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I'm using Windows 7 64 bit. Few days ago I pinned another one application to taskbar and moved it to the left side. But it moved to the right by itself! I tried to return it to the left side but it went to the right again.

The same thing happens now with another application (I've uninstalled the application from the first paragraph - not because of a bug, I just don't like it). It's really annoying. I want it on the left side!

How to lock it in?

I don't know why but it have (2) in the taskbar shortcut's name: 'Mindjet MindManager 8 (2)'

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  • I have the same/similar problem. I cannot rearrange the icons. They always snap back to whatever order they want. Sometimes I can rearrange them, but then at some point later on they refresh back again. It's been doing this for months. I made a screencast of it happening: screenr.com/a7Es You'll notice it only happens in the screencast with the Notepad icon. It actually happens with the Chrome icon, too, but ONLY when it isn't launched. When it is launched it moves around ok. So odd.
    – InfinitiesLoop
    Dec 1, 2011 at 3:08

4 Answers 4

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I just had the same problem. If I drag taskbar icons to rearrange their order, I could see the icon I just rearranged throw itself to the last position (the right end of icons). Fortunately I solved it.

I had one specific icon that kept moving to the far right when I would arrange icons. I deleted that icon once, but it remained on the taskbar. So I tried launching it. Windows threw up a dialog telling me that the shortcut for this pinned icon didn’t exist anymore. So I deleted the icon again. This time it did disappear. I recreated the icon (launched the progra, right-clicked it on its taskbar button, and pinned it) and now all of my icons will arrange normally.

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  • What probably happened was that one copy of the pinned icon was in your user folder while the other was in the all-users folder. When Windows displays shortcuts like in the Start menu, Quick Launch, taskbar, etc., it first shows any items in the all-users folder, adds any unique items from the user-specific folder, then overrides any overlapping/conflicting items with the user-specific one (i.e., it hides the all-users version). So sometimes you need to delete a shortcut twice: once to delete your copy, and once more to delete the all-users copy (which of course deletes it for all users.
    – Synetech
    Nov 29, 2012 at 16:38
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The (2) in the name probably comes from the fact that at some point you created a shotcut where there already was a shorcut with the same name, so windows adds the "(2)" suffix to avoid replacing the original one. The same thing could happen when copying, cutting, or pinning in similar conditions.

As for the icons moving issue, that's actually very strange. Do you shut down your PC appropriately? If the PC get's turned off suddenly (like if the lights go out), windows might not save some configuration changes you made.

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As Synetech says, the key thing is pinning the app when its already running. Pinning shortcuts in the start menu does seem to fail sometimes.

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The pin to taskbar feature does not mean that you can fix the location (left, right) of the application on the taskbar.

Pin to taskbar is just a replacement for the quick launch list of earlier windows versions, i.e. you can have applications directly on the taskbar so you can start them with one click (without opening the start menu).

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    The pin to taskbar does retain the position of the application icons. At least mine does. And, AFAIK, you cannot pin files or folders directly on the taskbar (they will get pinned but on the default application's icon).
    – djeidot
    Dec 3, 2009 at 15:45
  • @djeidot: Mine doesn't and I didn't find a description in a MS resource that it should (fix the location). What do you have in taskbar properties -> "Taskbar buttons"? I have "Always combine, hide labels". And thanks for the file / folder correction, I've removed that from my answer.
    – Gerd Klima
    Dec 3, 2009 at 15:52

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