New
- Right-click an app in the panel for its own menu. You get the menu Windows gives that app: File Explorer's for a program, a shortcut or a folder (Open file location, Properties, Send to, 7-Zip and so on), the Start menu's for an app picked from the list (Run as administrator, Pin to Start, Uninstall). The menu key and Shift+F10 open it too. It is the classic menu, the one behind Show more options, because the Windows 11 menu is not open to other apps. The panel stays open while you use it, and a window a command opens, like Properties, stays open after the panel closes.
- The panel can come and go with an animation. In Settings, Panel animation has three choices: None (the default, as before), Peek, which raises the panel a little while its apps fade in, and From the taskbar, which slides it out from behind the taskbar like the Start menu and back in when it closes. The apps can be clicked from the first frame, and nothing moves if Windows' animation effects are off.
Thanks to u/FroztySeven on Reddit for asking for both.
Install
Download TaskbarGroupsFluent-Setup.exe below and run it. If you already have it, the app offers the update when it opens. TaskbarGroupsFluent-Setup-Offline.exe carries the .NET 10 Desktop Runtime inside, for PCs without internet.