Windows 7 Feature Focus: Desktop, Taskbar and Start Menu

Posted 08/17/2009 at 6:45pm | by Mark Edward Soper

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Customizing the Taskbar

Click the Taskbar tab to customize taskbar location (1), icon size (2), locking (3), and auto-hiding (4).

By default, Windows 7 always combines taskbar icons and hides labels, relying on live thumbnails to show you the details. If you prefer a more Windows XP-style look, select Combine when Taskbar is Full or Never Combine (click Apply, then OK to use new settings).

Customizing Notification Icons

Notification Icons often seem to have a mind of their own. In earlier versions of Windows, you could sometimes enable or disable icons through a management interface provided by the program's developer. However, in Windows 7, you can now manage all notification icons. To get started, click Taskbar tab's Customize button. You can now decide to show icon and notifications, show notifications only, or hide both icon and notification on an individual basis:

Click the Turn System Icons On or Off link (highlighted) to select whether to display system icons such as Clock, Volume, Power, Network, and Action Center:

As with Start menu customizations, you have an escape hatch if your changes are not improvements. Click the Restore Default Icon Behaviors link (arrow) to reset notification area icons to their defaults.

Creating Widescreen Wallpaper

In a previous Windows 7 Feature Focus article on Displays and Projectors, we told you how to configure multiple displays and how to select your favorite wallpaper or wallpapers as part of a theme. But, what if you want to have a single wallpaper image that fits across multiple displays?

First, you must determine the total size of your desktop (horizontally and vertically): add up the width (in pixels) of your displays and use the largest height setting from the displays. For example, if you have two 1440 x 900 displays, your wallpaper needs to be 2880x900 (1440+1440).

Second, create your wallpaper from a single photo or a montage. If you have displays with different vertical sizes (in pixels), see our own Will Smith's article on creating multiple-display wallpaper.

Third, crop your wallpaper (if necessary) to the size you determined earlier.

Fourth, open the Personalization menu and select Change Desktop Background. Browse to your wallpaper file and select it. Choose Fill as the position type:

Click Save Changes. Save it as part of a new theme.

When you return to your desktop, you should now see your wallpaper across all of your displays.

Conclusion 

Windows 7 offers plenty of desktop, start menu, task bar, and wallpaper customization options to help you work (and play) more efficiently than ever before.