Expanding taskbar icons win 11

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Apologies if this issue has been discussed, though I couldn’t find it. Just moved to Win 11 from 10 and regretting it. One issue is when I open a program using the taskbar icons, the icon expands, pushing everything else along. I find this annoying, but can’t find a way to revert to Win 10 behaviour where they retained the same size and position but had a blue bar to indicate they’re open. Has anyone found a way? I’ve tried web suggestions, such as combining and hiding labels but nothing actually changes whichever setting I apply. Help!

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On my experimental Windows 11 installation (also used to install firmware updates on the Acer in my .sig), I used Explorer Patcher to eradicate the awful Windows 11 taskbar and bring back the older type.

I am not sure if it is possible to do what you request without using Explorer Patcher, but I do know that I was able to get it to a reasonable state with it. There are many other options to customize things that are sadly not available in the native Win 11 UI.

I presume it still works… it’s been a few months since I booted Windows.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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I use Win 11 but don’t have the issue you cite. My taskbar always shows a line under open programs.
Idea: Go into Settings > Personalization > Taskbar.  Scroll down to the very bottom.  Set “Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels” to “Always”.

Dell XPS17, 11th Gen Intel I7, 64gb RAM, Windows 11 Home 24H2

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Thanks for these answers. I have loaded explorer patcher (to resolve several other problems on the change from 10 to 11) but it hasn’t resolved this issue. The “combine taskbar buttons and hide labels” option has no effect whatsoever on my taskbar either way, so seems to be broken or useless. I assumed this was Microsoft’s doing, but if other win 11 setups sstill show the small icon with blue line and they don’t expand (mine expand and show a blue line, but it’s the expansion I object to), then perhaps there’s something unique to my setup, though I have no idea why or what it could be. So if anyone has had the same problem, and especially if they’ve resolved it, I’d be very gratefulo to know!

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Are your settings identical to mine in this screen capture ? As you can see, I have 4 programs opened, with a line under each icon.

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