Under Start-->Settings-->Taskbar and Start Menu I have Group similiar taskbar buttons enabled.

However when the taskbar gets to crowded, similiar taskbar buttons will be piled up and

a number appears.

Now you have to click the group and then again the correct window.

Is it possible to stop the buttons from piling up and still have the same buttons grouped?

Download TweakUI. You can enable taskbar grouping, but only allow the "collection" to happen after you've got 100 windows or so. I'm guessing that by then you'd need it anyways.

Thanks, here is the respective registry key

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
;When taskbar grouping is enabled, this setting will prevent the buttons from collapsing
;if you don't have more than 99 windows of the same type opened
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"TaskbarGroupSize"=dword:00000063