So you want the taskbar to behave as if every item has a different AppId, and still not show the related pinned item if the program is running. What you're asking to do is tricky, and will require a lot of time and research, which I don't plan to invest. I know that because I had more trivial issues related to pinned items, which were quite time consuming to fix to fit the tweaker's options. Remember that explorer is not open source, the tweaker is expected to work on every build from Windows 7 to the latest Windows 10, and many things are implemented with a bit of creativity and hacks.

OK, then the icons example is unrelated. You provided it as an example to - "items behave differently when Windows' option to hide and show labels are used" - but they don't behave differently.

Why not add such an option:

1. It will have to be implemented, i.e. I'll need to spend time on this.
2. It complicates the tweaker.
3. It adds work for me to do every time a new Windows build is released to keep the tweaker compatible.
4. It's already possible to do by using the taskbar properties. You said it's different, but I don't see how.

Why add such an option:

1. More options to control from a single location which is the twekaer.
2. Can be used with the portable version of the tweaker on others' computers.
3. ???

So, as you can see, there are at least several reasons as of why I'm reluctant to add this option.

The website is accessible on my computer. Please try again, and if it still doesn't work, please provide more details, such as the error message that you're getting and a screenshot. 

I remember that it was possible to disable the hover preview in Windows 7 from the system settings. Now I found these threads: one, two. One of the comments mentions about one of the solutions that it doesn't work on Windows 10 anymore, so it might not work for you. Try it out, and hopefully one of the linked answers will help you. 

if an application opens few windows, but only one (main) window is I use and the rest just need to be there for application to work. I can minimize the rest

You might want to try using virtual desktops for this scenario. They are built in since Windows 10, but since you're using Windows 8 you can try Virtuoz (a minimalistic virtual desktop utility developed by me) or any other virtual desktops tool.

But with left click not always work like should. Instead to switch to main window it displays thumbnails (even if inactive) or restore the minimized other windows that I don't want to use.

You can try the "Left click on combined item" -> "Cycle through windows" option. This will open the last active window when you left click. You can also use Ctrl+left click.

Also minimize all windows from group works bad, cuz it's not activating other window like normal minimize does.

Why would you want it to activate the minimized windows?

That might force the same icon for the rest of items

This happens if you choose to hide labels, and is related to your previous post. See my answer there.

move the pinned item position to the most right item on exit/restart

This happens because pinned items are "grouped" to their instances by AppId. If you don't want the two to be related (so that the pinned items won't disappear when an instance is running), use "Don't group pinned items".

You're asking for "Hide labels globally" in the title, but that's already possible with the Windows taskbar settings (and you know this). You're actually looking for something else.

You want to hide labels, but have the taskbar show icons that belong to the window, and not icons that belong to the AppId. 7+ Taskbar Tweaker doesn't provide such an option this time. A workaround that works but involves manual work is to manually assign a new AppId to every newly opened window. You can do it with Taskbar Inspector or use the "Drag within/between groups using right mouse button" and do it with the mouse right button drag. Note that hiding labels for a specific AppId with Taskbar Inspector doesn't change the behavior as you say - once you hide the labels, the icon becomes the icon of the AppId. That is unless you also change the AppId, of course.

I'm not sure I understand the request. You can use "Combine taskbar buttons" = "Never" in taskbar properties to always show labels. How is your request different? What are you referring to with "custom windows styles" and "second background image"?

If you mean that "Combine taskbar buttons" = "Never" shows different icons that "Always, hide labels", you're right, and currently 7+ Taskbar Tweaker doesn't provide a way to change that.

Because this request is very old and a bit unclear, I'm closing it, but if it's still relevant feel free to leave a comment and clarify what you meant.

Hi Magnesia,

This kind of automation is out of scope for the tweaker, sorry. There surely are better tools for the job. If you find a tool to run any program/command on a "Cubase is on foreground" or "Cubase is not on foreground" event, let me know and I'll provide you with a command to change the taskbar mode to auto-hide and back.

7+ Taskbar Tweaker, of course.

https://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker