MonitorDock vs Taskbar Groups

MonitorDock replaces taskbars on secondary monitors with individual docks and can optionally replace the primary monitor's taskbar too. Each monitor can have its own pinned apps, and running windows appear only on the monitor where they are located. Users can drag items to reorder them, pin apps or close windows from a right-click menu, and configure clicks to minimize windows. Bar height is configurable from 32–72px, while icon size ranges from 16–48px. MonitorDock can hide secondary Windows taskbars and keep windows from those monitors off the primary taskbar. It can start with Windows and runs in the system tray; double-clicking its tray icon opens the Control Panel. The v1.1.0 release says the dock hides while a fullscreen app is active on its monitor, then returns when fullscreen ends. The project is free and licensed under GNU GPL v3.0. Requirements are Windows 10/11 (64-bit). The README recommends a Windows installer and also documents building from source with the .NET 9 SDK. Settings and crash logs are stored under %AppData%\MonitorDock.

Taskbar Groups is a free Windows utility for organizing shortcuts into groups on the taskbar. Groups can contain .exe and .lnk shortcuts, folders, Windows Store apps, and Steam games or software. Users can choose group colors and opacity, pick an icon, edit shortcut names, and set how many shortcuts appear on each row. Optional launch settings include working directories and arguments; Ctrl+Enter can launch all shortcuts in a group, while number keys 1–0 launch shortcuts in positions one through ten. The utility stores group and shortcut icons in each group’s local configuration folder and can regenerate the cache when the group is saved again. A release note lists support for multiple monitors, vertical and top taskbars, and hidden taskbars. Setup involves downloading the latest release ZIP, unpacking it, and running TaskbarGroups.exe. The project is MIT-licensed. Group names are limited to 49 characters and cannot contain special characters; shortcut entry names are limited to 27 characters. A moved shortcut may stop launching until the group is edited again.