Question about W7 and the taskbar.

Azureth

Azureth

Supreme [H]ardness
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Is there anyway to "un-group" items when you move them? For example, when I try to move around my "Games" folder it also takes my music and another folder with it. Or my AIM chat windows. Thanks!
 
The Games folder as far as I can remember uses Windows Explorer to view it, just like Libraries which includes Music folder. You could make a shortcut and open it in a new window and have 2 separate windows.
 
If you're trying to have two groupings for the same program, no, there's no way to do that.
 
I'm not trying to "group" anything, the fact that it groups at all bothers me. Maybe you don't understand what I mean. In W7 you can move the things you have minimized to the taskbar around in the taskbar, however, some things when you click and hold one thing it takes more then one for some reason. Is there anyway to make it so it doesn't?
 
Bear in mind that if you have Taskbar Grouping enabled then EVERY SINGLE ONE of your taskbar icons will be a 'group' icon, no matter what! With Grouping enabled the actual 'program instance' buttons are in the mouseover popup, not on the taskbar itself.


You can change it to wither 'Group when Taskbar full' or to 'Never Group':

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/496-taskbar-button-grouping-enable-disable.html

That's as good a description/guide as any. there are plenty others around if you wanna look.



Disabling grouping brings those program instance buttons back to the taskbar, just like they were in Vista and XP before it.
 
What he's saying is if he has two windows open of the same program, the programs in the task bar are stuck together. If you try to move one to a different position in the taskbar, the other one moves too. And no, you can't change that (at least not that I'm aware of).
 
Snowknight26 said:
What he's saying is if he has two windows open of the same program, the programs in the task bar are stuck together. If you try to move one to a different position in the taskbar, the other one moves too. And no, you can't change that (at least not that I'm aware of).
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Correct. The like programs stay together so you can find them. Why would you WANT to change that?
 
My bad. Just then had a good play with it, using ALL available settings, and see what you mean!

Dunno if this works, but:

HKEY_CURRRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

There's a value in there called 'TaskbarGlomLevel' and the value is likely set to '0'. That setting represents 'icons' on the taskbar. If you alter the setting to '1' that'll force traditional 'Buttons' on the Taskbar instead.

Dunno if that stops the grouping referred to, but seeing's how it's supposed to foprce 'traditional' behaviour it might.





Edit: there's also a registry setting somewhere which determines how many instances of a program need to be running before grouping occurs. That might be a help too. But I haven't been able to find same one in windows 7 as it is in Windows Vista, unfortunately. Maybe someone else has knowledge of that.


Second Edit: I agree, by the way. why would anyone WANT to change it anyways?
 
Arainach said:
Correct. The like programs stay together so you can find them. Why would you WANT to change that?
Click to expand...

But they're not all like programs. Take this for instance:

Untitled.png


When I move my "Music" folder it also takes my other two totally un-related folders with it. And if I have several AIM chats going maybe I'd like to put one of the windows closer then another but I can't because they take them all.
 
All explorer windows are grouped, even if they are to different locations.

In other words, even if they are different windows classed under the same program, they are grouped. I don't know how to change it, never looked into it, because I personally like it.
 
Azureth said:
But they're not all like programs.
Click to expand...

The linked folders displayed there aren't just 'like programs'. They're the SAME program. They are all Explorer instances! Fire up 'Computer' or 'Network' and those will be linked too, because those are also Explorer instances.

There's kinda no practical point to having them separated and in different positions on the Taskbar anyways. If you're actually USING them you have the windows at different positions on the desktop, and you're drag/dropping/whatever or firing stuff up from inside them, not operating the things from the Taskbar. Unless, of course, you're maybe operating a 'pooter with too small a screen res for your needs, and having to maximise every window that you ever open. (In which case the resolution of your problem isn't separating stuff on the taskbar. It's getting a bigger monitor or using multi-monitors.)
 
It's not that my screen is too small (it's 24'), it's just that I'm very anal about how I like certain apps/folders to be next to each other.
 
