‘Never Combine taskbar buttons’ spotted in Windows 11 Dev Insider build

Last year, we reported that Microsoft seemed to have started working on the much-awaited ‘Never Combine taskbar buttons’ feature for Windows 11. The software giant still hasn’t introduced the feature, not even to the Insiders. However, the good news is that we have again seen evidence suggesting Microsoft is actively working on it.

Windows enthusiast Albacore has spotted the ‘Never Combine taskbar buttons’ functionality in the latest Windows 11 Dev Channel build. On his Twitter timeline, he gave us a demo of the current state of the feature, explaining how it currently works in Windows 11. All of this could very well mean that Microsoft is quite close to releasing the capability to Windows 11 Insiders.

For those unaware, ‘Never Combine taskbar buttons’ is essentially taskbar tab grouping. When enabled, the taskbar buttons drop-down menu shows different taskbar buttons for each window and shows app labels on the taskbar buttons. You have to select the ‘Never combine’ option if you do not want Windows to combine taskbar buttons for the same App and hide App labels. Unfortunately, this feature is available in Windows 10, but it did not make its way to Windows 11.

Taskbar item labels (as well as ungrouped items) are indeed on their way to Windows 11 ?
Here's a demo of the current state of the feature, definitely further along than last time we looked at it

Fiddled with a few settings in the video so you can see how it reacts pic.twitter.com/7A7H0MWpJV

— Albacore ?? (@thebookisclosed) April 19, 2023

When the ‘Never Combine taskbar buttons’ was first spotted on Windows 11 last year, it was forcibly disabled, and as a result, it was impossible to enable that using ViveTool. This has not changed yet, meaning no IDs are available to enable the feature, not even more Insiders.

This is one of the highly requested Windows 11 features, but Microsoft is quite late in listening to the feedback. But since we spotted ‘Never Combine taskbar buttons’ twice in Windows 11, it can say with some degree of certainty that Microsoft will introduce it to Insider preview builds in the coming months. Worse, it could debut on Windows 12, which is expected to release next year.