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How to let windows 11 "never combine taskbar buttons"?
How to let windows 11 "never combine taskbar buttons"?
- The November 2023 update added “never combined” mode on the taskbar for Windows 11. To find this feature, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors. Set Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels to Never. It also added a separate setting for turning this feature on for other taskbars when you use multiple monitors.
1,327 Replies
- Deleted
Bravo Microsoft - we've all been waiting for this, this is an excerpt from the Microsoft Insider Blog:
"[Taskbar & System Tray]
We’re excited to bring you an early version of one of our most requested features for Windows 11, never combined mode. In never combined mode, you’ll be able to see each window of your applications on the taskbar individually, as well as their corresponding labels. You can find this feature by navigating to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors. This feature is beginning to roll out, so not all Insiders in the Dev Channel will see it right away.
Taskbar in never combined mode."- Rich5555Iron ContributorSounds like a great idea, I wonder why no one thought of it before. Never Combine Mode .. genius !
- Deleted
Rich5555 Hi,
It is this thread and millions of users that have contributed to the return of this feature, of course in the public version of Windows will probably be in 2024 🙂
- bashahaddadCopper Contributorcan we have it back???
are we moving forward or backward here
plus the search indexer is a joke 🙂 - Reza_AmeriSilver ContributorI have a good news.
The never combine taskbar feature is coming to Windows 11 and it is being roll out to Windows 11 Dev and soon it will be available in other insider build and hopefully official version of Windows.
You need to wait a bit.
Here is the announcement:
https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2023/05/24/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-23466/- Rich5555Iron ContributorAt last it looks like it could happen for real ! So long as it’s live for public releases prior to Oct 2025 then it’s all good.
- CassRTIron ContributorWell, not having the "never combine taskbar" option has forced me to venture into territory outside of my comfort zone. My 3 year old computer's hard drive crashed for the 2nd time this year. I did not want to pay another $230 to have a tech replace it as I did in February. I agonized over the solution. I refuse to purchase a new computer because all of them have Windows 11 installed. I thought about a refurb, but all the ones I looked at, were older machines than the one I have now. So, I went to YouTube, found a video with instructions for upgrading my particular computer and decided I would try to install a new hard drive myself. I kept saying to myself, it's a doorstop now, how can I make it worse? I am happy to report that I was able to install a new hard drive successfully and install Windows 10. I may be using this computer for the rest of my life!
- drdougIron ContributorWell done and I hope you installed an SSD not a HDD.
It does seem odd that the disc crashed in such a short time, but I am presuming that crashed means the sectors on the disc are stuffed. It could of course be a non mechanical issue, like the table is stuffed and a re format would fix that, the disc would then be blank so windows still needed re-installing. It could have been a malware issue, without more info re what you called a crash leaves it unknown.
Before you throw the old drive away you can try it as a slave via a USB-Sata bridge (HDD case or such) and if if becomes visible in windows explore you can right click the drive icon in explorer and re format it. Do a simple format first (this is the default setting and is very quick) and you may have a storage drive you can use. If it is working I would then do a full format (same right click on drive icon - format - just in the window that opens you deselect the quick format box) this will take hours and hours to complete depending on the size of the drive, but this will check for dead sectors etc and will not allow them to be used. Do the full format before bed and it will be completed sometime the next day unless the drive is foobar.
Next get another drive and clone your new "C" on to it, that way if the "C" drive goes belly up you can just put the clone in, do a windows update and away you go. You will have lost your documents etc added since the clone, but if you back up often so that won't be a problem.
If you replaced the old "C" drive with an hdd, I would buy a SSD to be the clone and swap it over as soon as the clone is done, keeping the hdd as the back up. Cloning is easy and software to do basic cloning is available for free.
