Prevent Internet Explorer tabs from opening tabs in stack in taskbar

I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate, and IE 8, and have the taskbar in icon view. I'm not sure how to explain this, but I'm amazed at how each tab in IE8 seems to act like a new "thing" in the taskbar (as if each tab was a window).

Each tab acts like a different window in the taskbar although they are actually running in the same window. Now when I use IE 8 it looks (in the taskbar) like there's 15 windows open when in fact the taskbar is simply showing the 15 tabs.

More simply put, it's displaying a "stack" for all of the tabs when I'd rather have the icon act like, for example, Firefox so that a stack is only shown for the multiple windows.

Is there a way to disable this strange "taskbar" effect? I'd rather have the taskbar show the main window and not the tabs individually.

There has to be a simple way to do this.

Vervious

Posted 2010-04-15T04:42:16.220

Reputation: 4 654

3Ironically, some people criticizes Firefox for not showing the tabs as individual processes on the taskbar like IE8, which means you can’t see the open pages without switching to the browser. :) – Leonardo – 2010-04-15T04:50:58.260

@Leonardo: The task bar doesn't care about processes there. It cares about windows belonging to similar processes and you can make that distinction for your own as a developer (for MDI or tabbed interfaces for example). – Joey – 2010-04-15T05:03:41.123

Thanks, Johannes, I didn't use the right word (I said processes to match the language of the question.) – Leonardo – 2010-04-15T05:06:34.050

1Ah... I should probably change the language of the question. – Vervious – 2010-04-15T05:22:01.757

@Vervious Sometimes, knowing how to ask a question can be more difficult than answering it. :-) – Clarus Dignus – 2016-02-12T21:09:53.577

@Leonardo You can enable and disable this in FF, just as you can in MSIE. – kinokijuf – 2014-03-06T15:04:45.233

It worked perfectly. Such a simple solution. I probably should have Googled a bit more before on asking on SU. :) – Vervious – 2010-04-15T05:05:32.913

@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 Confirmed however it's worth noting the asterisk (following the checkbox label) that's used to infer the computer needs to be restarted. This is inaccurate on IE's part. I only had to click apply and restart the browser (not the computer). – Clarus Dignus – 2016-02-12T21:08:19.170

Can confirm this works in IE8, IE9, IE10, and IE11. – Stevoisiak – 2017-06-28T14:58:47.483

6Nah... asking it here is the point so that it helps SU grow and helps everyone like me who comes here first to look for answers. It solved my problem; +1 for the question and for the answer. – I Have the Hat – 2010-09-08T14:39:04.500

1Works for Internet Explorer 9 too. – SgtOJ – 2011-03-21T00:14:57.620

1This still works 4 years later in IE11 (under Windows 7 at least anyway). :) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-03-06T15:01:33.680

Prevent Internet Explorer tabs from opening tabs in stack in taskbar

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