Windows 10: Windows 11 duplicates application icons in taskbar

See screenshot of a single PDF file I have open with duplicate icons in the taskbar. I have the same issue with other applications as well.

:)

 

Duplicate icons on taskbar in IntelliJ – Windows 10

I have an issue with IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio when I pin the icons to my taskbar. If I click on the icon, the actual window opens in a smaller duplicate icon on the taskbar rather than opening the window in the pinned icon.

I have tried uninstalling with Revo Uninstaller Pro and reinstalling, but to no avail. Copying the .exe file directly to the AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar folder doesn't work – the icon does not appear.

This is not a duplicate of this question: Some taskbar pinned icons are duplicated when an instance of the application is running

I have tried all the suggested solutions from the earlier question, to check, but there is still a duplicate icon, so maybe it is a problem with Windows 10 specifically. I do not have any problems with any other programs.

 

Windows 10 problem with duplicated icons in taskbar, broken Jump Lists


Hello,


I‘ve been recently having a problem with duplicated items in taskbar and broken Jump Lists. I‘m now using Windows 10 but this problem occurred in Windows 8.1 too but then it somehow fixed itself. Some programs that I pin to taskbar have a tendency to duplicate themselves when clicked on. For now, I‘ve noticed this behaviour only in Skype and Spotify but it‘s still very annoying since duplicate icons take valuable taskbar space and even more—make Jump Lists of those programs broken, meaning that you can still see tasks program developers provided but after you click them nothing happens.


I‘ve tried loads of times pinning, repinning, deleting whole User Pinned folder from %appdata%/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Quick Launch, clearing Jump List folders manually and automatically with Command Prompt commands as suggested here with no luck. The only thing I did achieve was when I pinned Skype to taskbar in my other user account, then copied the newly created shortcut from Use Pinned folder to my User Pinned folder—this made Skype Jump Lists working but duplicate icon in taskbar remained.


I‘ve recently found a tutorial which may force taskbar to use only one icon per app but I can‘t check this right now as 7+ Taskbar Tweaker isn‘t yet officially available for Windows 10 users.


Thank you for taking your time and reading my message, any suggestions would be appreciated,





P. S. I don‘t know if this is related but I can‘t pin any Control Panel item to Quick Access whilst I can pin folders. Interesting side of this is that pinned Control Panel items appear in File Explorer's Jump List but after clicked I get a message that item is unavailable and that it might have been moved, renamed or removed.

 

Windows 11 taskbar icons not working

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



I appreciate your interest in Windows 11. I understand that Taskbar icons are not working after upgrading to Windows 11. I’ll certainly assist you with the issue.



However, please let us know:

1. What happens when you click on an icon on the Taskbar?
   
2. Do you receive any error message/code?
   
3. Does this issue occur with all the icons?
   

Meanwhile, I would suggest you to try re-registering the taskbar and see if that works. Kindly follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Press Windows + X keys together and click on Windows PowerShell (Admin)
   
2. Now type in the following command and hit Enter: Get-AppXPackage -User ([System.Security.Principal.WindowsIdentity]::GetCurrent().Name) *ShellExperienceHost* | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
   
3. Restart the PC once the command is complete.
   

If the issue persists, you can try creating a new user account and then see if you are able to access the icons on the Taskbar.



Let us know how it goes.



Regards,

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator