How to group different apps in Windows task bar?

Question

I have 5 different C# application running at the same time on my PC. They take a lot of space at my taskbar. How can I code them to be grouped together at the taskbar (using windows 10).

Answer 1

You need to pinvoke SetCurrentProcessExplicitAppUserModelID() supplying the same AppID for all the applications that you want to share a taskbar button. The OS will then treat your 5 applications as if they were the same application.

Make sure to call SetCurrentProcessExplicitAppUserModelID() before any of your application's UI is displayed.

[DllImport("shell32.dll", SetLastError=true)]
static extern void SetCurrentProcessExplicitAppUserModelID( 
    [MarshalAs( UnmanagedType.LPWStr )] string AppID );

private static string AppID = "some guid"; // use the same ID in all 5 apps

...

SetCurrentProcessExplicitAppUserModelID(AppID);

Answer 2

I haven't experimented with this, but you might want to look at the TaskbarItemInfo Class. I think the property ThumbButtonInfos may be the key.

Oh, I also just found this on stack over flow: control windows 7 taskbar grouping for my application

Hope this helps.