Windows Tools, Help & Guides

We’ve previously told you about Taskbar Thumbnails and how to use the Taskbar more efficiently. Personally I love the stack functionality in the Windows 7 Taskbar. Stacking all the thumbnails is a great way to keep the taskbar tidy and compact. The only thing that irritates me is that it doesn’t (by default) keep track of which of the windows I was working on last. If I’m working on several Excel Documents and I need to switch to another program for a few minutes, going back to the same Excel document will often lead me flipping through the entire stack.

There is a way to change this behavior, letting the Stack-feature save which window you worked in last. It requires a small Registry hack – and as always, create a backup before you do in case something should go horribly wrong. That being said, here’s how to fix it:

Change Taskbar Thumbnails behavior

Note: Before modifying the Registry, check out our guide to working with the Windows Registry, which teaches you the basics and how to back up keys before making changes

1.  Open Registry Editor (Start Button, Type Regedit, Press Enter)
2. Navigate to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER | SOFTWARE | Microsoft | Windows | CurrentVersion | Explorer | Advanced
3. In the Right Pane, Right-click on an empty space and select New | Dword (32-bit) value
4. Save the Value as LastActiveClick
5. Set the Value Data to 1
6. Click OK
7. Close the Registry

And that’s all there’s to it!

About Thomas

Computer geek from the age of 7, which amounts to 30 years of computer experience. From the early days (when every computer company had their own OS) of DOS, Windows 1.0 through Seven...

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