How to let windows 11 "never combine taskbar buttons"?

[huali1405]

How to let windows 11 "never combine taskbar buttons"?

[#2]

I created a profile just for the sake of adding my complaint to this thread.  It angers me every day now that I can't see which window I want to open.  It is so slow.  PLEASE give me back the uncollapsed icons with the title next to it on the taskbar.  I'm seriously considering switching to Mac due to this one thing.  Do Mac computers have this option?  @huali1405 

[#3]

The easiest switch to make is to a clean install of Windows10. There are no extra benefits I can see to working with Windows11 and they persist with this one major drawback. It’s a hassle to get your content, preferences and settings back to the way they were but once it’s done the ease-of-use and the efficiency of switching between applications and between instances of the same app makes the effort so worthwhile.

I’ll come back to 11 in 2025 to see if they’ve added proper functionality by then.

[#4]

My productivity took a big dive when I installed Windows 11 on my new computer. I have to use more clicks to do the same things and it is almost impossible to work with the new small and grouped taskbar in Windows 11. So frustrating!!!

Setting the "Combine when taskbar is full" it the first thing I would change when starting to work on a new computer or installing Windows.

Now I'm going to have to install Windows 10 instead on my new computer and wait for "Combine when taskbar is full" feature and the possibility to resize the taskbar's width to be implemended in Windows 11.

It's so unproductive and a waste of space this new Windows 11 taskbar!

[#5]

Please bring back Never Combine apps!!!

It is so inefficient and wasteful to click something just to see a list of what you're looking for and then have to click a second time when you could just have everything visually displayed (not combined) and click once on exactly what you're looking for!!!!!!!

[#6]

@Alex_Zverev 

The problem is that this workaround will be restored to its sh*tty original Windows 11 state after every OS upgrade.

It's better than nothing, but it's crazy that MS doesn't do nothing about it...

[#7]

Same issue here, tried to get onboard with win11 for two agonizing days, rolled back to 10 because of this taskbar fiasco, with honorable mention to the start menu that hasn't been useful since 7.

[#8]

The windows 11 taskbar is the worst taskbar in all systems’

[#9]

I'm checking in here every couple months to see if there is news about this - has anyone heard anything from Microsoft? or are we just a niche of sentimental anachronists?

[#10]

The tech media has not mentioned it at all while they've mentioned things like drag-and-dropping files to apps on the taskbar multiple times. So maybe it's just us. :(

[#11]

I am here to add my voice to the others.

[#12]

I agree with everyone here! Windows 11 is terrible. If I wanted an Apple or Mac, I would get one. Why would Microsoft copy this feature? This makes multitasking impossible if you are a power user and have many windows and programs open to work, I should not need to take extra steps to figure out which icon and go through a list of titles to figure out what window I was on. Get rid of this new feature or provide the option to not combine. My productivity has gone down drastically since I have to spend time figuring out what I was looking for or trying to do in the first place.

[#13]

Microsoft, for the love of everything holy, restore this feature immediately to Windows 11 please. My company just forced an update. And the lack of this feature adds an est. 30 minutes to each workday for me. Not to mention eyestrain + exacerbated wrist pain from extra mousing.

[#14]

I bought a new laptop and because the lack of this option I tried to install Win10 but I had to come back to Win11 because I had missing drivers. Now I have to work on this crazy unproductive OS. Please bring back the option to Never combine, it's really really important. I see that the drag and drop was solved in the last update, one more step and we'll be all happy. You can do it Microsoft!

[#15]

Wow, I just upgraded to Win11 after waiting this long for MS to sort out issues only to find very fundamental task bar functionality is missing.  Can't ungroup?  Seriously?  I have a 32" primary monitor and now have at least 18" of blank taskbar sitting idle - what a waste!  I can have a fair number of spreadsheets and browser windows open and relied heavily on having each show up on the taskbar for fast switching.  Not any more...  But I do get unused taskbar space...  Don't even get me started on my customized group of icons I created a view for on the Win10 taskbar which I use regularly - also gone with no way to restore.  Obviously complaining here doesn't do any good but had to anyway.

[#16]

Microsoft are AT LAST working on bringing back the never combine option:

https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/microsoft-is-bringing-back-two-classic-featu...

It's taken over 800 comments and 202k views here, plus over 16k upvotes on the issue in the Feedback Hub where it has consistently been the highest trending issue across the entire product.

Well done everyone for piling on the pressure over the last 504 days, and making this an issue that Microsoft could no longer ignore!

[#17]

WOW - so Windows 11 can be expected to be in release version the next year?
Yes, as long as "never combine taskbar buttons" is missing I consider Win 11 to be a beta version. Only for test - not for production. So maybe win11 will be ready for production next year?

[#18]

@danieldsmith 

Microsoft are AT LAST working on bringing back the never combine option:

---

Unfortunately it also says there will still be no titles or labels, just a bunch of the same icons, so we'll still need to hover over each one to see what it is. That's a huge middle finger up to all of us who are asking for functionality back - a kind of 'following the letter of the law but not the spirit'. Ah well.... I'll wait until it's live then come find the feedback thread asking for labels and we can all give feedback for another 500 days until they fix that, as well 

[#19]

Desperately waiting for an update that would restore this option again.

[#20]

@huali1405 BRING IT BACK!!!!!! I refuse to purchase a new laptop until this crucial functionality is reinstated! 

[#21]

Why on earth did you disable the "never combine" feature. I can't work with all my windows stuck into groups. It's totally unproductive and a total pain in the a$$. I will make sure to let my IT dpt know about this before they even think about "upgrading" to win 11.