Trouble is though, Azureth, you're seeking something which would be fundamental under a completely different OS such as MacOS, rather than under Windows. Those two completely different OS's have very basic underlying structural differences, which make them treat programs and windows differently. Under Windows all like Windows are part of the same program instance, whereas under MacOS all the various windows are different instances of programs.

You're trying to bypass what is actually a fundamental part of the way Windows works. Now that we have this 'super taskbar' things manifest the way they do because Windows is what it is.

You're kinda gonna haveta get over that aspect of anal, methinks, or else move to Mac or somesuch. Windows doesn't (and can't) operate in the way you seem to want it to.



Edit:

do you 'get' what i'm saying there? Under Windows they are never really 'separate instances' of programs running, even though they might appear to be. Instead, they are all part of the samne running program, with the various open windows being different tasks concurrently running within that program. Windows doesn't 'really' fire up multiple instances of the same program. Not ever! Sorta, anyways. I was reading up about it not long back. Way things work it just appears to be multiple instances.
 
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I guess, I just don't understand why it won't allow me to move say my "Trainers" folder to the left of my "Music" folder or my "MISC apps" folder. Also, what does pinning the folder to the taskbar do?
 
Azureth said:
I guess, I just don't understand why it won't allow me to move say my "Trainers" folder to the left of my "Music" folder or my "MISC apps" folder. Also, what does pinning the folder to the taskbar do?
Click to expand...

pinning is the new quick launch.
 
You seem far too anal for the kind of change Windows 7 brings. The new taskbar is a paradigm shift (relatively), like the ribbon in Office 2007 was.

The other option is to just wait for someone to write a utility that somehow brings the old taskbar back. On one of Leo Laporte's recent TWiT shows, he talked about someone who has written a program that restores the classic Start Menu in Windows 7; I'm sure there are enterprising folks out there working on it.
 
I don't know what's with the gripes with Windows 7's new Taskbar.

Having used Windows 7 RC1 and Beta versions before that, it's been a learning process. Lately, with RC1 now, I've just come to love it.

No more having more than one window of the same program crowding my Taskbar. Similar windows are now grouped by their respective programs. Pinning programs to the Taskbar is a much welcome change from the old Quick Launch toolbar of yore. Everything is within easy reach that I don't have to settle for a third party dock, though I may reconsider it in the future.

My only gripes so far other than the driver installation issues with Creative and ATI is that the system tray still has missing icons. I'm surprised they have not fixed that since Windows XP. I have to resort to running the program again to make the icon(s) show up again in the system tray.
 
octoberasian said:
My only gripes so far other than the driver installation issues with Creative and ATI is that the system tray still has missing icons. I'm surprised they have not fixed that since Windows XP.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't consider those Windows 7 issues, but rather the software's issue. And what icons anyway?
 
Dropbox, Free Download Manager, Skype, Open Office, and ICQ icons in the system tray come-and-go as they please on every reboot.

Also, after some searching, I didn't realize there was this supposed 70-item limit in the All Programs menu. I've already ended up reinstalling 4 programs and uninstalling 8 other programs to meet that 70-item limit and restore their folders and icons in the Start Menu.

Oh, and the issues with ATI Catalyst 9.6 was that if you allowed Win 7 RC1 install the WDDM Microsoft drivers, you can't install the ATI ones. You have to go to Device Manager, right-click your video card (mine is HD3870) and select Uninstall. Reboot. Upon reboot, tell the device auto-installer to not install the drivers and reinstall the Catalyst 9.6 suite again.

Creative was another story. The above method didn't work. After three restarts, I figured it was Creative's installer's fault. It would stay on the dialogue box, "Updating drivers and software..." (or similar) then an balloon notice would pop up from the system tray saying that the Creative sound card (mine is X-Fi Gamer) is installed. I had to go to Task Manager and End Task the setup software, restart and install the accompanying software I got from the website.

Other than that, been smooth sailing so far. It's been incredibly stable, and feels the same as Vista but different at the same time... I think that makes sense.
 
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