I set my taskbar properties to “combine when full” which shows the running programs with their names, not just icons, and even has separate ones for each open file (until the taskbar is full at least). Once you have that, I find the Windows 7 taskbar to be perfect. I love the jump lists of pinned and recent files. Unfortunately, Windows 10 has mutilated this functionality a bit. I have to try out Classic Shell to see if it brings it back to the Windows 7 version.
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