Windows Vista Taskbar Group (or lack thereof)

[dwayrynen]

Hello,

In Windows XP one could tweak the registry at:

HKEY_CURRRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\

add reg_Dword "TaskbarGroupSize"

and set taskbar grouping to occur when you had 2+ of any group.

In Vista, if you have grouping enabled, it still will not group until the taskbar is full - which on a large desktop (2560x1600) can take 20+ applciations to be open before the grouping occurs.

Can someone tell me how to turn on grouping like Windows XP's grouping?

Microsoft has gone out of their way to talk about the user interface and productivity improvements in Vista, but this one issue is causing me a constant headache as I have to scan dozens of taskbar icons to find the one I am looking for.

:-)

Darin

[CyberOps]

I have the same problem, i like to group as i did with tweakui in XP, set it for 2 or more to start grouping, i hope someone knows how to do this.

[CyberOps]

I gues noone knows the answer

[MichaelEaton]

I added the key as described in your first post, rebooted and it works fine.. i set it to 2 and now i have 4 windows open, 2 IE7 windows and 2 Windows Explorer windows both grouped together..

[Slimy]

If you're too lazy to reboot, I believe you can kill the explorer.exe process and restart it.

[dwayrynen]

Hello,

In Windows XP one could tweak the registry at:

HKEY_CURRRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\

add reg_Dword "TaskbarGroupSize"

and set taskbar grouping to occur when you had 2+ of any group.

Darin

This registry key does work! I had added the key but set it to 1. Setting it to 2 allowed my taskbar icons to group as expected.

Interesting, I didn't have to reboot, but I installed patches right after making the change (assuming I was going to

reboot) and the change took effect.

Thanks all!

Darin

[Aero Ultimate]

If you're too lazy to reboot, I believe you can kill the explorer.exe process and restart it.

Yes, but doing that may make some of your taskbar tray icons disappear.

[1759]

Taskbar grouping is in Vista, but you have to right click on the taskbar to enable it, after you enable it and restart, it works fine.

Group similar buttons on the taskbar

Taskbar buttons represent open programs on your computer. When you have several programs open at once, the taskbar might seem crowded with buttons. To help organize the taskbar and save space, you can group similar taskbar buttons so that all of the open files from one program are grouped into one taskbar button, like this:

Grouped taskbar buttons

Click to open Taskbar and Start Menu Properties.

Select the Group similar taskbar buttons check box so that it is checked. (To turn off grouping, clear the Group similar taskbar buttons check box.)

[genuinefafa]

To avoid restart (or any other crazy workaround). You can disable and enable "Group similar taskbar buttons".

This way Explorer will refresh its limit.

I really love this feature. It was included in Tweak UI of XP, but this tool was not ported to Vista :( shame on you Microsoft.