Disable scrolling of the taskbar (annoying) when to many programs are running?

[Henrik]

Hello all.

The taskbar has a a couple of new features in Windows XP.

They might be a nice touch if you are new to Windows, but if you have worked
with it for 10 years or so, you have gotten used to "your" way of doing
things, and would like to keep them.

The problem is that "your" way of doing things soon turn into Microsoft's
way of doing things.

First, there is the "Keep programs together". Thankfully, it is possible to
disable this feature.

Secondly is the brilliant (not) new feature that if there are "too" many
programs running at a time, their taskbar windows may end up on a second or
third line, that you have to scroll down to locate.

In previous versions of Windows, these icons were "compressed" so that their
width got smaller and smaller as your had more and more programs running.

I agree that it is somewhat difficult to read the caption of the window when
the window on the taskbar was just a sliver wide, but you just moved your
mouse over the it and a helpful tooltip told you what the title was. And
when it got too bad, one closed down a bunch of them so one once again
reached a manageable number of open programs, who's windows in the taskbar
wasn't too small to hoover over.

Since I customarily have about 15 or so programs running constantly, which I
need in my work, and I don't like the old ALT-TAB combination, is there
ANYWAY to disable this annoyance?

I have looked for it on the web, and I see a number of people asking about
it, but I see no answers, so I'm hoping someone here might help out.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

Hello all.

The taskbar has a a couple of new features in Windows XP.

They might be a nice touch if you are new to Windows, but if you have
worked with it for 10 years or so, you have gotten used to "your" way
of doing things, and would like to keep them.

The problem is that "your" way of doing things soon turn into
Microsoft's way of doing things.

First, there is the "Keep programs together". Thankfully, it is
possible to disable this feature.

Secondly is the brilliant (not) new feature that if there are "too"
many programs running at a time, their taskbar windows may end up on
a second or third line, that you have to scroll down to locate.

In previous versions of Windows, these icons were "compressed" so
that their width got smaller and smaller as your had more and more
programs running.

I agree that it is somewhat difficult to read the caption of the
window when the window on the taskbar was just a sliver wide, but you
just moved your mouse over the it and a helpful tooltip told you what
the title was. And when it got too bad, one closed down a bunch of
them so one once again reached a manageable number of open programs,
who's windows in the taskbar wasn't too small to hoover over.

Since I customarily have about 15 or so programs running constantly,
which I need in my work, and I don't like the old ALT-TAB
combination, is there ANYWAY to disable this annoyance?

I have looked for it on the web, and I see a number of people asking
about it, but I see no answers, so I'm hoping someone here might help
out.

Check to see in Taskbar Properties if you have the "Group similar taskbar buttons" option selected. If so, remove that check mark.

 

[Nightowl]

Henrik wrote on Wed, 24 Aug 2005:

As I am a programmer (which might be deduced from the above program list), I
also sometime search the web for help on how to accomplish something.
I usually google, and then shift + left click on a bunch of links (open in
new window) that might be of interest. As you can understand, these new
windows, on top of all the others push me over the limit.

Hi Henrik

Using a tabbed browser like Firefox will help with that part of your
problem. . .