How to shrink active program buttons when taskbar is at side

Hello...I have done internet searches and forum searches but none have an answer for my problem...

Over the years of using WinXp I have used an Autohide left sid full width taskbar and if the space I allotted to display active program buttons became full with, say 6-8 buttons...then the active program buttons became shorter and just fitted...very convenient... In windows 7 the the buttons remain the full width of the autohide taskbar and very quickly fill the space I have allotted... so instead of one program bar space (Windows 7 size) WinXP could fit 4 easily... no "fix" I have seen changes that...If this forum has a fix for it please advise and sorry I missed it...
Please advise,
Thanks
fos

Hi...I did find a registry edit fix i found just now and aplied it, to no avail...however I will have another go at it to make sure I missed nothing...(later tonight)
fos

I know what you mean about the grouping. I don't like it myself. Same goes for pinning. But I am able to disable it. So far (I tested today) I had 50 windows open and they each had a tab on the taskbar. But my task bar is on the bottom, not on the side. I tried it on the side and it doesn't shrink the tabs, just creates a 2nd page.

I've got my taskbar extened to twice the normal size (instead of 1 row, I have 2). On the side, I was able to get 26 tabs on one screen, but then I'm running a 24" monitor at 1920x1200.

Right click on the taskbar and choose properties. Change taskbar buttons to never combine and put a checkmark in for Use Small Icons. This is what I've done.