Forum Discussion
How to enable 'Never Combine taskbar buttons'. Windows 11 ?
Hi @all
I did not find this function 'Never Combine taskbar buttons'. How can this function be found and enabled in windows 11?
I can't work with multi-tab on windows 11.
Thank you!
601 Replies
- Microsoft, please bring the never combine taskbar icons back. I can't work with multi-tab on windows 11. It's unproductive! I'm thinking about reinstalling Windows 10. Please bring back never combine option!
- Hi all,
I still haven't figures out how I can use the Never Combine taskbar button in Windows 11. Could anybody help. I am looking for an intermediate solution now I sending Microsoft my complaint through the Feedback option. I am not a programmer so don't know how to use Github. Any help would be great.
Many thanks!evdmarel, unfortunately there is no official solution. There are many replies as to how to do this and lots of replies where where these solutions didn't work. There is software you can buy for around 5USD. I would suggest if you can, roll back to Windows 10.
I painfully didn't roll back easily to Windows 10 during the 10 days grace period. I was hoping that there would be a solution soon, but that never came. I am convinced that day will also never come. I painfully sat and reinstalled all software for 1.5 days. Although, I keep a partitioned hard drive with all my data on it, the software that I use is quite intensive to setup, configure, and takes a lot of time. I highly suggest that you roll back to Windows 10 or reinstall Windows 10.
- Has anyone tried to contact Microsoft via twitter or facebook about this - they have no official response on the feedback hub, maybe we'll get some answers from the Insiders team? @windowsinsider
- I'd like to add my name to the list of users who would like the "Never Combine" option restored; the removal of said option is a big step backwards for the usability of Windows.
Combining buttons for running applications makes sense in a VERY NARROW RANGE of highly-restricted UI scenarios, such as running on a very low-resolution screen for some reason, but FORCING everyone to use this setting with no option to change it is IDIOTIC. There is no scenario in which it's faster to examine the toolbar to figure out which icon corresponds to the application you want to focus on, click that icon, examine the list of open windows to figure out which one corresponds to the task you want to focus on, and then click on the appropriate thumbnail. Uncombined taskbar buttons has ALWAYS been faster from a productivity standpoint. My company employs over 30,000 people and I have confirmed with our IT department that they refuse to upgrade anyone to Windows 11 until this STUPID design is fixed.
I just logged into Feeback Hub and as of 9 Feb 2022 there is only 8,497 upvotes. That is only an increase of ~2,000 upvotes from 13 Jan 2022 (6,556 upvotes). This is not a significant amount of upvotes for Microsoft to take action nor is this very small increase anything significant.
With this data and the lack of response from Microsoft, I have taken 1.5 days to back everything up, uninstall Win 11, install Win 10 and get my emails in Outlook all synced and functioning. This was a pain and really left me doing extra work for nothing. I will now opt out of this group and will make sure that none of my computers ever touch Win 11 again.
Summary: Win 11 is super counterproductive, ungrouping windows is unproductive and time consuming, the inability to drag files to the taskbar and use that file with other programs is super inefficient. My children all hate Win 11 too. Uninstall Win 11 and reinstall Win 10.
Rocko262c
You might find it interesting that the number of upvotes actually fluctuates significantly up and down on this topic. I've been keeping a record:Upvotes Comments 09 February 2022 8497 952 21 January 2022 11257 833 17 January 2022 6774 815 12 January 2022 10183 741 10 January 2022 9876 718 30 December 2021 5313 642 21 December 2021 4852 590 15 December 2021 7549 558 06 December 2021 4245 460 02 December 2021 6496 416 23 November 2021 3692 321
- Same for me, not having ungroup on the task bar makes Windows 11 unusable. I'm sure it's a very simple fix. Every other version of Windows doesn't have to have major usability issues (Win8, Win Vista etc.)
I'm posting this from my main computer which is Windows 10 and will stay on Windows 10 until this function is reinstated. - This function must be reinstated - my work productivity has been halved as I can no longer move between multiple designs on my work that require multiple instances of the same program - we all multi task - we use Window11 for work, not to browse on a tablet - I do not want to reinstate Windows10, but I didn't want to upgrade to 11 in the first place but your updates stopped allowing me to postpone update installs and just restarted me mid way through a project - very disappointed
Additionally, I suggest this reading:
https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2015/06/12/how-windows-insider-feedback-influences-windows-10-development/
It's outrageous that they fixed the place for the fullscreen shortcut was changed (only an appareance matter), but the never combine option wasn't reinstated yet, despite been a function matter and not to mention the big amount of people complaining about it!
Did someone started a two-way conversation in the feedback app?- For me this change was worst than the Windows 8 release without start button. The removal of the never combine option is less a noticeable change, but has much deeper impact on productivity! It's been a nightmare! I never understood why Windows has choosen combine icons as the default, but I can't even think in one reason why to strip the option never combine from start menu. Why? And why is it so difficult for them to listen and to answer?
- good lorde! give us back our productivity options. Needless stripping of features is ridiculous.
