How can I make multiple programs occupy one icon space in the Windows task bar?

Question

In the image below you will see the Windows 7 taskbar.

On the Google Chrome icon, you can see that there is more than one Chrome window open, so if you scroll over the Chrome icon, it will pop up to show all the windows. You then click one to open that window.

Is there any way to have a folder of icons pop up in the way Chrome or other programs do in the taskbar?

My goal is to have all my Adobe Master Collection programs only occupy one icon position on the taskbar. So, just like Chrome or Firefox—or any program when there are multiple instances of it running—I would like to scroll over an Adobe icon and have the popup to pick Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, Flash, Premiere, et cetera.

Answer 1

Unfortunately, Windows does grouping only automatically, if several windows belong to the same executable. There is no official way to group different applications into one icon.

However, there are third-party applications that might allow you to tweak the task bar to do something similar. From a quick search, I'd suggest you check out 7Stacks (free) and Bins (commercial) to see whether they can do something more or less like what you want to have.