Taskbar Groups

A Windows 11 taskbar app that lets you create groups of apps and launch them from a flyout above the system tray.

Features

• Group apps – Create custom groups (e.g., "Dev Tools", "Games", "Productivity")
• System tray icons – Each group gets its own icon in the system tray
• Hover flyout – Hover over a group icon to see a popup with all apps in that group
• Click to launch – Click an app icon to start it
• Settings UI – Create, rename, delete groups; add apps via file picker or drag-and-drop

Requirements

• Windows 11 (or Windows 10 22H2+)
• .NET 8 SDK
• Visual Studio 2022 with the "Windows application development" workload (recommended)

Setup

1. Install .NET 8 SDK

Download from: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/8.0

2. Install Visual Studio 2022 (recommended)

1. Install Visual Studio 2022 (Community or higher)
2. In the installer, select the "Windows application development" workload
3. This installs WinUI 3, Windows App SDK, and MSIX packaging tools

3. Build and run

Option A: Visual Studio

1. Open TaskbarGroups.sln or TaskbarGroups/TaskbarGroups.csproj in Visual Studio
2. Set the build configuration to x64 or x86
3. Press F5 to build and run

Option B: Command line

cd TaskbarGroups
dotnet build -c Release
dotnet run

For MSIX packaging (Store deployment):

dotnet publish -c Release -p:PublishProfile=win-x64

The packaged app will be in bin\Release\net8.0-windows10.0.22621.0\win-x64\publish\.

Usage

1. First run – The app starts minimized to the system tray. Right-click the "Taskbar Groups" icon and choose Settings.
2. Create a group – Click + New Group, then rename it.
3. Add apps – Click + Add App to browse for .exe files, or drag-and-drop executables onto the app list.
4. Use the flyout – Hover over a group’s tray icon to open the flyout, then click an app to launch it.

Configuration

Group data is stored in:

%AppData%\TaskbarGroups\groups.json

You can edit this file to back up or restore your groups.

Project structure

TaskbarGroups/
├── App.xaml / App.xaml.cs     # Entry point, tray icon setup
├── Program.cs                 # Application entry
├── Models/
│   ├── AppGroup.cs            # Group model (name, icon, apps)
│   └── AppEntry.cs            # App model (name, path)
├── Services/
│   ├── GroupStorageService.cs # JSON persistence
│   ├── IconExtractorService.cs# Shell32 icon extraction
│   └── TaskbarHelper.cs       # Taskbar position (Win32)
├── Windows/
│   ├── FlyoutWindow.xaml      # Hover popup with app icons
│   └── SettingsWindow.xaml   # Group management UI
└── Assets/                    # Icons for tray and packaging

Tech stack

• C# / .NET 8
• WinUI 3 (Windows App SDK 1.5+)
• H.NotifyIcon.WinUI – System tray icons
• System.Text.Json – Config storage

License

MIT