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I have both Google Chrome and Eclipse pinned to my taskbar in Windows 7 64-Bit. However, when I launch these programs, they don't appear to open under the pinned taskbar icon

Launching a chrome window looks like this

Eclipse behaves similarly. The Eclipse launcher/workspace selector is under the pinned icon, but once the IDE opens, it moves from the pinned icon, to a new group at the end of the taskbar.

Unpinning/repinning doesn't seem to do the trick. It's bothersome to have taskbar space wasted on both the launcher icon, and the window button.

Anybody have an idea how to get normal behavior out of the taskbar?

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This usually happens when you run a program with different command-line options (the taskbar-pinning algorithm sees them as different programs). Perhaps you pinned an instance of Chrome that you ran with a switch and now use the normal shortcut. Alternately, maybe you pinned the normal program and then modified the shortcut. – Synetech Jul 8 '12 at 16:15

5 Answers

up vote 14 down vote accepted

The problem is that the pinned application actually starts another process (which is not pinned). This often happens with applications that spawn a 64bit version of itself after they were started.

Sometimes it helps to unpin the application you have on your task bar, right-click the new task and select "Pin this program to task bar".

FYI: There's a bug report for Chrome on exactly this issue. When I looked into this issue myself a couple of months ago, it seemed like it is generally an application issue (not a general Windows issue). So for every application I use that has this problem, there are usually bug reports about it (FileZilla, Eclipse, ...).

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As i said in the question, unpinning, and repinning the new task doesn't seem to do the trick, but that seems like a sensible explanation of why it's happening. – Chris Bye Jan 27 '12 at 15:52
Plus, I have not seen this happen with Chrome on a 64-bit system. Further, I have not seen it spawn another process, so something else may be happening if some people are seeing Chrome spawn a child process. – Synetech Jul 8 '12 at 16:13
up vote 10 down vote

To solve this issue do the following:

  1. Start Google Chrome (this creates a new taskbar icon);
  2. Right click on the new icon and select "Pin this program to taskbar";
  3. Go to: %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar;
  4. You will see the two pinned Google Chrome.lnk here. Delete the Google Chrome.lnk and make Google Chrome (1).lnk readonly (Right Click -> Properties -> General tab -> tick Read-only -> Click OK);
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Solved the issue for me. A fifth step for me was to un-pin the old icon (assuming you spawned the new icon from an already-pinned one). – Kenan Jul 27 '12 at 12:50
But it's still feels like bouncing between 2 unrelated instances of Chrome. E.g.: I close Chrome with some tabs open. Some other application tries to open Chrome, it opens the homepage. I close the window and open Chrome using the pinned icon. I get the tabs back. – YatharthROCK Aug 20 '12 at 5:33
In effect, 2 installations of Chrome. Also, when I search for Chrome, there are 2 entries: Google Chrome (1) and chrome :( – YatharthROCK Aug 20 '12 at 5:34
worked for me, thanks – Samvel Siradeghyan Sep 12 '12 at 20:33
up vote 2 down vote

From the Chrome bug reports that I've found working in 19.x is to remove the User Data folder from 

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\

When you restart Chrome and pin it, Chrome will then behave and report multiple windows opened under the pinned icon once again.

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+1, this is the solution from the bug report mentioned by Oliver and it worked for me. – Felix Dombek Jun 26 '12 at 14:27
1  
So the solution is deleting your user data? Oh GREAT!!! ¬¬ – Áxel Mar 19 at 13:40
up vote 2 down vote

There's a solution listed on the Chromium issues site that seems to be "correct" fix. (Note that the issue asked here has been filed as Bug 91650). It looks like the root cause is that Chrome thinks you have more than one profiles, and you are not using the "Default" profile. The fix is to modify a file in the Chrome directory and remove references to any other profile.

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up vote 1 down vote

Another solution is to try the 7 Taskbar Tweaker.

It will allow user defined application grouping.

http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker

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protected by Community♦ Jul 9 '12 at 13:44

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