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The 'Never' 'Combine taskbar buttons' setting disappeared in #Windows11

  1. The taskbar icons are grouped. I find it very annoying and unproductive when have many maximized windows! The Never Combine taskbar buttons setting disappeared in Windows 11.

  2. Also, before Windows 11, when I dragged an icon from Explorer and hold a few seconds over a taskbar icon, the app was restored, brought to focus so I can drop the file on the app area. On Windows 11 this is not happening.

I tried to change the Registry Setting:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"TaskbarGlomLevel"=dword:00000002

But it is not working.

I also tried this:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell\Update\Packages]
"UndockingDisabled"=dword:00000001

This makes the Task Bar work as expected, but the Start Menu does not open.

How to change this?

See:
Windows Feedback Hub
Tech Community

Tony
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    I highly encourage anyone who misses the "Never combine" option to vote on the issue in the Feedback Hub: https://aka.ms/AAd2l82 The Windows team is constantly implementing changes based on user feedback, so that's the best way to have this fixed. – idmadj Mar 30 '22 at 18:55
  • Try [windhawk](https://windhawk.net/mods/taskbar-grouping) from the creator of **7+ taskbar tweaker** – xypha Mar 13 '23 at 13:57

4 Answers4

5

ExplorerPatcher should also be able to fix this:

https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher

From the readme:

Feature summary

  • Choose between Windows 11 or Windows 10 taskbar (with labels support, small icons and lots of customization).
  • Disable Windows 11 context menu and command bar in File Explorer and more.
  • Open Start to All apps by default, choose number of frequent apps to show, display on active monitor and more.
  • Choose between the Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows NT Alt-Tab window switcher with customization.
  • Lots of quality of life improvements for the shell, like:
    • Skin tray menus to match Windows style, make them behave like flyouts and center them relative to the icon.
    • Choose action when left and/or right clicking the network icon.
    • Revert to the Windows 7 search box in File Explorer, or disable Windows Search altogether.
    • Disable immersive menus and use mitigations that help you run the real classic theme without glitches.
    • Learn more about all the functionality offered by this program starting with this article in the wiki, here.
Jonas Kello
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Finally, at Build 2023 this was announced.

On Windows 11 Settings:
    Personalization > Taskbar
        Combine Taskbar buttons and hide labels
            Always
            When Taskbar is full
            Never <-

enter image description here

Source: New developer experiences in Windows https://build.microsoft.com/en-US/sessions/5017d756-1ed1-468c-bd43-1ac98079f71e

Tony
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I searched for changing windows 11 features to what I had in windows 10 but I couldn't find a neat solution that doesn't crash my PC.

For (almost) full control over Taskbar, Start Menu, and Windows Explorer, The best solution I found was installing StartAllBack. It fixes both drag and combining problems (and many more).

It's just amazing, check out the free trial for yourself. Also, the price of the lifetime licence was kinda good.

enter image description here My desktop

enter image description here Taskbar settings

Saleh Hosseini
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    I saw that program. It is available to be installed using `winget install startallback` . But why can't we have these options available in the standard Windows 11 installation? Also I have some concerns about installing those tweaking software. https://github.com/microsoft/winget-pkgs/discussions/31163 – Tony Feb 04 '22 at 20:18
  • DON'T USE THIS SOFTWARE IT WILL DESTROY YOUR WINDOWS SETTINGS!!! – user1034912 Apr 18 '23 at 01:37
  • @user1034912 please tell us what happened?!! because I'm still using it and it's fine – Saleh Hosseini Apr 19 '23 at 09:02
0

The version information of the Windows 11 I am using is as follows: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.1848]. In this system, I was able to solve the problem without using any additional programs. This link was helpful. However, some of the code in the link wraps to the second line, causing an error in the execution of the code. I suggest combining the overflowing code into a single line. I have compiled the following code for you. After launching Windows PowerShell with admin privileges, if you run the code line by line, the desired option, "Never Combine," will be implemented.

Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope LocalMachine -Force

Restore the Classic Taskbar in Windows 11

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell\Update\Packages" -Name "UndockingDisabled" -PropertyType DWord -Value "00000001";
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Shell\Update\Packages" -Name "UndockingDisabled" -Value "00000001";

Disable Taskbar / Cortana Search Box on Windows 11

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search" -Name "SearchboxTaskbarMode" -PropertyType DWord -Value "00000000";

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search" -Name "SearchboxTaskbarMode" -Value "00000000";

Ungroup Taskbar Icons / Enable Text Labels in Windows 11

New-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" -Name "NoTaskGrouping" -PropertyType DWord -Value "00000001";

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" -Name "NoTaskGrouping" -Value "00000001";

Restart Explorer to see the changes

./taskkill /f /im explorer.exe;
./CMD /Q /C START /REALTIME explorer.exe;
NCC1701
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