How to enable 'Never Combine taskbar buttons'. Windows 11 ?

Steel Contributor

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!

598 Replies

@Mousefluff 

I tried this and it royally messed up my computer, I tried reversing it as well and it did nothing, any suggestions? I can't open any of my files.

Not good, the best option is to revert to an earlier restore point.
It is also wise to set a restore point before installing any new software.

If you do not have system restore turned on and uninstalling and restarting does not fix things you may need to do do a system recovery, there is an option in windows recovery not to delete files.

At worst you can recover your files (not programs) by connecting the C drive via usb on another computer and save your files to another disc before doing a full recovery. A total pan, but you get your files.

I have had issues too and fixed them by updating to the latest version, sometimes when you download stuff like this it is an old version that doesn't work on later windows updates, that is why there is a new update after every windows update.

I have just given up on all this and paid for Start 11 and am now using tabs in windows explorer which is much better, although not as good as never combine and tabs.
In case not seen, there is an even longer list of unhappy people about this missing key feature here:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/windows-insider-program/how-to-let-windows-11-quot-never-comb...
In case not seen, Microsoft keeps ignoring all of them.
This program makes W11 even slower. I tried it for a few weeks and finally uninstalled because of various lag issues.
I have come to terms that Microsoft will not provide an option to 'never combine' windows... I will either downgrade to Windows 10 or install Linux instead with Windows 10 VM for applications that do not run on linux.
We really need that ungrouping uption for the taskbar buttons. That should not be a problem, hope we have that option soon.
I initially upgraded two systems to Windows 11. I noticed immediately that windows were combined on the taskbar and downgraded one one system to Windows 10 the next morning. I made the mistake of leaving the other system on Windows 11 for more than 10 days 'just to give it a fair shake'. Now I'm stuck with Windows 11 until I copy all my data to an external drive, perform a fresh reinstall of Windows 10, and then reinstall all my applications/licenses and put all my data back.

The inconvenience this is costing me will definitely 'leave a mark' and I won't move to Windows 11 again if I can help it. From what I can tell, that won't be a problem for a long time. Windows 11 is barely up to 20% of the Windows installed base. Windows 10 was hugely popular, with 90%+ Windows market share and is still available today for purchase on new systems. The new laptop I received at work last week has Windows 10 and our company has 140k+ employees so they aren't likely to move to Windows 11 any time soon. Long term I hope Microsoft will reconsider, especially if Windows 11 adoption stalls. This feature change is just the sort of thing that can bring corporate IT support teams a lot of complaints from employees who won't or can't change their process. If there is any hope that Microsoft will listen, it won't be due to anything they read here. Actions speak louder than words. It will happen in those calls where Microsoft tries to convince major corporations to make the move to Windows 10.
Just got a new laptop for data informatics; windows 11. I am absolutely disgusted that W11 has no feature to turn off taskbar combining. I will immediately format back to W10.

@CrimsonVex 

First, check if the computer manufacturer will provide a warranty in this case?

Any way of doing this yet? It's been over a year since reported. No shell replacement to replace the entire shell for example?

Check the first page of this thread; there are several shell replacements...like this:
https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher
seems to work, thanks. It needs to download files I guess, after install start menu disappeared initially but was fixed later.
How can MS not look into this issue? Its insane.. clearly Win 11 Devs don't use Windows
I was about to press the "Upgrade" button but decided to take a look around the web to see some opinions....I will not upgrade to W11 *SOLELY* because I abhor combined windows.
I've lost all hope that this issue is going to be fixed.
My office updated our computers. Otherwise I would still be running Windows 10. At this point I have lost all hope that Microsoft will fix this issue.

@NoviceLevelUP Same here, I have been forced to use this productivity decreasing OS

@the_reckoner 

From what I know, from this year manufacturers of new computers are forced to install Windows11, so going back to Windows 10 - it may not be possible!

Yeah, MS is holding us hostage at this point. This is what happens in a monopoly.. horrendous