Problem with taskbar button grouping

[Nick Cellino]

On my XP Home computer, Taskbar button grouping is no longer enabled. In
the past, I must have installed a plug-in or registry hack to stop it
from working but now I want it back. How would I enable it?

Right now, after opening a fourth program or a fourth document in a
program, the first three "disappear" from view while the fourth is
visible. I then have to click the up-down arrows in the taskbar to view
the first three again. I don't like this at all and want to change it.

Thank you.

[Haus]

Hello
Start>Control Panel>Taskbar&Start Menu>put a check in Group Similar Taskbar
Items>Apply>OK

--
Hope this helps
Haus

[Nick Cellino]

Haus wrote:
> Hello
> Start>Control Panel>Taskbar&Start Menu>put a check in Group Similar Taskbar
> Items>Apply>OK
>

"Group similar items" isn't one of the choices within the Taskbar tab. I
see the following choices:

Lock the taskbar
Auto-hide the taskbar
Keep the taskbar on top of other windows

[Kumaran]

Try this registry tweak:

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/916/

Regards,
Kumaran

"Nick Cellino" > wrote in message
...
> Haus wrote:
> > Hello
> > Start>Control Panel>Taskbar&Start Menu>put a check in Group Similar
Taskbar
> > Items>Apply>OK
> >
>
> "Group similar items" isn't one of the choices within the Taskbar tab. I
> see the following choices:
>
> Lock the taskbar
> Auto-hide the taskbar
> Keep the taskbar on top of other windows
>

[Nick Cellino]

Thanks Kumaran,

Your suggestion finally led me to the solution to my problem. After I
made the changes to the Registry that you suggested, my problem still
remained but at that point I recalled the program that I had installed
which allowed me to edit the Registry, creating my problem. This program
is FreshUI, published by Freshdevices.corp. This is an excellent program
but like all similar programs which edit the Registry, it can cause
havoc if users forget what changes it has made or don't understand all
the ramifications of those changes. I used the program to disable the
"task grouping" setting for the taskbar which, unknown to me at the
time, removed the "Group similar taskbar buttons" command from
Right-click > Taskbar > Properties!

Before using FreshUI to reverse the setting, I edited the Registry
exactly as Kumaran suggested but that didn't solve the problem so I'd
love to know what changes FreshUI made to the Registry to correct the
problem but it really isn't that important at this point. I'm just
curious because when I returned to the Registry after the reversing the
setting, I could not see any differences in the Registry Settings in the
two Advanced folders.

The problem is solved but one question still remains. The taskbar
setting controls the grouping of icons within the same program. For
example, when in MS Word, grouping takes place after the third Word
document is loaded (or a different number if the Registry is edited).
However, "grouping" takes places in a different manner when multiple
programs are loaded. On my computer, after the 4th application is
loaded, the first 3 disappear from view on the taskbar and only the 4th
is visible. To see the first 3 again, I have to click the up-down arrow.
I would like to know if the Registry can edited to control this type of
"grouping" so I can see 4 or 5 icons before grouping takes place.

Thanks again to Haus and Kumaran for their replies.

Kumaran wrote:
> Try this registry tweak:
>
> http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/916/
>
> Regards,
> Kumaran
>
> "Nick Cellino" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Haus wrote:
>>
>>>Hello
>>>Start>Control Panel>Taskbar&Start Menu>put a check in Group Similar
>
> Taskbar
>
>>>Items>Apply>OK
>>>
>>
>>"Group similar items" isn't one of the choices within the Taskbar tab. I
>>see the following choices:
>>
>>Lock the taskbar
>>Auto-hide the taskbar
>>Keep the taskbar on top of other windows
>>
>
>
>