Collapse icons Pinned to Task Bar into a popup menu on Windows 7?

"Create a folder somewhere on your computer containing shortcuts to the programs you want.
If you right click on the taskbar, go to toolbars -> New Toolbar..
You can then select the folder you created.

This folder will then display on the taskbar in a collapsed fashion as you described.
Click the little double >> to view the contents of the new folder from your taskbar.

Of course you don't have to put only shortcuts, you can put any files you like."

"Dude, in Win7, when a pinned application is not running, it just appears as an icon on the taskbar, but when its running it appears as highlighted icon. so, you can very much distinguish it.

If you are having too much icons needed pinned but dont have enough space on the taskbar, then try using small icons or, copy all of those icons to a folder and then add a new toolbar of that folder on the taskbar. That way, you'll get your icons grouped and can us them with pop up list.."