Taskbar; setting order of items

I have a lot of open programs. I'd like to have my programs show in the same order in the taskbar every time they load so I know where to look automatically. The order seems to be random and not in the order they are listed in startup folder. Is there any way that this can be done?

 

I know of no easy way to do that. Having said that, I realize that someone has written software for any eventuality and probably one exists for this.

If it does, it would likely slow the boot process down somewhat. XP has a mind of its own when it comes to that sort of thing.

I could write a batch file with all of the startup programs in it and insert timed pauses between each one to allow for execution, but as mentioned, that would significantly slow the boot process. Even then I doubt that the order of the systray icons is going to conform to my loading sequence.

Sorry.

 

jdover - I like the same thing. I've got mine doing just that but the means is very low-tech.

I have the apps I routinely start loaded in the quicklaunch section in the order I want them and after I boot up, I just click on each in turn from left to right and fire off the apps. Works although it isn't super fast but the extra 2-3 minutes when I first start up is worth it to me.

Otherwise, I'm sorta like surferdude2 in that I suspect someone may have a good utility to do the deed but I've never found one that works to suit me.

 

I think that a minor tweak to your ways will do me. I'll leave Outlook and IE (I find Firefox's rigidity in displaying fonts unsatisfactory for many of the sites I use!) in my startup and do the rest manually via quicklaunch. My machine is fast being an Inspiron 8600c which has a 2gb centrino chip and 1gb of ram so it'll be pretty quick I think.

I use a laptop that I take to the office where I have different printers and network so a complete shutdown is desirable.

 

Thanks for posting back with the update and hope it works for you. Does for me and at work (another laptop thingie), I have to start 6 apps when I get to work and fire up the PC. Was a major annoyance for a while but these days I barely notice I'm doing it. I even do Outlook and IE that way since we have a logon AV scan that takes a few seconds but runs lots better if you wait for it to finish before starting anything.