Some taskbar pinned icons are duplicated when an instance of the application is running

Question

For some applications that I pin to the taskbar, the icon gets duplicated when an instance of the application is running. For example, in the screen shot below you see there are two icons for VMWare Player (icons all the way to the right). The first (left) icon for VMWare Player is the one I pinned to the task bar. The second one (right) is linked to the running instance of VMWare Player. If I start another instance, the gets grouped with the second icon. For most other programs (like Google Chrome in the screen shot below) the running instances just get grouped with the original pinned icon. Can I make VMWare Player behave the same way? Why does it behave differently anyway?

Answer 1

Two possible reasons and a solution...

Reason 1

I believe it something about do with the program not taking advantage of Windows 7 features (or APIs). Since this may be the case, Windows thinks it is two different programs. You will have to wait until VMPlayer updates its software to take advantage of this new feature. This is the same problem I once had with Google Chrome. After a Google Chrome update, it was resolved.

Reason 2

Another reason, you could have pinned the shortcut of the file instead of the actual program. Find actual program, then right click it and select Pin this taskbar.

Temporary Solution

If the first reason is the case then here is a temporary solution. Open up the program, so that you have duplicate icons. Then right click the duplicate icon (the new one) and click Pin this program to taskbar. Next, right click the original and select Unpin this program from taskbar.