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How to ungroup Taskbar icons in Windows 11

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Windows 11 device sitting on a stool.
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Windows 11 is continually evolving with additional updates and feature improvements, moving it further and further from its Windows 10 roots. A everything you can do, I can do better, kind of situation.

That goes for ungrouping icons in your taskbar too. If you want to be able to see what all your browser Windows are doing, and split out multiple instances of the same apps, here's how to ungroup icons in the taskbar in Windows 11.

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Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • Desktop PC or laptop running Windows 11

How to ungroup taskbar icons in Windows 11

Windows 11 has a built-in function to turn taskbar icon grouping on, or off, or make it situationally trigger when you taskbar fills up. Here's how to do it.

Step 1: Right-click your taskbar and select Taskbar settings.

Alternatively, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar.

Step 2: Select Taskbar behaviors.

Taskbar behaviour menu in Windows 11.
DigitalTrends

Step 3: Scroll down the list of options that pops out, and look for "Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels." By default, this is set to Always which groups your icons together. To stop it doing that, select the drop-down menu and select Never.

You should instantly see all your taskbar icons ungroup themselves, giving you more detail about how many windows you have open in your web browser(s) and what sites they're on.

If you ever want to change this option back, simply retrace your steps and set it back to Always.

Taskbar grouping options.
DigitalTrends

Step 4: If you'd rather your taskbar icons still grouped up when your taskbar gets full, you can set that same option to When taskbar is full and the grouping will trigger only when it's needed to save space.

Now you've gotten to grips with ungrouping icons in your taskbar, how about brushing up on the best security practices in Windows 11? Here are some tips on how to shore up your digital defences.

Arif Bacchus
Arif Bacchus
Former Computing Writer
Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…
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