How can I rearrange the Windows 7 taskbar previews?

I know I can rearrange the applications in my taskbar in Windows 7, but there doesn't seem to be any way to rearrange the previews for each window. For example, I have Firefox open and the Downloads window open, and for some strange reason the Downloads window is now the left-most window, while the Firefox browser window is number 2. I'd like to rearrange those two so the main browser window is first, but I can't drag or drop them. Is there a power tool to enable this?

Marius

Posted 2010-06-22T08:11:49.623

Reputation: 700

3This is SO Annoying! Especially when I dock and undock my laptop at work and at home. It reorders the instances of the apps in my task bar. If I have a connection to production SQL Server and a connection to Development using Management Studio, it will swap them after I got used to spending the whole week using them in that order. I'm a power user and I always have many open Tabs in my applications, so closing the app just to reorder it is a pain. It's such a simple feature request that should have been there from the start. Does anyone know if Windows 8 fixes this? – MikeTeeVee – 2012-06-13T18:22:09.143

1Oh I'm sure, after all Windows 8 is clearly all about the power users (sarcasm)...fwiw I have the exact same complaint, multiple SSMS windows. Especially when I'm remoting in and Aero no longer shows the previews. – Mark Sowul – 2012-06-13T19:32:23.737

For you guys talking specifically about SSMS, did you know you can color code the connection bar? Makes it a little easier to use one instance of SSMS and connect to multiple servers and still keep them straight.

http://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/1871/customizing-the-status-bar-for-each-sql-server-ssms-connection/

– sliderhouserules – 2013-06-06T21:55:07.377

Answers

This is a duplicate of: Arrange windows within the same application in the taskbar of Windows 7

The answer listed there is to install "7 Taskbar Tweaker" from here: 7Taskbar Tweaker
I was hesitant to install something homebrew like this, but to my surprise - it Actually Works!

You can reorder the thumbnails by checking the box "Drag to reorder" under the "Thumbnails" section in 7 Taskbar Tweaker. It works now like it should!

If you don't want to use that approach (which requires the program to be running in the background all the time), then just launch Taskbar Tweaker when you need it and you can click the "Taskbar Inspector" button and drag around instances of your app inside of the app group and they will move in realtime.

MikeTeeVee

Posted 2010-06-22T08:11:49.623

Reputation: 484

I can't offer a generic solution but in the particular case you describe you can press Ctrl + J three times when the main Firefox window has focus.

1st time - bring Downloads window to foreground

2nd time - close Downloads window

3rd time - open Downloads window

End result is that the main Firefox window preview is displayed to the left of the Downloads preview.

Mike Fitzpatrick

Posted 2010-06-22T08:11:49.623

Reputation: 15 062

This is ok in this case, as restarting the downloads window is quick, but in many cases it is not that quick to restart a window/app – Marius – 2010-06-22T08:44:25.297

3@Marius: Anything that creates/destroys a window will reorder things - so for example popping in and out of full screen in firefox will stick that window on the end. Apart from that, I'm afraid I can't help you :( – Phoshi – 2010-06-22T08:48:29.473