How to Ungroup Taskbar Icons in Windows 11 (and Why It’s Not Always Obvious)
If you’ve recently upgraded to Windows 11 or just started exploring around, you might have noticed that, by default, icons on the taskbar tend to group together when you have multiple windows of the same app open. It’s meant to save space, I suppose, but honestly, it can be more of a hassle—making it harder to see at a glance what’s actually running, especially if you prefer everything visible. Anyway, ungrouping those icons isn’t exactly obvious, and I definitely hit some frustrations before it finally settled. Here’s what I figured out, in real-world terms—I hope it helps others avoid the same endless trial and error.
Getting Into Settings — The Long Road
First up, to change the taskbar icon grouping behaviour, you need to go into Settings. The quickest way (at least for me) is press Windows key + I. That opens the Settings panel instantly, much faster than digging through menus. If you prefer clicking around, you can right-click the taskbar and choose Taskbar settings, but honestly, the keyboard shortcut saves heaps of time—especially if you’re tweaking this multiple times.
Once in Settings, select Personalisation from the sidebar on the left. It’s usually near the top. That’s where most taskbar adjustments live. Scroll or navigate until you find Taskbar. In some updates or builds, this might be tucked into a submenu or labelled slightly differently, but most times it’s pretty straightforward to locate.
Digging Deeper Into the Taskbar Options
In the Taskbar menu, you’ll see various options for how icons and buttons behave. Watch out for Taskbar behaviours; that’s where Microsoft separates the controls for icon grouping and labels. Sometimes this section is hidden or collapsed—there might be a tiny arrow to expand it. Honestly, I’ve spent ages hunting for this because the labels aren’t always clear. If it’s not visible, try scrolling or clicking around — it’s often inside a part called More options.
The Key Setting — The “Never” Option
Within Taskbar behaviours, look for the setting named Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels. It might be set to When taskbar is full or Always by default. This is the crucial part for ungrouping icons. Change it to Never. That way, each open window will have its own icon on the taskbar, with no grouping.
This might seem like a small tweak, but it makes a big difference visually. Instead of a tiny group icon, each window appears separately—making it easier for some to manage multiple open apps. For others, it might look cluttered, I get it—personal preference plays a part here.
Does It Take Effect Immediately? Yes and No
Once you switch that setting to Never, you’ll see the icons ungroup pretty much straight away—probably within a second or two. I was surprised how quick it was. But here’s a hard lesson I learnt: sometimes Windows needs a reboot to ‘apply’ the change fully. If it still looks like icons are grouped or the setting doesn’t seem to work, try restarting your PC. A quick reboot clears up glitches—especially on Windows 11, which can act a bit funny sometimes.
On my setup, I also noticed that changes only applied to the main display unless I adjusted settings on each monitor—multi-screen setups can be a bit hit and miss this way. If you’re using multiple monitors, check whether the new icon arrangement carries over to all screens or just one.
Things to Watch Out For
A couple of caveats: this setting tends to be local to your user profile, so if you’re on a managed or enterprise system, group policies might override it. Also, Microsoft sometimes hides or renames options during updates—if what I described isn’t there, make sure your Windows is fully up to date. Sometimes a Windows update or BIOS update can influence how these things behave, especially on newer hardware or OEM customisations.
If after fiddling with these settings the icons revert or act strangely, consider resetting the taskbar options or messing with group policies if you’re comfortable with those tweaks. Remember, this mainly affects your primary display; if you’re on multiple screens, you might need to tweak each one individually.
If this helped you get your taskbar looking less cluttered, spread the word—sharing tips like this can save someone else a lot of frustration. Honestly, it took me quite a bit of trial, error, and rebooting to get here. But if you’re like me and dislike a cluttered taskbar, it’s worth it. Just expect a bit of patience, as Windows doesn’t always switch immediately.
Hope this helps — it took me ages to figure out! Hopefully, it saves someone else a weekend of messing about.