A Closer Look at Windows 7's Taskbar
Posted 11/26/08 at 03:18:20 PM by Mark Edward Soper
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After a brief look back at the original taskbar in Windows 1.0 (Windows turned 20 this month), the Engineering Windows 7 blog dug deep into the enhanced features of the Windows 7 taskbar in its most recent entry.
A More Visual Taskbar
The Windows 7 taskbar now features large icons, support for Aero Glass, and no text, and when a window is maximized, the taskbar and the window's title bar no longer turn opaque and dark.
Smarter Program Launch Options
Windows 7 no longer has separate taskbar and Quick Launch buttons for applications, avoiding duplications. Right-click a button on the taskbar, and you can open recently-used documents associated with the program. How can you tell which button represents a program that's already running? A new feature called Color Hot-track changes the color of a running program's taskbar icon when you move your mouse over it.
Smarter Thumbnails
When you hover over a taskbar button, a live thumbnail appears, but in Windows 7, you can click on the thumbnail to switch to the program it represents. Thumbnails representing multiple windows of the same program are automatically grouped together, and when you hover over an icon representing multiple windows, each thumbnail is displayed separately (you still have the option to have a separate button for each program window if you prefer the older method). Hover over a thumbnail, and a new feature called Aero Peek displays the window on your desktop and fades other windows to clear 'glass' panes.
More Manageable Notification Area
The Notification Area can now be easily customized: drag icons from an optional icon menu into the standard menu.
All in all, it looks as if the changes in the Windows 7 taskbar are the most substantial in a long time. So, what do you think? Are they genuine improvements, or just more "churn?" Hit Comment and tell us. And, by the way, Happy Thanksgiving!
Illustrations courtesy of Engineering Windows 7.
Windows 7
Submitted by guitronics on Wed, 12/10/2008 - 1:04am
I give M$ a lot of credit...they were the OS of choice for the vast majority of computer users.
Now that Computing is mundane,it's split into some very different areas: Gaming,Graphics' design,Email,Surfing,research,Podcasts,Web - based business,on and on.
Now that Microsoft's products are Mature,there are some people who want to go "A Step Further". This will include Programming,Alternative OS use,etc. It's the nature of some folks' to "customize" ,whether it be their home,car,or computer. We've seen Modders,Hacks,Shareware;Freeware;LAN Parties.
An extension of modification is alternative OS' s. Most of us learned computing on Microsoft products,some of us want to continue down the road to discovery. Nobody is wrong,just some of us are different.
The new age Windows....
Submitted by ghot on Sun, 12/07/2008 - 1:27pm
I'm sorry caboose, I just dont see the reason for form over function. I dual boot XP and Vista Ultimate at present and I gotta be honest...you want productivity...you want XP....Vista today...with all the updates is still a mess. It takes twice as long to do anything and in the end has nothing I can see that aids productivity. I can open 27 windows on XP same as I can on Vista...I don't need them in #d or flying around or shuffling to get something done. I'm quite happy with them simply stacking and me knowing what I've opened in what order.
I honestly don't see they justification for a $400 OS that really doesn't bring that much to the table, especially when compared to an OS at 1/2 the cost....aka XP. Apparently most of Corporate America, feels the same way, as do quite a few governments around the world. From all the reviews I've seen so far Windows 7 looks to simply more of the same: form over function. All MS had to do was harden XP's kernel, give it the latest Direct X, and full 64bit support (down to the core OS components) instead they made a lot of noise about what a great OS Vista was, (knowing it wasn't) and then tried to actually "trick" people into buying it, AT a ridiculous cost.
What they SHOULD have done, was what I mentioned above, and just given it to its XP users as an extreme service pack.....this would have kept consumer confidence high and given them MORE time to actually create a NEW OS from the ground up.
Instead they rushed an OS that is really just XP with a few new clothes and then lied to thier customers....NOT a wise move. I have always used MS OS's since day one....I really trusted Microsoft...until now. Now they gotta PROVE what they say before I'll send them another penny.
In short, they should have just given XP users a free SP with the things I mentioned above, instead of trying to ream more money out of their current customers, by calling (what should have been an XP SP) ....a new OS.
waste
Submitted by c8503 on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 7:36am
Thanks for the update on Vista SP 4 but I'm downloading Ubuntu.
PEACE OUT WINDOWS.
Ubuntu
Submitted by GreenTurtle on Mon, 12/01/2008 - 6:49pm
Trust me; you wont be dissappointed with the switch.
Submitted by Carbon on Fri, 11/28/2008 - 1:54am
words can't explain how cool the new taskbar is.
I'm bummed when I have to go back to Vista after using it.the jump from Vista to Win7 seem way bigger then from XP to Vista that was mainly just a new skin.
Someone really sat down this time with one thing in mind.
"Workflow!"lots and lots of improvement already in Win7
about time!
Submitted by ghot on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 7:18am
Windows is gettin so stupid that pretty soon youll have to do drugs to be able to undertsand it.
Hapyy Thankgiving everyone...cept Microsoft......u can eat ur f**kin DVD before Ill buy another OS from you!
I know this may come as a shock to you MS but there are more of us than there are of you ...and you best start listening to what we want or ull be stuck with 10 million DVD's and the costs of all the crap commercials to try to brainwash people into thinking its gonna be a good OS.....
