Taskbar Shuffle is a very handy Windows utility that allows you to move buttons around on the Windows taskbar, as well as icons in the system notification area.  I know this doesn’t sound sexy, but it really is the utility that I find myself using more often than just about every other Windows utility combined.

Windows has this really annoying habit of “losing” icons on the taskbar.  For example, I’ll have Firefox, Explorer, and Outlook open, and for whatever reason, one of those taskbar buttons will just disappear from the taskbar.  If you alt-tab or mouse click to make that particular program active, it’s taskbar button will reappear, but at that end of the taskbar.  To a normal person, this probably isn’t that bad, but I’m not a normal person, I’m a Virgo.  I don’t necessarily believe in this stuff, but Virgo’s have traits that make them, among other things, “meticulous”, “fussy”, and “perfectionists”.  I guess it’s these traits that make me want to have control of the taskbar so that the buttons are always in a certain order.

When I use Windows, either at work or at home, I always want certain programs first on the taskbar so that I can get to them as quickly and easily as possible, without having to hunt around for them.  For example, I open Outlook first, then Explorer, then an MS MMC, then Firefox…I do it this way so that no matter what’s going on, I can find those programs very quickly because they’re my core programs.  If their buttons get moved around due to the quirkiness of Windows, then I find myself getting annoyed that things aren’t where they’re supposed to be, especially when I need them.  So much so, in fact, that there are times where I’ve closed every program open in the taskbar so that I can reopen them in the correct order.  I know…it’s a sickness.

Apparently, I’m not the only one, because someone (Jay) made a utility that allows this quirk in Windows to be vanquished with the flick of the mouse.  I’m very grateful.  I’m going to have to donate.