Windows Taskbar question

[BOB MECHLER]

How does Windows stack open folder icons and MS Outlook icons and then show the caption bar contents of all of them vertically? Notepad doesn't do this, nor does the PB Editor.

I'd like to use this in a situation where multiple programs from the same vertical market application are running at the same time. It would avoid the taskbar traffic jam many people get when they have more programs open than will fit on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen.


Bob Mechler

[Michael Mattias]

>Notepad doesn't do this

I've seen (Windows') Notepad do this, too when you either get "enough" open instances or insufficient room on the taskbar.

[Paul Dixon]

Bob,
It's a Taskbar setting. Right click on the Task bar background then chose Properties and check the box for "Group similar taskbar buttons". When the taskbar gets full, it'll stack them instead of shrinking to fit.

Paul.

[BOB MECHLER]

I know about that setting. It's already set and if the taskbar is completely filled it will stack the exe's from my vertical app that have the same icon.

The effect Windows explorer and MS Outlook demonstrate I think now is because there is really on one instance of the app running in task manager. OUTLOOK.EXE is there once but I started it five different times from the desktop icon. In three of them I have open drafts I'm working on, my calendar and the Inbox. I can close any one of them including the screen showing the Inbox and the rest remain open and stacked on the task bar.

On the Applications Tab I see distinct instances of Microsoft Outlook running but on the processes tab there is only one instance of OUTLOOK.EXE running.

The same is true for Windows Explorer folders I have open on the taskbar. They show individually in the Applications Tab but only one instance of explorer.exe is shown in the Task Manager.

I can kill one Outlook application item at a time on the Application tab and the rest remain. If I kill the OUTLOOK.EXE process on the process tab, they all close.

This is the behaviour I would like to imitate in a Multiple Exe Interface I'm working on.

There is also the 'New Toolbar' option which acts like the 'Quick Launch' and 'Desktop' toolbars you can set to bottom right in their own rebar in the taskbar area. It however only can show everything in a folder, not just those items that are siblings running.

It must be a COM Server thing. Is this right?

Bob Mechler