Windows 7 Minimizing from the taskbar

zarekr

New Member
In XP/Vista, when a program was open and active, you could minimize it by clicking on that program's name on the taskbar. For example, with an instance of Firefox open you could minimize that instance by clicking the same thing again.

In 7, this still works, but only if you have one instance of the program running. So, where I have two or three Firefox instances open, you can't minimize from the taskbar anymore - because when you click on the icon, the window preview comes up, and if you click it again, nothing happens.

Has anybody found a way around this?
 
If you just mouse over the icon you still get the preview. Then right click the one you want to minimize and click on minimize. If you want to do more than one you'll have to do them separately.
 
I suspected that this was the only way to do it - having to right click to minimize is an unnecessary extra step. Is there a hotkey to minimize a window (not win+down since that downsizes it to the restored size first).
 
You could run your windows at the restored size all the time. W7 remembers the size you set them at. Just stretch them out til they are almost full screen. Then whenever you hit the hotkey it won't have to go through restore down before it minimizes. You will have to hit the hotkey again for each window you have open.

I never run anything maximized. I like to be able to see my desktop gadgets while I run programs.
 
I've also find it rather annoying not being able to click the program on the taskbar and just minimize it. Any other recommendations? I think it has something to do with the Windows 7 theme while running with an XP taskbar, but not entirely sure either. :confused:
 
i know EXACTLY what your talking about, it is so annoying. usually i only have 1 firefox open but sometimes i have the firefox download manager open and when i try to minimize firefox, i cant!
 
I run the Aero Taskbar and when I click a taskbar icon it immediately minimizes. I don't know what is meant by Windows 7 theme with an XP Taskbar. Is that something in the Basic Themes?
 
I run the Aero Taskbar and when I click a taskbar icon it immediately minimizes. I don't know what is meant by Windows 7 theme with an XP Taskbar. Is that something in the Basic Themes?

you need to have multiple instances of the same application open. for example 2 separate windows of firefox or IE or the windows explorer.
 
OK, I see. Yeah you gotta right click then click on "minimize". If you click on it it puts the focus on it.
 
OK here's something that might help. Set it to not combine the buttons. You can have a separate button for each. Of course the buttons are big since they have labels. Personally I like the combine feature and I don't mind right clicking first.
 
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