Windows 11 finally gets a feature I’ve been eagerly awaiting since the OS was released – yes, a ‘never combine’ option is coming to the taskbar. Oh, a joyful and rapturous day indeed (ahem).
This is one of many changes made with a new preview build (23466) in the Dev channel, and it has been rather speculated approximately in a number to leak.
If you enable “never combine” mode for the taskbar, apps will always be kept as separate entries on the bar, even if multiple instances of the same application are open at the same time.
By default, with multiple instances of apps, Windows 11 stacks them—combines them, so to speak—into one item on the taskbar. Never combined, as the name suggests, means this doesn’t happen, and they all remain separate – and you can see the labels on those individual instances (which tell you which web page is currently active, e.g. in a browser window).
Not all testers will see this right away, Microsoft let us know, as it’s a gradual rollout. So even if you’re a Windows Insider hanging out in the Dev Channel, it might still be a while before you get the option.
Happiness is a non-combining taskbar
The introduction of the taskbar never merge option is a big one for me, as the lack of this feature is pretty much the biggest reason I haven’t upgraded to Windows 11 yet. (There are other niggles too, but let’s not get over it off topic).
That probably sounds a bit over the top, but seriously, stacking apps on the taskbar is a deal breaker as far as I’m concerned. I hate this way of working – it really annoys me – so I was pretty baffled when Windows 11 showed up without never combining (as it’s known in Windows 10 – not sure why it’s now ‘combined’ in Windows 11, but it doesn’t really matter).
It’s never a good idea to remove agency as far as I’m concerned, but Microsoft didn’t do this out of arbitrary desire, we were told. The chatter from the usual insider sources suggested that adding what might seem like simple functionality on the surface was actually quite a complex issue around how the latest operating system’s interface was built from the ground up.
Not sure how much I believe in that, but I can accept the premise. I just can’t understand why it took Microsoft so long to introduce this to Windows 11 – it was obviously pretty far below whatever interface priority lists were established internally.
But hey, it’s here now, if only during testing. Hopefully, Microsoft will be able to implement this change in the major update at the end of the year (23H2). After all, the groundwork should have been the hardest part here, so sharpening the feature shouldn’t be such a big task. I hope.
Then I can fuel that Windows 11 upgrade, finally, and come up with the OS times. This feels a bit more like a pressing need after the announcement that Windows 10 will be getting no features at all (other than minor tweaks – there will be no 23H2 update for the older operating system, as you may recall).