Windows 11 Taskbar Never Combine

Raiden85 · 8 Dec 2022 at 21:55

throwaway4372 said:
Seems like they've started to work on this feature now. So far their implementation has "never combine" but not "show labels" - without the labels you have two icons that look the same, which is near enough the same problem that currently exists, so the labels are essential.

Microsoft is bringing back two classic features for the Taskbar on Windows 11

Never combine apps and clock seconds in the system tray may be making a return!

www.windowscentral.com

About sodding time, I hate combining folders into one icon, just slows things down and I can't see at a glance what's open. MS really does like making stupid decisions then backtracking on them. Showing folders with labels on the taskbar has been around for nearly 28yrs successfully so why take it away. They had the option before in Windows 10 for both and that was great, should have never removed it.

Just glad startallback allows me to use all the Windows 11 features but also allow me to use classic options like right clicking on the taskbar for menu options and the never combine folders.

Phil2008 · 8 Dec 2022 at 23:24

Well if I remember rightly in the early beta builds of windows 11, you could "never combine, but not show labels". Does anyone remember being able todo this?

chaparral · 8 Dec 2022 at 23:55

Raiden85 said:
At the end of the day if anyone has to use a 3rd party tool just to get basic functionality then it's a bad UI.

The other problem with 3rd party software to fix things like this, is at many work places like mine you're not allowed to install 3rd party software on there computer systems

james73 · 13 Dec 2022 at 00:33

I hate the fact the 'Quick Launch' taskbar is now gone forever. It was easy to manually restore it from Win7 onwards, but it's now bought the farm.

rumple9 · 13 Dec 2022 at 00:42

I hated win 11 at first but now after 13 months I've got used to it and quite like the taskbar. That said if they do implement never combine I would probably use it. It would be good if you could only enable this feature on a second virtual desktop

james73 · 13 Dec 2022 at 01:05

rumple9 said:
I hated win 11 at first but now after 13 months I've got used to it and quite like the taskbar. That said if they do implement never combine I would probably use it. It would be good if you could only enable this feature on a second virtual desktop

ExplorerPatcher lets you do that right now.

james73 · 13 Dec 2022 at 02:11

james73 said:
I hate the fact the 'Quick Launch' taskbar is now gone forever. It was easy to manually restore it from Win7 onwards, but it's now bought the farm.

Hang on, the 'Quick Launch' menu has just appeared on my Win11 VM? :confused:

I've got the latest version of Open Shell installed, and when I did the usual right-click "toolbar - new toolbar...." I went through the usual steps to get to 'Quick Launch' as I've done countless
times on Win7 & Win10 - and it worked!

Phil2008 · 13 Dec 2022 at 15:51

james73 said:
ExplorerPatcher lets you do that right now.

I had a play with this last night and yeah it puts win10 taskbar and startmenu in replace of the win11, you can even have the seconds on the clock back too. I even tried "classic shell" to get the win7 start menu back and that works also, so basically you get the win10 taskbar and menus. But it still hasnt fixed my prob, with "never combine, but not show labels", and you cant have the win11 start menu button blue logo. So Ive restored widows how it was before with "startallback"

Phil2008 · 13 Dec 2022 at 16:39

This is just with "startallback" and I prefer that than the "explorer patcher" as it looks too much like win10 with the old win10 start logo etc...

Raiden85 · 13 Dec 2022 at 16:59

That's one thing I love about startallback, I get the benefit of the more efficient classic start menu and I'm still able to use the default Windows 11 one with a mouse wheel click as I like using both.

Phil2008 · 13 Dec 2022 at 17:15

Raiden85 said:
That's one thing I love about startallback, I get the benefit of the more efficient classic start menu and I'm still able to use the default Windows 11 one with a mouse wheel click as I like using both.

I never knew you could do that, awesome

Converge · 25 Dec 2022 at 10:42

I was looking at StartAllBack as the forced combining is just ****. Does it mess with MS updates or require further updates itself etc?

Raiden85 · 25 Dec 2022 at 13:32

Converge said:
I was looking at StartAllBack as the forced combining is just ****. Does it mess with MS updates or require further updates itself etc?

They update the program regularly at least once a month or so usually to either fix the odd small bug or mainly keep it working smoothly with new Windows builds, but it doesn’t touch anything like MS updates. It’s a tiny program that just gives you a decent amount of customisation over the taskbar and explorer UI.

If decide you want to uninstall it you’ll never know if was there.

Been using it since Windows 8 and it’s honestly never given me any issues even when upgrading Windows over the top. Pretty much install and forget about it once you customise it to your liking.

Converge · 28 Dec 2022 at 13:24

Raiden85 said:
They update the program regularly at least once a month or so usually to either fix the odd small bug or mainly keep it working smoothly with new Windows builds, but it doesn’t touch anything like MS updates. It’s a tiny program that just gives you a decent amount of customisation over the taskbar and explorer UI.

If decide you want to uninstall it you’ll never know if was there.

Been using it since Windows 8 and it’s honestly never given me any issues even when upgrading Windows over the top. Pretty much install and forget about it once you customise it to your liking.

Great, thanks for the info :cool:

throwaway4372 · 2 Mar 2023 at 20:45

Don’t panic! Desktop flickers after the Windows 11 update (KB5022913) and stops responding (Explorer Patcher)? The solution! | igor´sLAB

With the update KB5022913, Microsoft has once again angered the professional users who had more or less grudgingly come to terms with the new Windows 11. Apart from the fact that many useful tools…

www.igorslab.de

throwaway4372 · 12 Mar 2023 at 21:10

Microsoft slowly but surely admits it was wrong about the Windows 11 taskbar

Clues in the new preview build suggest the ‘never combine’ option may return

www.techradar.com

Raiden85 · 12 Mar 2023 at 22:16

throwaway4372 said:
Microsoft slowly but surely admits it was wrong about the Windows 11 taskbar

Clues in the new preview build suggest the ‘never combine’ option may return

www.techradar.com

Well hallelujah, could have told them it was a crap idea in under minute of testing. MS backtracking as usual for the second time after screwing with it badly in Windows 8, the taskbar was pretty much perfected in Windows 95 and only needs tweaking as it has over the years, not removing important features people have been using for up to 28yrs!

Nevakonaza · 12 Mar 2023 at 23:09

Raiden85 said:
Well hallelujah, could have told them it was a crap idea in under minute of testing. MS backtracking as usual for the second time after screwing with it badly in Windows 8, the taskbar was pretty much perfected in Windows 95 and only needs tweaking as it has over the years, not removing important features people have been using for up to 28yrs!

This is all i have been waiting for to switch to Windows 11,Is the return of "Never Combine" as i use it! Sure i could have installed a third party app and had it back way long ago but i dont think we should have to use third party software for a function that was in Windows 10 and clearly a lot of people used it

throwaway4372 · 19 Mar 2023 at 09:57

Windows 11's "Never Combine" taskbar icons feature is coming in the fall

Windows 11’s most controversial change is its taskbar. Microsoft redesigned the taskbar by locking it at the bottom of the screen. It still shows your pinned apps, running apps, open windows, and system. However, some Windows 11 taskbar features are limited. For example, it cannot be moved to...

www.windowslatest.com

Nevakonaza · 19 Mar 2023 at 23:52

So around 7 months away to get "Never Combine" back officially :cry:

,Wow.

I bet they have a good team pushing on keeping Telemetry and advertising strong though.