Why does Windows keep moving my Access?

My office computer runs some version of Windows. (I don’t know how to find out which one.) At the bottom of the screen is the… taskbar? It’s where you can ‘pin’ stuff, and open it with one click. When I open things, their icons appear there.

OK. So I use MS-Access and CA-Easytrieve. I open Access to import .csv files so I can export them as fixed-poistion text files for Easytrieve. On the taskbar, the Access icon is to the left of the Easytrieve icon. And it generally stays there for a while. But eventually, the Access icon will move to the right of the Easytrieve icon. I don’t like it doing that.

Why does it do that?

I think the task icons on the task bar are ordered by time of opening the program, from left to right. So if you close Access while Easytrieve is still running and later open Access again, the task bar icon will then appear right from the Easytrieve icon. Maybe that is what’s happening.

I leave both open all day. Easytrieve is a sequential programming language. On a PC, it’s a program that runs programs. So Easytrieve-the product is open all day, and the programs I’m running with it are opened, executed, and closed – but the product (the icon) remains open.

This morning I was doing some processing and I clicked on Access. I saw the icon move to the right. It’s annoying. Since I open Access first, it should stay put!

What happens if you right-click on the item in the taskbar and choose “pin this program to the taskbar”? Or if you’ve already pinned…un-pin.

You can also drag it back leftwards if you want.

I don’t pin it to the taskbar. I prefer it on the desktop. (I just don’t like having a lot of stuff on the taskbar. One of my ‘things’.)

I did drag it back to where it ‘belongs’, but when I’ve done this before it decides to move right again sometime later.

Right-click on the taskbar. Is the “Lock the taskbar” option selected?

Yes, it is.

Just now:

I clicked on the Access icon on the taskbar. I closed the database window that was open in it. The icon moved to the right of the Easytrieve icon (which had no programs open in it).

I think it would be helpful to know your Windows version. I’ve worked extensively with almost every Windows version since 3.1 and never encountered such an issue. Maybe it’s a special quirk of a certain version. Just type ‘WINDOWS KEY+Pause’, and the system info pops up that tells you the version.

I don’t know how long it’s been doing it. I’m just now getting to complaining about it. Unfortunately, MS likes to hide stuff where nobody can find it. It used to be better when you clicked on Start and it just told you the version right there.

I opened the Start menu and typed ‘windows key + pause’ in the box. It shows two .pdf documents (HP user’s manual and the Easytrieve user’s guide), and under Outlook it shows two versions of the Easytrieve user’s guide.

I’m sorry, I was a little unclear. What you have to do is hitting the WINDOWS key and the PAUSE key at the same time, not typing it out.

I don’t think I have a Pause key on my Mac. (I’m remote today.) Some functions won’t work from here.

But it doesn’t happen only when you’re working remote from the Mac?

That is correct.

Another way to get the Windows version is to click the exclamation mark (for ‘Help’) in the Access menu and click on ‘Info’. In the window that pops up, click ‘system info’, and it’ll show the Windows version in the first entry of the list. I tested this with Office 2003 on Windows 10, granted an unusual combination, and I don’t know which Office version you have, but that should work.

Thanks. It’s Windows 7 Professional.

:smack: Sorry, I meant ‘question mark’ above.

ETA: Good, we got the Windows version. I’ll look further into it.

It’s only the Access icon that moves, and it only moves one place over. It doesn’t happen with Excel.

But you’re sure that none of your programs is pinned to the taskbar? Because all the issues of moving taskbar icons which I read about were about pinned icons, which could be remedied by locking the taskbar. Strange. I think I’m out of my depth here.

I guess I’ll just have to chalk it up to Yet Another Thing Microsoft Does To Annoy People.