The only issue in all this is I have forgotten that you may be using a M2 type drive and instructions are a little different. The problem is I assumed a lot, lol 🙂
All the best and welcome to the world of doing your own mods.- CassRTIron ContributorThank you for your reponse! Yes, I did install a SSD. Interesting that you suggested reformatting the old drive. Yesterday, I was trying to figure out how to dispose of the old drive and stumbled across the idea of an external enclosure for the old SSD. They are not very expensive, so I ordered one from Amazon. I should receive it today. I'm anxious to see what went wrong with the old SSD. It is a Western Digital which is a name I would ordinarily trust. The fact that it failed after 3 months, I found very disturbing. Now, I'm looking at other old laptops I have in the house. There was one that I loved, an Acer E1-111. It was small, light and could be carried easily. It has an HDD. My nephew had installled the 8 gb of RAM I purchased when I got the machine. I found a YouTube video of someone who had swapped a HDD to a SDD in the very same machine and I'm curious about my own ability to do so. I have always loved gadgets and the computer is certainly the king of gadgets. Thank you again for your support.
- fabricfloorsCopper Contributor
To configure the taskbar buttons in Windows 11 to "never combine," follow these steps:
- Right-click on an empty space on the taskbar.
- Select "Taskbar settings" from the context menu.
- In the Taskbar settings window, scroll down to the "Combine taskbar buttons" section.
- Click on the dropdown menu next to "Taskbar button grouping" and select "Never."
- Close the Taskbar settings windowhttps://fabricfloors.com/
- hartmaniCopper Contributor😮
rude. - jimvicksBrass ContributorFew trolls popping up on this these threads now, only one post to name, and its to wind people up by re-posting how win 10 worked.
- drdougIron ContributorYep Jim each post listing w10 instructions has only one post each. Obviously some poor lonely friendless person suffering from small d!ck in hand syndrome.
- hartmaniCopper ContributorAgreed. I don't understand the lack of an OPTION. Collapsed program icons are less productive and the taskbar takes up more screen space.
- careca_777Brass ContributorMy theory is that they do this on purpose, then fix it sometime later in order to give a false sense of improvement of the OS, i mean, it really doesn't make sense to remove this when we already had it on previous OS's.
- Catalin2040Copper ContributorI start already switched to Apple having an iMac and also installing Ubuntu on my old laptop of mine so the transition is ongoing. Slowly but surely probably in 1 one year, I will not use Windows anymore. Is not only the small things that affect users who really work and use WIn 11, is also the overheating which is part of Win 11.
- TINCEEACopper ContributorWe NEED this feature! I swear I need at job at Microsoft as a UX Designer so I can just do horrible work and get promoted.
- Catalin2040Copper Contributor
TINCEEA 😂😂
- MetdownCopper ContributorWhy is this even still a thing??? This thread is nearly 2 years old. Cmon MS, this is killing my productivity when I have multiple windows of the same program open!!!!
- venom2245Copper Contributor
In Windows 11, the option to "never combine taskbar buttons" has been removed from the Taskbar settings. However, you can still achieve a similar effect by making a few adjustments. Here's how:
Right-click on an empty space on the taskbar.
Select "Taskbar settings" from the context menu.
In the Taskbar settings window, scroll down to the "Combine taskbar buttons" section.
By default, the option is set to "Always" or "When taskbar is full." Select either of these options based on your preference.
- "Always" will group similar app windows together.
- "When taskbar is full" will combine buttons only when the taskbar doesn't have enough space to display all the buttons individuallyhttps://apkvenom.com/
While you can't set it to "never combine" as in previous Windows versions, selecting "Always" will keep taskbar buttons separate most of the time. Only when the taskbar becomes crowded, it will combine buttons.
Alternatively, you can consider using third-party software or customizing your Windows 11 theme with modifications or tweaks that allow for "never combine taskbar buttons." Keep in mind that modifying system files or using third-party tools may come with potential risks, so exercise caution and ensure you use trusted sources.
- MarcusD2125Iron ContributorThis is misinformation, it's just not true, sorry. I have reported it as such, probably nothing will come of it but it's important to at least attempt to keep threads like this clear of nonsense
- RClaytonHBrass Contributor
MarcusD2125Thanks for that. The nonsense is that we even have to have this thread and that MS doesn't fix it. SMH
- wiktBrass Contributor