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I recently installed Windows 7 onto my computer and am completely frustrated with the start menu/task bar.

My issue is that in Windows XP and Vista, I was able to click the icon on the task bar, and it would open up a window, and then I would be able to click that SAME icon, and it would open another window.

The problem with Windows 7 for me is, let's say I open Google Chrome, and I want to open a completely new instance, so naturally, I would click the icon, but to my disbelief, all it did was minimize and maximize the page.

I have done googled this, and found that Shift-clicking solves the issue, however, I want to achieve this with only clicking, no Shift clicking, no middle-mouse clicking, just left clicking.

Peter Mortensen
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Omar Qureshi
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  • Do you want to open up a completely seperate instance of Chrome or just open a new window? One is considerably easier than another. – Green Sep 23 '13 at 20:34
  • I'd like to open a completely separate instance of Chrome. – Omar Qureshi Sep 23 '13 at 20:36
  • What are you attempting to achieve by opening a second, completely separate instance? – Green Sep 23 '13 at 20:52
  • What I am attempting to achieve, put simply, is, when I open the first window of Google Chrome, I want to be able to click that SAME ICON, on the task bar, and open up a brand new window, rather than it minimizing and maximizing the first window. – Omar Qureshi Sep 23 '13 at 20:56
  • See https://superuser.com/a/643747/367018 – BurnsBA Mar 26 '19 at 16:58

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The behavior that you want to change is a Windows Explorer-wide behavior, click on any other icon in the task bar and you'll see the same kind of maximize/minimize behavior. There may be a UI tweaking utility somewhere that will change the behavior on an application by application basis but I've never heard of such a thing. Shift clicking seems like your best bet.

Green
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Instead of pinning apps, you can activate the XP-style Quick Launch bar by right-clicking on the taskbar, choosing "Toolbars", and then "Quick Launch". If you then add a Chrome shortcut to the Quick Launch taskbar, it will behave the way you expect.

Aaron Miller
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    "Quick Launch" is no longer available in the "Toolbars" in Windows 7. You can add a custom folder but you have to deselect "Show Text" and "Show Title" to get something similar as "Quick Launch". – Rik Sep 23 '13 at 21:36
  • @Rik That's odd; I'm pretty sure I've got it enabled on my Windows 7 box at home. It may just be that I've got a folder set as a toolbar with the text and titles disabled, and small icons set; I'll check when I get home and update my answer if necessary. – Aaron Miller Sep 23 '13 at 22:03
  • Or maybe upgraded from vista? Here, Windows 7 ultimate clean install, i could not find it. – Rik Sep 23 '13 at 22:32
  • "Quick Launch" is (was) nothing more than a folder and can easily be replicated as @Rik describes. I believe that it was previously located at "%UserProfile%\Appdata\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch". (FWIW: I run Windows 8 and wouldn't be without my Quick Launch folder!) – BillP3rd Sep 23 '13 at 23:15
  • @Rik Yup, it's just a folder, like BillP3rd describes -- I don't know why I thought it was "Quick Launch" specifically, except maybe the site where I found out the functionality still existed called it that? Anyway, you can absolutely get something just like it, and shortcuts in a folder toolbar don't have the annoying "we'd really like to rip the dock straight from OS X, but then Apple would sue us" behavior of pinned applications. – Aaron Miller Sep 24 '13 at 01:37