How do I keep the icons on the left of the taskbar to stay where they are?

Anonymous
2011-04-12T11:56:38+00:00

I have little icons for Outlook, Firefox, and Word on the left side of my taskbar and I want them to stay all the way to left, even when I have one or more of the programs open-- like it used to in earlier versions.  For example, if I have Outlook and some word docs open, those little icons disappear and the Firefox icon will be floating in between the two sets of open programs.  I even have my taskbar locked.  How do I fix this?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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@CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2011-04-21T13:57:45+00:00

In your description, the icons do stay where they are.  For example, your first picture has Outlook as the first icon.  Then in the next picture, Outlook is open, but it has not moved.

So you actually do want it to move, or you want a duplicate to show up over to the right, while the original icon stays to the left?

Sorry, but neither of these are possible.  The icons will always stay where they are.  This way Outlook is always #1 (or wherever you put it).

This gives you some great benefits.  For example:

  • Outlook will always be the first icon, running or not.  Makes it easier to find, because it's always in the same place.
  • There is no duplication.  You don't have to have 1 button to start Outlook, then another button that is Outlook once it's started.  Less crowding on the Taskbar with no duplicate icons.
  • You only have 1 place to look if you want to start Outlook, switch to it if it's already running, or look for the little envelope icon that shows up when you have new mail (it shows up on top of the Outlook icon now, if you have large icons enabled so there is room)
  • You can use keyboard shortcuts.  Pressing Windows+1 will start (or switch to) the first button on the taskbar. In your case, this is Outlook.  If Outlook moved over after you clicked it, your number shortcuts would change randomly.

In short, the icons will always stay where you put them. If you put Outlook as the first icon, it will always be the first icon, even after you click it.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-01-02T05:53:46+00:00

    I want to stay icon on the page, program open.used any time

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  2. @CmdrKeene 90,631 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2017-12-13T03:52:32+00:00

    Extra bonus:  if you want an "extra copy" of a program that's already running, you can middle-click it.  This is similar to middle-clicking a web browser link to open it in a new tab.

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  4. Anonymous
    2017-12-13T03:02:12+00:00

    I believe that there is a misunderstanding here. I think the desired taskbar behaviour is such that there are launch icons on the left, and active windows to the right, in order of time opened, oldest on the left.

    With current windows 10 options, it only allows launch icons that *become* the active window bars, thus shifting the position of all launch icons to the right of whichever program you opened, or launch icons only, which just glow when there is an active window open, to let you know that clicking it won't open a new window, but instead will open the one you previously launched that is running.

    What I want is to be able to click on the launch icons to open a new window, even when there is already an instance of it open. I don't really care if active window bars move around, but the launch icons mustn't move at all. Not even when a program to its left was launched.

    EDIT: 

    I just realised that the above solution of finding the quick launch toolbar and re-enstating it is exactly what I've been looking for. I believe that instead of doing this strange trick, that windows should have the quick launch behaviour as an option. 

    EDIT:

    I just tried it out, and found out that this goes nowhere near to fixing the problem. Now my start bar has a set of icons for launching, and a set that are active, which is great, but once I close everything, the active set now have inactive launch icons left over. This is unnecessary clutter that needs to go, and there's no option to remove them. Go figure.

    I'm not sure how much of my struggles with this laptop are AMD's fault, and how much of them are Microsoft's. The two keep tag-teaming to make all my drivers break and my custom settings reset, it seems.

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