Windows – Pinned program on the taskbar is not grouping in Windows 7 Ultimate

Two possible reasons and a solution...

Reason 1

I believe it something about do with the program not taking advantage of Windows 7 features (or APIs). Since this may be the case, Windows thinks it is two different programs. You will have to wait until VMware Player updates its software to take advantage of this new feature. This is the same problem I once had with Google Chrome. After a Google Chrome update, it was resolved.

Reason 2

Another reason, you could have pinned the shortcut of the file instead of the actual program. Find actual program, then right click it and select Pin to taskbar.

Temporary Solution

If the first reason is the case then here is a temporary solution. Open up the program, so that you have duplicate icons. Then right click the duplicate icon (the new one) and click Pin this program to taskbar. Next, right click the original and select Unpin this program from taskbar.

The problem is that the pinned application actually starts another process (which is not pinned). This often happens with applications that spawn a 64bit version of itself after they were started.

Sometimes it helps to unpin the application you have on your task bar, right-click the new task and select "Pin this program to task bar".

FYI: There's a bug report for Chrome on exactly this issue. When I looked into this issue myself a couple of months ago, it seemed like it is generally an application issue (not a general Windows issue). So for every application I use that has this problem, there are usually bug reports about it (FileZilla, Eclipse, ...).