How to prevent google chrome from creating seprate taskbar icon for each profile?
I use Google chrome with multiple profiles to test web sites (each profile has it's own cookies etc). All works fine, but on Windows 8 google will create a new taskbar icon for each profile, and 10+ chrome icons on taskbar effectively kills it :(. Since profiles are switched using profiles top-left menu and additional icond are useless and meaningless - is it some way to limit chrome to just ONE icon for all profiles? Or somehow stack all icons into one icon using windows 7/8 "stacking" mechanism that google uses for multiple icons of one profile?
Several types of solutions:
A. Chrome workarounds (doubtful)
There is a very long thread Multiple icon Google Chrome in taskbar when use profil in which the problem of Chrome is analyzed as follows :
This problem is related to Chrome's ability to create multiple profiles. Currently, Chrome designates a different App ID for each profile that is not the default profile. While the default profile's App ID is simply "Chrome", non-default profile windows are spawned with the App ID "Chrome.UserData.Profile[ProfileNumber]". Because Explorer combines taskbar items by App ID, non-default profile windows are spawned as a different icon on the taskbar and can't be combined with the pinned icon, which will have the App ID "Chrome".
The above thread offers several workarounds that you can try, although they seem to work for some people but not for others. (Better keep a backup of any folder or file that you are advised to delete.)
B. Forced runtime grouping
The thread Win 7 task bar buttons - combine for some applications or not other applications offers another solution for grouping some currently running processes into one group. I tested it and it works, but the disadvantage here is that you will need to repeat the procedure every time.
The application used is 7+ Taskbar Tweaker, which seems to have been abandoned but is still available from CNET (use the button "Direct Download Link").