ยป How Rules Work

With Taskbar Master, you can define rules that match buttons on your taskbar and automatically move them into your desired order. For example, you can always put your email client first by creating a rule that matches the client and putting it first in the rules dialog. You can match a button either by its program name - e.g. "Microsoft Outlook" - or by its window title - e.g. "Inbox".

First, open the Rules dialog by double-clicking the TBM icon in the system tray, or by right-clicking it and choosing "Edit Rules...". Create a rule by clicking the "New Rule" button and you should get this:

The new rule is disabled, which is indicated by the red "No Entry" sign. It matches all buttons as no match criteria has been set for either the program name or the window title.

We will create a rule that puts all Explorer windows first on the taskbar. To do this we need to match the program name, so click on the down arrow next to "all programs" to open the criteria box:

Select "name equal to" on the left and "Windows Explorer" from the drop down list, which contains the names of all programs that are currently running on your computer. Press the "Apply" button and close the criteria box by clicking on the up arrow.

Finally, enable the rule by clicking the red "No Entry" icon to change it to a green tick. Any explorer windows you have open will appear in the "Currently matching windows" box:

Press the "Apply" button in the lower right of the Rules dialog box to save and run the rule. All your Explorer buttons will now move to the left of your taskbar.

You can create as many rules as you need to keep your most frequently used window buttons just where you want them. You can also use the "Manage Rules" menu ( right-click on the TBM icon ) to define "Rule Sets" which contain rules that match your current activity.

Your Rules are run every time your taskbar changes. So if you open a new window that matches a rule, it will automatically be moved to your specified order.