Select "move window" from Win8 desktop taskbar
2013-10
FumbleFingers
I have my TV connected as "extended desktop". I start the VLC video player in a resizeable window on my primary monitor, drag it to the extended desktop, and hit "F" for full-screen. Then I settle dowm to watch my movie.
I have a full-size keyboard and my favourite mouse on the desk with my PC, plus a USB/wireless mini keyboard+mousepad gizmo that I only use to watch movies (I normally only use the space = pause key on the gizmo).
When the movie finishes, VLC automatically reverts to a resizeable window, and I usually put the TV into "standby" mode then.
On my old XP system, I can right-click the VLC icon in the Taskbar and select "Move" (if the VLC window is currently maximised, I hit "F" to make it resizeable first, otherwise the "Move" option is greyed out).
On my new Win8 system, right-clicking on the icon for a running program in the Taskbar no longer offers the "Move" option.
There may be other ways of doing things, but I'm used to what I've been doing for years. Is there any way to make the Win8 taskbar icons behave the same as they did in XP?
techie007
You're probably not going to be able to make it act exactly like it did in XP, at least not without hacking/replacing Explorer.exe.
Having said that, in Windows 7/8 you can hold the Shift key when you right-click the icon on the taskbar and you should get the context menu you're looking for (the one with Move, Restore, Size, Close, etc.)
valya
I'm using Windows 7 64 bit. Few days ago I pinned another one application to taskbar and moved it to the left side. But it moved to the right by itself! I tried to return it to the left side but it went to the right again.
The same thing happens now with another application (I've uninstalled the application from the first paragraph - not because of a bug, I just don't like it). It's really annoying. I want it on the left side!
How to lock it in?
I don't know why but it have (2) in the taskbar shortcut's name: 'Mindjet MindManager 8 (2)'
Bruce Connor
The (2) in the name probably comes from the fact that at some point you created a shotcut where there already was a shorcut with the same name, so windows adds the "(2)" suffix to avoid replacing the original one. The same thing could happen when copying, cutting, or pinning in similar conditions.
As for the icons moving issue, that's actually very strange. Do you shut down your PC appropriately? If the PC get's turned off suddenly (like if the lights go out), windows might not save some configuration changes you made.
Gerd Klima
The pin to taskbar feature does not mean that you can fix the location (left, right) of the application on the taskbar.
Pin to taskbar is just a replacement for the quick launch list of earlier windows versions, i.e. you can have applications directly on the taskbar so you can start them with one click (without opening the start menu).
Synetech
I just had the same problem. If I drag taskbar icons to rearrange their order, I could see the icon I just rearranged throw itself to the last position (the right end of icons). Fortunately I solved it.
I had one specific icon that kept moving to the far right when I would arrange icons. I deleted that icon once, but it remained on the taskbar. So I tried launching it. Windows threw up a dialog telling me that the shortcut for this pinned icon didn’t exist anymore. So I deleted the icon again. This time it did disappear. I recreated the icon (launched the progra, right-clicked it on its taskbar button, and pinned it) and now all of my icons will arrange normally.
AdamJones
As Synetech says, the key thing is pinning the app when its already running. Pinning shortcuts in the start menu does seem to fail sometimes.