Ungroup taskbar items in Windows 11 (taskbar's "never combine mode")
Mar 4
Is there a way to ungroup the taskbar item in Windows 11?
After doing some research so far I only found a third-party software option using valinet/ExplorerPatcher from GitHub which works but it changes many other things as well "back to Win 10 style". Are there any other options yet?
Note: There is no "regular" setting to do this in Windows 11, a request has already been added to the Microsoft Feedback Hub sometime last year (mid-2021), e.g. here.
Note: There are a few other 3rd party products to tweak the taskbar, but none of them can ungroup items in the taskbar: Start11, Open-Shell-Menu or StartAllBack (as far as I tried)
Note: I found a similar question by now (different wording that's why I didn't find them in my first searches), but the only solution there doesn't work either: see this question here. Same with this question.
Note: The function for the taskbar is called "never combine mode" by Microsoft and lets you see each window of your applications on the taskbar individually instead of grouping them all into one icon.
1 answer
Accepted answer · original discussion
Sep 10
The feature has been finally included in the latest Windows Update KB5032190 (as of Nov 14, 2023).
If you don't get the update automatically, you can download it here via the Microsoft Update-Katalog.
Please make sure that you read the available information for that particular update KB5032190 on the Microsoft Support Site, here you can also read about all the other changes the update will bring. I would strongly recommend checking the "Known issues in this update" section. It might be a good idea to wait at least 48 hours before installing it, to make sure no fatal bugs are discovered or that the update gets revoked.
The new feature can be accessed via the Windows settings:
Personalization -> Taskbar -> Combine Taskbar buttons and hide labels -> Never
You can view a presentation of the feature at Microsoft Build 2023 at time index 29:20.
Update (Oct 31th): Microsoft has released Windows 11 23H2 (Build 22631.2428) to OEMs.
Update (Oct 11th): Unfortunately yesterday's Patch Tuesday update (KB5031354) still didn't contain the update to 23H2 nor did it contain the "never combine mode". Although you can find it in the group policies (also see here), enabling it and restarting Explorer causes Explorer to crash continuously. Although some articles say it's included others say it does not include all the features from the Sept. 26th Upate. But there are several sources on how to update manually.
Update (Oct 7th): Still no official date set by Microsoft yet but 23H2 is expected to be released to the public with the next Patch Tuesday update, which will be on 10 October 2023.
Update (Sep 10th): This feature will be released with the 23H2 update (the release date is anticipated for October), the beta version can be downloaded already via KB5029339.
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