The taskbar can become crowded with buttons when you are working with multiple programs at the same time. The grouping function reduces buttons crowding and helps you manage a large number of open documents and program items. Windows combines all the documents opened with the same application as a group into one taskbar button. The button is labeled by application name to provide easy access to these documents.
You can observe documents’ grouping once the taskbar is filled with buttons. Also preference you’re grouping by making changes in the registry.
For this, go to Start > Run menu, enter “regedit” and navigate to the registry path listed below. You can create a dword value “TaskbarGroupSize” at HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry paths, if this value does not exist.
Now, right-click and modify the registry by picking up a value given in the table below. However, to disable grouping function, delete the added value.
| Value | Description |
| 0 | Group least used applications first, and more frequently used applications as necessary |
| 1 | Group applications with the most open windows first, and applications with fewer open windows as necessary |
| N | Group any application with at least N open windows |
The changes take effect after a restart or logoff.