Combined icons make the computer unusable for who has multiple windows open from the same application.
For example if you constantly have to switch between 5 excel files you can’t directly click on which you need
It’s the reason I can’t stand MacOS at all
Well, you can’t directly click, but all you need to do is hover for half a second, then click the window you want (which open up above). It’s a non-issue.
Is the order always the same? But still, it’s quite human to be disturbed by it. A website that loads longer than 200ms is perceived as slow. 500ms on a desktop action is considered slow, so it is an issue for some. Can’t just dismiss it because for you it’s fine. Not everybody’s you.
I mean I didn’t check how long it actually takes, it’s not 500ms.
It opens quick, but I can’t find the default value (you can change the behavior via registry), but it’s definitely less than half a second. Especially when you’re already hovering down there it appears near instant for me.
And let’s be honest: The only reason why multiple icons worked back in the day was because the name of the open workbook was next to it. So you had “(Excel) My Workbook 123.xlsx” in your taskbar. Which ended up as a mess when you had several programs open. Now you have one Excel icon, you hover over it and you see all your open workbooks as a preview so you select the one you want. It’s definitely cleaner.