Windows 7 New Taskbar Question

Joined
Jun 19, 2005
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While I love the new taskbar, it sometimes requires more effort to display a pre-existing window somewhere in the background. Suppose I have a couple of instances of notepad open, as well as Firefox. I set focus to Firefox which causes all of my notepad windows to disappear in the background. Now I want to be able to quickly switch in between one of the notepad instances and Firefox. It's true that I can alt-tab between them, but I'd like to be able to click between them via the taskbar at the same speed.

Now with older versions of windows, this simply required clicking notepad on the taskbar and BAM there it was. With Windows 7 however, it groups the notepad instances together requiring TWO clicks to get to the one you want, one click to open the instance menu, and another to select which instance you want to view. Alternatively, you could hover over the notepad grouping, wait for the menu to appear, and click the instance of notepad that you would like to display. This only takes one click but requires hovering and waiting for a menu. Again, this is compared to the instantaneous single click of older versions of windows.

So I'm wondering, is there a setting somewhere that will get rid of the hovering and waiting aspect, so that the instance menu pops open the exact second that I mouse-over the notepad grouping?
 
Right click on the task bar then select "Properties". There you'll get a dialog box with a drop down menu option labeled "Taskbar buttons:". Select "Never combine" and it the task bar will not group item.
 
That's fine but not what I want. I like the fact that they combine, but dislike the fact that it takes two clicks to quickly open an instance of a window. I want to disable the hovering time so that the menu of combined windows opens instantly upon mouse-over.
 
May I suggest using using Notepad++ ?

Its tabbed which is nice. I know this doesn't fix the larger issue, but its worth checking out.
 
Just tried this registry setting and changed to default time from 400 milliseconds to 40 and actually that does work better. Thanks for the idea and I hope that it suits your needs.
 
lol that does work but it also makes things like sub-menus in the start menu open instantly upon mouse-over. I wish there was a separate setting just for the thumbnail preview.
 
I noticed that but actually like it better that way. I don't see it impacting anything, the start menu is very responsive. Anything you notice or think is a hindrance?
 
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