Is there a way to preserve the taskbar order while switching between virtual desktops in Windows 10? The order resets on my PC every time, and that's very annoying.
Windows 10 Taskbar – How to Preserve Taskbar Order in Virtual Desktops
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Yes, but not with built-in Windows 10 virtual desktops. You'll need to download a 3rd party program that's is very well made called Dexpot. Use the feature called "on all workspaces"
After a little experimentation, I believe I have found the answer.
The issue seems to be when Windows focuses on a program. For example, if you click outside of your web browser, you'll notice it grays out. Windows is no longer focused on it, it's focused on the window you clicked.
If you try running a program that's already open in another virtual desktop (depending on its ability to have multiple windows open), it will redirect to the applicable desktop.
Now, in the article below, it talks about "focus stealing". This is where a program steals the window focus for itself. This can and will affect your virtual desktops, so here are some instructions from it on how to prevent this:
How To Prevent Programs From Stealing Focus in Windows
It's not possible for Windows block all programs from stealing focus and still work properly. The goal here is to identify the program that shouldn't be doing this and then figure out what to do about it.
You may know what program keeps stealing focus, but if not, that's the first thing you need to determine. If you're having trouble figuring it out, a free tool called Windows Focus Logger (link in article) can help.
Once you know what program is to blame for the focus stealing, work through the troubleshooting below to make it stop happening for good:
- Uninstall the offending program. Frankly, the easiest way to solve a problem with a program that's stealing focus is to remove it.
Note: If the focus stealing program is a background process, you can disable the process in Services, located in Administrative Tools in all versions of Windows. Free programs like CCleaner also provide easy ways to disable programs that start automatically with Windows.
- Reinstall the software program that's to blame. Assuming you need the program that's stealing focus, and it isn't doing so maliciously, simply reinstalling it may fix the problem.
Tip: If there's a newer version of the program available, download that version to reinstall. Software developers regularly issue patches for their programs, one of which may have been to stop the program from stealing focus.
Check the program's options for settings that may be causing the focus stealing and disable it. A software maker may see a full screen switch to his or her program as an "alert" feature you want, but you see it as an unwelcome interruption.
Contact the software maker and let them know that their program is stealing focus. Give as much information as you can about the situation(s) where this occurs and ask if they have a fix.
Tip: Please read through my How to Talk to Tech Support for help properly communicating the problem. Last, but not least, you can always try a third-party, anti-focus-stealing tool, of which there are a few:
DeskPins is completely free and let's you "pin" any window, keeping it on top of all others, no matter what. Pinned windows are marked with a red pin and can be "auto-pinned" based on the window's title.
"Window On Top" is another free program that works in much the same way. (Link in article)
Hope this helps!
Best Answer
7+ Taskbar Tweaker v5.2 has an option to fix this.
http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker-v5-2-with-support-for-windows-10-anniversary-update
Simply install the utility, and change the advanced option 'virtual_desktop_order_fix' from
0
to1
. (The advanced options are accessible via the context menu on the 7TT icon in the tray.)