I have two different machines both running the same version of Windows 7 Pro. One (the good one, from my point of view) has a QuickLaunch Google Chrome button on my Taskbar immediately to the right of the Windows Start button. But I can't remember how I set it up, and I don't seem to be able to replicate the functionality on the other machine.
What's good about the "good" QuickLaunch button is that if Chrome is already running, clicking on it simply makes that existing copy of Chrome the "foreground application". This is the same behaviour as "normal" (not "pinned") Taskbar buttons, except they don't exist at all until I actually start an app for the first time within the current session. The Chrome button is always there.
On the "bad" machine, I've tried both these approaches...
1: Create a shortcut to [ProgFiles]\Google\Chrome.exe on the desktop and drag to the Taskbar
2: Right-click Chrome in Start->All Programs, and select "Pin to Taskbar"
...but whenever I click on my shiny new button, it starts another instance of Chrome, regardless of whether Chrome is already running. How can I make it the same as the good one?
I don't know if this is relevant, but I have the Foobar2000 music player installed on the good machine, and a button on my remote configured using Eventghost to "Run Foobar2000".
My remote button works just the way I want (if Foobar's already running, just give it the "focus", otherwise start it), because often I've no idea whether it's running or not - I just want the music on. Maybe someone else paused or muted Foobar, switched focus to a different app, or whatever (it's a "house" PC, so there could be others involved - or perhaps it was me, and I just forgot).
I don't recall doing anything special to make Foobar work the way I want (effectively, allow only one instance of this program), but that's not quite the same thing as my Chrome problem. I do sometimes want to deliberately start another copy of Chrome, rather than just open a new browser "pane" in the one already running (using my desktop shortcut rather than QuickLaunch does this).
EDIT: Getting no response here, I tracked down and carried out the instructions in Restore the Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 7, which seem way more complicated than anything I might have done without remembering. But it didn't do what I wanted - the newly-created QuickLanch taskbar shows smaller icons that what I had before, but they still create a new instance of Google Chrome whenever I click on them.
