Taskbar grouping/ungrouping broken with 22000.1335 build

I just had my computer do a windows update to build number 22000.1335. This was a big update with many little things changing (can't hide volume and network icons, Open Shell broke, etc). I have fixed most or will live with the rest.

One last item - I had set the taskbar to NOT group icons of identical programs (i.s. - I like to see separate taskbar icons for the 5 excel spreadshhets that are open). My fix had been through the registry keys (HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and KLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer) with a DWORD (NoTaskGrouping) set to 1.

Interestingly, the HKLM key was deleted with the windows update. I re-added the lost key and rebooted but my taskbar icons are still grouped.

Anybody have any ideas?

Well, I fixed my problem. I could not come up with an actual Windows fix (i.e. - registry, setting, etc). I installed ExplorerPatcher.exe and I now have ungrouped taskbar icons. It added the notification icon back but also allowed me to put my icons for network and volume into the hidden box. There have been comments of problems when also running OpenShell (which I do) but I have not encountered any problems.

Good luck to everybody out there!

Thank you for looking into this! I just upgraded to Windows 11 and am baffled that I not only can't ungroup the icons, but can't have the icons appear as bars.