Pinned program on the taskbar is not grouping in Windows 7 Ultimate

Question

Previously, I had pinned Google Chrome Dev to the taskbar. Being that it was unstable and crashed frequently, I decided to uninstall it. Before uninstalling, however, I did not un-pin its icon from the taskbar.

Afterward, I installed Google Chrome Stable and launched it from the old pinned icon. This resulted in a new icon appearing in the taskbar. I figured this happened because the icon was originally for the Dev build, so I unpinned the icon and re-pinned Google Chrome. I launch Google Chrome again, but I still get a new icon! Re-pinning the icon should have fixed it, no?

Why aren't my Google Chrome windows grouping together?

Solution 1

I had the same problem as you and the other proposed fixes didn't work. This one seems to work though:

1. Make sure you backup your profile to your Google account.
2. Remove your pinned taskbar icons.
3. Uninstall Google Chrome.
4. Move (or delete) your profile folder from %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\
5. Reinstall Chrome.
6. Login to your Google account to get your settings back.
7. Add the Chrome icons to the taskbar again.

Solution 2

Follow these steps from another post.

Hopefully this will fix your problem :

1. Start Google Chrome (this creates a new taskbar icon)
2. Right click on the new icon and select "Pin this program to taskbar"
3. Go to: C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar
4. You will see the two pinned "Google Chrome.lnk" here. Delete the "Google Chrome.lnk"
5. Make "Google Chrome (1).lnk" readonly: Right Click -> Properties -> General tab -> tick Read-only -> Click OK

Comments

[iglvzx]

How did you re-pin Google Chrome? From the icon on your desktop or by Right-clicking its icon in the taskbar while it was running?

[Magic]

I pin it by Right-clicking its icon in the taskbar while it was running

[SgtOJ]

possible duplicate of Some taskbar pinned icons are duplicated when an instance of the application is running

[Rebecca Dessonville]

I think what he meant was that if you pin an application to the task bar and then click to open the application that you are given a new icon instead of the task bar displaying the open application at the pinned spot.

[Magic]

Dez got my question.

[Valoric]

So you want to make your Pinned Apps display another icon (instead of grouping up) besides the already pinned icon? Why??? What purpose does this serve? I'd love to know.

[iglvzx]

@Zeta You have it reversed. Dez said "you are given a new icon instead of the task bar displaying the open application at the pinned spot". Magic's issue is that the icons are not grouping when they should be.

[Valoric]

Now your edit of the question is much more concise. Though I'm not sure how repinning the new icon doesn't fix this. It happened to me with Firefox a couple weeks ago & I repinned the new random icon to stop it.

[Magic]

Zeta, I've try your method. It doesn't solve my problem.