Add an option to reorder windows of an app in the taskbar (by drag and drop)

[groupe-itc]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

I would like to be able to reorder window list of an app in the taskbar. For example, if I have 10 windows of File Explorer opened, I would like to be able to order them manually. There was a great tool for that in Windows 10 but it no longer works with Windows 11 : https://ramensoftware.com/7-taskbar-tweaker

Scenario when this would be used?

I need to open multiple windows of Remote Desktop Client. I would like to be able to change the order of the list of the opened Windows to keep the same order day after day.

Supporting information

No response

[epiqu1n]

Please I've wanted this for so long! I often have multiple browser windows open at a time to keep tabs organized, but it's kind of a pain not being able to control how the windows themselves are organized 😓

[ukanuk]

Same here! For me to work efficiently it is critical to be able to re-order the windows into a logical order.

I often run up to 6 projects of Siemens TIA Portal, but Alt+Tab doesn't work well for more than two windows of it since the window previews all look extremely similar in the Alt+Tab switcher.

I currently accomplish this on Windows 10 with 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, also mentioned in https://github.com/microsoft/PowerToys/issues/17413, but my business IT department would much prefer I use a Microsoft-provided solution.

Another feature I appreciate of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker is being able to un-group the taskbar icons of just a certain program. So I can leave Windows with the default of always combining taskbar buttons and hiding labels, but for Siemens TIA Portal I can use 7+ Taskbar Tweaker to show separate icons for all 6 projects I have open, manually ordered as makes logical sense.

[m417z]

Hi, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker author here. 7+ Taskbar Tweaker indeed doesn't support Windows 11, but the thumbnail reordering functionality was ported to a Windhawk mod - Taskbar Thumbnail Reorder. It can be installed by getting Windhawk and installing the mod.

[vatatav]

Hi m417z, Author of 7+ Taskbar Tweaker which is one of my belovest utilities ever. It is the reason I can not love Windows11 (not to be able to use it's wonderfull customizations and tweaks). Yes Taskbar Thumbnail Reorder mod provides the thumbnail reordering functionality (or something else I have installed also provides that because even when I disable the mod it seems I can reorder the thumbnails now). However, after navigating different desktops thumnail ordering is not preserved. At my physical machine I deceided to join to Windows Insider program for some reason. One particular problem I faced was solved in one of the releases. On the other hand I have lost 7tt and open shell meanwile. By searching and using auto hotkey, I could manage to gain some functionality back (middle click on empty space on taskbar to show desktop for example). However, I can not find solutions to many other things. With the last Insider update it is not even possible to use win10 style of taskbar by using explorer patcher. By using Win10 style of taskbar and 7tt it was possible to keep the thumbnail ordering unchanged when switching between destops but it is not possible now with the last insider update (there were other problems before the last update any way...) As I saw from my last virtual machine explorer patcher + 7tt gives the old functionality for the latest version of win11... However with the next version it seems it will be gone... Do they really need to torture us so much??? That is the question.....

[noraa-junker]

/feedbackhub

[ghost]

Hi! We've identified this issue that best is suited for Windows Feedback Hub. To do this on Windows, WinKey+F will bring it up!

[Mersid]

Hi, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker author here. 7+ Taskbar Tweaker indeed doesn't support Windows 11, but the thumbnail reordering functionality was ported to a Windhawk mod - Taskbar Thumbnail Reorder. It can be installed by getting Windhawk and installing the mod.

Possibly the best thing since sliced bread.

[duke1995]

Hi, 7+ Taskbar Tweaker author here. 7+ Taskbar Tweaker indeed doesn't support Windows 11, but the thumbnail reordering functionality was ported to a Windhawk mod - Taskbar Thumbnail Reorder. It can be installed by getting Windhawk and installing the mod.

The Windhawk process is terminated on startup by the CrowdStrike anti-virus on my work laptop because "malicious behavior was detected", so unfortunately this isn't working for me.

[m417z]

@duke1995 Windhawk injects code into other programs, and antiviruses often find it suspicious. The "malicious" label is just wrong, though.

You can try limiting Windhawk to explorer.exe, perhaps CrowdStrike will be fine with that. You can do that with the following steps:

• Install Windhawk in safe mode by running the installer with the /safemode command line switch.
  • If Windhawk is already installed, safe mode can also be enabled by setting the SafeMode value to 1 in the following registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Windhawk\Settings.
• Open Windhawk, go to Settings, Advanced settings, More advanced settings, add * to the Process exclusion list, and add explorer.exe to the Process inclusion list. With this configuration, Windhawk will only inject code into the explorer.exe process, making it less intrusive and less suspicious to antiviruses.

[duke1995]

Thank you a lot for your detailed instructions, @m417z , it works as you've described.