+1

With grouping disabled, show labels only when multiple app instances are open

Honza Salajka 7 years ago updated by Michael (Ramen Software) 3 years ago 1

Following image describes it the best:


Image 127


Since Chrome, Explorer and Notepad++ have only one open instance their label is hidden. Since Opera has two open instances the label of each instance is visible.


To me, it would have many benefits:

  • Single instances labels would be hidden because in most cases they are quite useless, saving some of the taskbar space
  • Multiple instances labels would be shown, allowing user to distinguish each instance. As a result, user would instantly know in which instance he/she is switching to
  • User would have permanent overview of what is open (no combining)

Similar behavior can be currently achieved by following settings:

  • In Windows Taskbar settings:
    • Never show labels
  • In 7+ Taskbar Tweaker:
    • Group by Application ID
    • Combine grouped buttons
    • Decombine active group
    • Decombine on mouse hover
    • ... and show labels

With these settings, labels are always hidden and multiple instances are grouped and combined. If you hover over a group, it becomes decombined while all the labels are shown.


However it doesn't satisfy my needs as it has few major disadvantages:

  • When switching windows you have to first focus on group you are switching to and hover over it, then you have to refocus and select particular window
  • You don't have permanent overview of open windows

For the reasons mentioned above I would like to be able to apply following settings:

  • In Windows Taskbar settings:
    • Never show labels
  • In 7+ Taskbar Tweaker:
    • Don't group
    • Don't combine grouped buttons
    • Show labels when multiple app instances are open (new feature)

For some reason, the spam filter marked this topic, and I noticed it only now by accident.

There's also the following suggestion which is similar:

https://tweaker.userecho.com/topics/273-possibility-to-always-expand-groups-with-more-than-1-item-and-show-their-labels