Stupid Windows question

[DJofSD]

No, not a stupid question about Windows, a question about why Windows is stupid.

It's a minor thing but it sometimes makes me wonder. It's the unpredictable aspect of the icons on task bar, Windows 7 64-bit in this case. For reasons unknown to me, sometimes they'll switch locations. By this I mean, if I have 5 different task windows open, magically, the original order of them on the task bar will change, for example, if the initial order of the apps being launched was A1, A2, A3, A4 then A5, sometimes for not any reason I can determine, they'll be on the task bar as A1, A2, A3, A5 then A4.

I run a pretty tight ship so please don't offer up virus or malware.

Any one else experienced this? Any logical explanation other than some quirky bug in Windows?

[GameTheory]

No, not a stupid question about Windows, a question about why Windows is stupid.

It's a minor thing but it sometimes makes me wonder. It's the unpredictable aspect of the icons on task bar, Windows 7 64-bit in this case. For reasons unknown to me, sometimes they'll switch locations. By this I mean, if I have 5 different task windows open, magically, the original order of them on the task bar will change, for example, if the initial order of the apps being launched was A1, A2, A3, A4 then A5, sometimes for not any reason I can determine, they'll be on the task bar as A1, A2, A3, A5 then A4.

I run a pretty tight ship so please don't offer up virus or malware.

Any one else experienced this? Any logical explanation other than some quirky bug in Windows?
Well, they can be manually dragged/reordered, so it possible to do it accidentally, and I often change the order of mine around. (I also use something called Taskbar Tweaker for some other enhancements.)

[Robert Goren]

Well, they can be manually dragged/reordered, so it possible to do it accidentally, and I often change the order of mine around. (I also use something called Taskbar Tweaker for some other enhancements.)I have done that too. It took me awhile to figure out why. After I figured why, I amazed it doesn't happen more often.

[Longshot6977]

No, not a stupid question about Windows, a question about why Windows is stupid.

It's a minor thing but it sometimes makes me wonder. It's the unpredictable aspect of the icons on task bar, Windows 7 64-bit in this case. For reasons unknown to me, sometimes they'll switch locations. By this I mean, if I have 5 different task windows open, magically, the original order of them on the task bar will change, for example, if the initial order of the apps being launched was A1, A2, A3, A4 then A5, sometimes for not any reason I can determine, they'll be on the task bar as A1, A2, A3, A5 then A4.

I run a pretty tight ship so please don't offer up virus or malware.

Any one else experienced this? Any logical explanation other than some quirky bug in Windows?


Maybe they are rearranged per memory being used? Or last one opened and minimized? Did you try to pin them to the taskbar yet? Anyway, this little app should fix your OCD problem :) Just kidding. Try this:

http://download.cnet.com/Taskbar-Shuffle/3000-2072_4-10531265.html

And here's a few comments that might help:
http://superuser.com/questions/67058/icons-in-windows-7-taskbar-moving-by-themselves

[DJofSD]

Maybe they are rearranged per memory being used? Or last one opened and minimized? Did you try to pin them to the taskbar yet? Anyway, this little app should fix your OCD problem :) Just kidding. Try this:

http://download.cnet.com/Taskbar-Shuffle/3000-2072_4-10531265.html

And here's a few comments that might help:
http://superuser.com/questions/67058/icons-in-windows-7-taskbar-moving-by-themselves
I'll check this out.

As far as the drag and drop, that's doubtful. But, just to make sure, I did do a test and there is not anything even close to that while I was doing what I was doing yesterday when I saw the order change. I was pounding the keyboard writing code when things changed on me. I had started my IDE and opened a help window so the IDE was 2nd from the right end while the help windows was the rightmost icon. Then later in the morning is when I found the help and IDE icons had switched places. No dragging and dropping of any kind going on.

[barn32]

Lock your taskbar.

[DJofSD]

Lock your taskbar.
That just prevents the task bar itself from being moved, not the icons on the task bar.

[gillenr]

I had & still have the same problem but with my Vista laptop & not my W7 desktop. If it helps, it only happens first start after running crapcleaner.

[MJC922]

There are a couple of settings you can play with under Taskbar and Start Menu Properties to see if it helps. On Win7 if you right-click the taskbar and choose Properties> Taskbar tab, notice the drop-down menu for 'Taskbar buttons', by default it's set to Always combine, maybe you could change that to never combine. Below that there's a Notification Area Customize button, if you click that, down at the bottom you can checkmark to always show all icons, I typically run with that checked as a personal preference. Closing that out and back to Taskbar and Start Menu Properties, this time click the Start Menu tab notice the setting 'store and display recently opened items in the start menu AND the taskbar. Now that one could be the root cause of your issue, maybe uncheck that and see what happens. Good luck.