Windows 10 task bar Grrrrr

[AussieBruce]

I run two Windows 10 machines. On both the taskbar is set up for small icons. On one, when I click on an icon to run an application, the icon remains the same size, which is nice. On the other one the icon spreads out to maybe 3 cm in width, displaying aspects of the application, such as what file is involved. If I have more than about 4 applications open at once the bar fills up, if I open another one, one of the other icons actually disappears, which is extremely annoying. I've hunted through the setup screens and can't see any way of disabling this irritating feature. Any suggestions aside from running Linux (I do that already on another machine).

[wraper]

On both the taskbar is set up for small icons.

Frankly I don't quite believe what you are saying and IMHO it's a PEBKAC. Most likely "Combine taskbar buttons" setting one is set up with "always, hide labels", on another "when taskbar is full".

[Ian.M]

+1.

Set "Combine taskbar buttons" to "always, hide labels".

If you want better control of taskbar behaviour, try the 3rd party utility '7+ Taskbar Tweaker': https://tweaker.ramensoftware.com/