buttons representig the same app are stickig together and are forced to stay in the launching order, it's pretty annoying. I would like them to become fully detached so I can move each of them separately

Actually I already have a third party tool that allows that but would feel more at ease having it supported by in house solution (if not built in in system, but Feedback Hub suggestion never got any tracktion so I'm trying here now)

[crutkas]

Can you give a screenshot of what you want? (also link to Feedback hub item would be helpful)

you always want this but launch order / ignoring taskbar icons?:

not this:

[zakius]

I want exactly this, being able to freely move buttons around no matter their type and launch date, I never pin anything to my Taskbar so I'm not sure how pinned items should be handled, 7+TT has two options: always showing pinned button and hiding button when at least one window is active
I assume bringing all of these options in-house (preferably natively) would be preferred

https://aka.ms/AA7m808 that's my issue from Feedback Hub

[crutkas]

Do you have any taskbar icons?

[crutkas]

also i upvoted your direct ask from Feedback

[zakius]

No, I don't have any pinned items. Presented setup causes launcher icons to be always visible causing it to look like this (almost like old trusty quick launch)

and thanks for upvote

[zakius]

and win11 has no Taskbar at all, just a dock... that's such a shame

[Jay-o-Way]

Hey all, just popping in a (admittingly general) comment here. Just came across a video of @ThioJoe where he quickly shows a number of apps, regarding tweaking Windows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7lykL7ZELQ
Not promising everything for this issue, but the Stardock app is interesting! :)

[Kissaki]

@Jay-o-Way What does that have to do with this ticket? None of those tools provide that feature - not grouping windows in the taskbar.

[Jay-o-Way]

Saw some setting (at 0:52) about the combining. But you're right, that's not the same as grouping and I haven't used it myself. Thought I could help.

[zakius]

to disable grouping in w11 you have to bring back the 10 Taskbar and use 7+TT currently, the Stardock reimplementation doesn't provide that feature yet

[Jay-o-Way]

Note
This is supported in Win 11 23H2

[zakius]

which channel should I use to test that? I'll get the VM going in a few hours and make sure it really is there because, due to poor naming conventions, people are often getting confused and last time I tried native labels in 11 insider I still couldn't disable grouping

[Jay-o-Way]

Not sure about the build version, I saw it on YouTube. A (random) video showing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPlQe2hMhEU

[zakius]

this video doesn't show anything related to my request, it restores (mostly) the 10 behavior but doesn't bring ability to move buttons separately

[zakius]

https://superuser.com/questions/1777189/can-i-reorder-unstick-side-by-side-icons-on-the-taskbar-in-windows-11 this probably describes what I originally requested, before w11 was even a thing, the best

[Jay-o-Way]

Ah yes, that's one missing bit

[arg0d]

It's really frustrating that taskbar windows are forcefully grouped without an option to disable grouping.. An option to disable grouping by application and allow the user to freely order windows would be really appreciated. It would be really intuitive if new tabs would appear at the end of taskbar, and the windows could be freely ordered, in the same way that web browser tab bars work.