The Hidden Windows
By default, Windows 11 radically changed the behavior of the Taskbar compared to older versions like Windows 7 or 10. If you have three different Word documents and two different Excel spreadsheets open simultaneously, Windows 11 automatically stacks them on top of each other. You will only see one Word icon and one Excel icon on your taskbar. To find a specific document, you have to hover your mouse over the icon and wait for a tiny thumbnail preview to pop up. This forced grouping saves space, but it severely harms multitasking speed for users who prefer to see exactly what windows are open at a glance.
How to Ungroup Taskbar Icons
When Windows 11 first launched, it was impossible to change this behavior. However, Microsoft eventually restored the ability to ungroup taskbar icons via a system update. You can now force Windows to show every individual window side-by-side with its full text label.
1. Right-click anywhere on an empty space on the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen.
2. Click on Taskbar settings from the small pop-up menu.
3. In the Settings window that opens, scroll down to the bottom and click to expand the Taskbar behaviors section.
4. Look for the drop-down menu labelled Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels.
5. By default, this is set to “Always.” Click the drop-down menu.
6. Change the setting to Never.
Instantly, the icons on your taskbar will separate. If you have three Word documents open, you will now see three wide, rectangular buttons taking up space on your taskbar, each displaying the actual name of the document (e.g., “Quarterly Report – Word”, “Meeting Notes – Word”).
How to Group Only When the Taskbar is Full
If you like having individual labels, but you open so many applications that your taskbar runs out of physical space, you can choose a hybrid approach.
1. Return to the Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels drop-down menu.
2. Change the setting to When taskbar is full.
With this setting, your windows will remain ungrouped and fully labelled as long as there is room on your screen. The moment you open an application that would cause the taskbar to overflow, Windows will dynamically collapse the icons belonging to the same application into a single stack to save space.