Forum Discussion
How to enable 'Never Combine taskbar buttons'. Windows 11 ?
I have TWENTY TWO windows open right now - 7 folders, 4 Outlook windows, 1 Chrome window, my phone window, 4 Excel windows, 2 Acrobat windows, 1 Irfanview window, 1 Adobe Photoshop window, and settings. This is pretty normal for me - a variety of things I'm working on at various times throughout the day or week - some are tied together, some are just random things I'm not done with - but getting to the window I need (or even knowing what windows are still open) now takes a lot more effort! In the attached screen shot, LOOK AT ALL THE EMPTY TASKBAR SPACE I CANNOT USE DUE TO THIS SILLY CHANGE! How hard can it be to NOT change this - it seems like it's more programming work to make tasks combine than to make tasks NOT combine!
This absolutely is a productivity problem for working folk, but it's also wasteful of time for us retired folk that work on various projects as our mood and time permit! I do a lot of photography work and cataloging of photos - requiring Irfanview, Photoshop, and multiple folders to be in use at the same time - but now I have to spend time hunting for the right folder that is already open, but not visible without more clicks and mouse movement. I also do a lot of spreadsheet work that goes back and forth between spreadsheets and webpages where I am tracking information - now I have to spend a lot of time hunting for Excel windows that used to be available to me without hunting.
Seriously - this is a change that should never have happened, and I have to wonder if developers are too arrogant to appreciate that other people work differently than they do, or if management is too arrogant to listen to input or consider the value of diversity of working styles. "Clean" looks are really not important to me - I'll take functionality and customization over "clean" any day. I have a tower computer and a laptop - most of my work is on the tower - where I have a 35" monitor - and the task bar is about 80% empty because all the tasks are bundled into 20% of available taskbar space...
You are absolutely right, I can only add to this:
Microsoft needs to realize its own versatility. Windows can be used for simple desktop work for simple users (like MacOS), but it can also be an extremely productive platform, and Microsoft seems to have forgotten that. I think that the bulk of Microsoft's customers use Windows for the latter. Home users usually have other devices: phones, tablets, Chromebooks, Apple devices, but when it comes to productivity, Windows is king.
Where I work, everyone has a triple monitor setup: Laptop + 2 screens.
And I mean everyone: Developers, designers, account managers, accounting, support.
I've got 4 screens at home (3 screens + laptop), my partner has 3 screens.
4 screens, 4 taskbars... Do you have any idea how much taskbar space I have that's now wasted?
I don't see why that option has been removed. I can understand you want to merge it on small screens, but this was already possible.
It seems like Microsoft wants to make it more like Apple or something.
Apples are just not productivity machines, I'm sure they exist, but have you ever seen a dual or triple monitor setup on an Apple?
So Microsoft, you don't have to make it look like an Apple. Be better than that!
- Indypendence great reply, please tell Microsoft that here as well as Mad_Cat has instructed:
https://insider.windows.com/en-us/feedbackhub/fb?contextid=215&feedbackid=70fc827b-26fd-48f7-8853-afb3ecc379af
Click on "login", log in, and then search for "Ungroup Taskbar". Then selected the topic "Update the Windows 11 taskbar to support never combining app icons and showing labels" and clicked on "upvote" and leave feedback.I also suggest to everyone to go on this link (https://insider.windows.com/en-us/feedbackhub/fb?contextid=215&feedbackid=70fc827b-26fd-48f7-8853-afb3ecc379af), and more than just log in, upvote and leave a feedback, I also suggest that everybody click on provide a similar comment.
I did mine, and I labeled it as a Problem (not a suggestion!), once it halves the productivity!
Apparently microsoft engineers don't use the upvote as the main way to sort fixes, but word maps. If that is the case, the most comments on this comments hub, the bigger the chance they will change it!
And I hope they never decide to leave Windows users without this option in any other Windows update or upgrade!LuizGraton Hmmm. When I click that link it says "Your account doesn't have access to this feedback".
