Stacking of open windows for any one app on Taskbar

from Stardock Forums

What is the name for the feature in Start 11 which stacks on the Taskbar - when hovering over that app's icon - icons for open windows in any one application?

In other words, if I have a load of open emails in Outlook, when I hover over the Outlook button, it shows me a stack of buttons to the right of the main application button, so the already-open email that you want to view can be selected.

Or it does as long as there are no more than 15 open emails.

As soon as a 16th email is opened, that row of little windows disappears, to be replaced by a super-annoying and difficult-to-use little button with a down-arrow at the bottom.

It's _extremely_ difficult to select the open email that you want to view, as it auto-scrolls through the list, one at a time.

Rather than having the icons spread horizontally across the screen, so that it runs out of space and replaces the individual icons with that offending menu, is it possible to configure Start 11 so that the open windows appear vertically as a list down the screen? (I have my Taskbar at the top of the screen).

What is the name of this feature or behaviour? Having trouble thinking what the term for it might be, so that it can be searched for here, to see whether anyone else feels the same way about it...

Regards

 

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13,837 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

There is a Registry setting which allows you set the Taskbar thumbnails to list when more than a specified number are open.

 

For you to change Taskbar Thumbnail peek to List peek, kindly follow the steps below:

1. Press the Win+R keys to open the Run dialog, type regedit, and click/tap on OK to open Registry Editor.

2. In the left pane of the Registry Editor, browse to the location below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband

3. To Change Taskbar Thumbnail Threshold:

    In the right pane of the Taskband key, double click/tap on the NumThumbnails DWORD to modify it.

    Note: If you don't have a NumThumbnails DWORD, then right click or press and hold on an empty area in the right pane of the Taskband key, click/tap on New and DWORD (32-bit) Value, type NumThumbnails, and press Enter.

  4. Select (dot) Decimal, type a number you want for the taskbar thumbnail threshold, click/tap on OK.

    Note: If you type 0 (zero) it will effectively disable taskbar thumbnail previews, and only show in list mode.

Image

5. Close Registry Editor.

6. Sign out to Windows and sign back in

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Dear Mr Laird

Thank you for responding - very kind.

Unfortunately, that process doesn't quite do as I'd hoped! There was no NumThumbnails DWORD in the registry, so I added one, and set its decimal value to 0. Rebooted. Was hoping to see the 16 emails I'd left open when rebooting (on purpose, so that they auto-re-opened) to appear as a vertical list when hovering over the Outlook app button on the Taskbar. Unfortunately, it still had that next-to-useless compressed menu view, as in the original email. Disappointed!

Tried setting the DWORD value to 20 instead, as a test, and rebooted again. This time, it did indeed increase the number of open email thumbnails it would display to 20 (inc the base Outlook app window), and any more than that it would go back to that compressed menu view.

Conclusion seems to be that the DWORD you suggested does indeed affect this behaviour, but it doesn't go as far as getting rid of that compressed menu view altogether.

I could have sworn (well, I know that it did) that Windows used to present the list of open emails as a vertical list beneath the app's own button, where you could see them all at once, and select the one you wanted to highlight / give focus.

This behaviour seems to have changed. Is this a change to the way that Windows behaves as standard, or is this compressed menu view a Start 11 "feature"?

Best regards

Harry

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Try this and see if it works for you.

Turn on the Enhanced taskbar, and then turn on "Allow the taskbar to be resized."

Now drag the taskbar taller to two or three rows, and your open emails will all be displayed by separate taskbar buttons on two or three rows, with or without text depending on the setting you choose.

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Interesting - thank you.

Yes, it does indeed change things, and more usable, so thank you.

But it's still a bit clumsy! I can't pretend that I really like it :-)

It doesn't revert to how these things used to work, which is to present the list of open emails as a vertical list, once it gets beyond the capacity to show them as individual icons horizontally. 

For example, here is a Win10 box on my desk:-

With 16 emails open, it displays them horizontally as a collection of individual thumbnails. Once there are 17 open, as above, it changes to presenting that vertical list.

I'm pretty certain that Win 11 used to do the same thing. Although I could be mistaken. But I haven't been using Start 11 that long, and I don't remember the taskbar behaving the way it does now.... I switched to trying Start 11 so that I could have the Taskbar across the top of the screen, where I, as an old person, think it should be!

Best regards

Harry

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Is this not what you get when setting the NumThumbnails to "0?"

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

"Is this not what you get when setting the NumThumbnails to "0?""

Sadly, no.

This is what I see on this Win11 box:-

Have included regedit so you can see how it's set. The system was rebooted after making that change.

The screenshot I included in my previous note (with them stacked how I'd prefer) was taken on my Win10 PC.

Am wondering whether this is one of those examples of Microsoft messing around with things, seemingly for the sake of it, with little reference to what their users actually want. They do have form, after all....

I probably ought to try turning off Start 11 to remind myself of how Windows 11 works as standard. Just means having to put up with the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen, as far as I know. First-world problems, eh?

Best regards

Harry

 

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

P.S. Your tuition on how to get it to display more thumbnails did achieve a partial result, so it's better than it was, for which, my thanks!

Harry