All i can say is please SHUT
Submitted by killerxx7 on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 12:57pm
All i can say is please SHUT THE F**K UP!!U retarded redneck!
Submitted by hogkill on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 7:13pm
Adding more transparency to the taskbar is not going to make me want to buy W7. What the shit is this shit? Do people actual get paid to sit around programming taskbars like they are designing women's fashion clothes?
If you actually think this cool, maybe you should subscribe to Fashion Magazine, or better yet Macworld. Then you can all go buy yourselves some women's clothing, get a lobotamy ( because you clearly don't need it ) and use the tissue in that sex change operation you always wanted. Then u can sit all dolled up staring at your fancy GUI, sipping Shirley temples through an IV drip.
This kind of pre-installed fancy bloatware GUI-crap is exactly what I DO NOT WANT! Even if you managed to disable it, you are never going to be able to get rid of it fully.
Then again maybe you Aero supporters like the idea of being able to stare at your Robert Pattinson wallpaper while browsing. I just thought this was magazine was about "Maximum PC, Minimum BS" not "Pretty PC, Maximum BS".
P.S. Not angry with the article, just Microsoft and the users here who are supporting their next major flop.
Submitted by srynznfyra on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 2:08am
I agree with ghot and hogkill, absolutely right both of you thumbsup
with vista they gave it a new 'skin', which you can do in XP for free. Oh and they also updated directx to the latest version. That's the only 'real' improvement in my eyes of vista over XP. Windows 7 looks to be the same sort of thing! As you can see they're concentrating on GUI....not how the OS actually functions deep down. The resource hogging-ness of it will go up by a factor of 10 again, probably.
Submitted by killerxx7 on Fri, 11/28/2008 - 10:03am
Whats you point?You dont like that UI looks good?U dont like that it makes it better for multytasking?
Well then get yourself a copy off windows 98 and stop bitchin about the os that you will end up using and most likey linking!
Submitted by srynznfyra on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 2:10am
you can have a gui that looks and functions better than vista for free if you use Linux. And you can run it on computers 4 years older than you can run Vista on. It's called compiz. I run it on a machine that was low end even when it came out in 2004!
Submitted by roninnder on Fri, 11/28/2008 - 6:34am
...MS knows that there are far more customers in the "not a queer canadian troll" category than there are on your side, hogkill. So they don't have to care about what you want, they can just go with what most people want. You can't please everybody, so you may as well try to please the pleasant.
Actually it appears to me
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 11:18pm
Actually it appears to me that the changes to the taskbar will enhance productivity in the office. I won't need it but it will help in an office environment. Where the pc's use Intel Extreme Graphics for 3d accelleration if you can call it that.
Submitted by hogkill on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 6:54am
Now do you think you can find a way to make the windows 7 taskbar look like xp's? Because if I wanted to have a stupid looking taskbar I'd have bought a mac already. I have skipped Vista already cuz of this crap, and if they do it with W7 then ima go Linux.
HAVE FUN
Submitted by winmaster on Fri, 11/28/2008 - 3:17pm
Well, have fun installing programs with the terminal because this just in: PEOPLE LIKE PRETTY COMPUTERS!
If there are any problems with my typing, i'm doing this with my Wii.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Look Alikes: Windows XP and Windows 7
Submitted by TheDuck on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 7:12pm
I recently did several Google searches to skin my Windows XP PC to look much like Windows 7. I got ahold of the taskbar with:
1- Windows XP SP2
2- A UXTheme Patcher (To allow third party themes)
3- A Windows 7 Theme (Self Explantory)
4- ViOrb (Optional; Only if your start button doesn't compare to Win 7)
5- Transbar (Makes the taskbar transparent)
6- A registry hack (To make only the icons show)
7- Windows 7 Icons (Yet again, self explanatory)
8- Windows Sidebar (That's right... The same one in Vista)
9- ViSplore (Glass Browser for XP)
10- Paitence and Time*Note, if you're too lazy, get Windows 7 M3 Build 6801 off of The Pirate Bay or wait until December.
Submitted by jvc08 on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 6:16pm
but if it doesn't work, i mean the 64bit part, on my system. i am buying an imac. the imacs have slower processors but at least they work!
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 4:46pm
Yeah it's nice... What I really want to see in Windows 7 is an elegant virtual desktop scheme like what you get in Linux. That is what I like about Linux and my G1 phone. My phone has virtual desktops but my Windows desktop not at all unless I install a resorce hogging third party app. I want something thats built into Windows.
Submitted by GreenTurtle on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 6:47pm
True. I'm also diggin' alot of the Linux features.
Submitted by PDeath on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 6:36pm
I present to you the gift of Virtual Desktops by Microsoft TechNet!
Submitted by Mathewpb on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 4:43pm
Am I correct in believing the release date is 2010? Unless it gets delayed?
Mathew"
Submitted by TheDuck on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 6:52pm
I have read in several articles that it will probably launch in 2009. I would also suggest to hold off on purchasing a PC until then, if you have plans.
time
Submitted by Caboose on Wed, 11/26/2008 - 2:24pm
These seem like pretty good changes IMO. I think they'll offer more multi-tasking options than before. You can now keep track on multiple things easier. I think once the public beta is available, I'll give it a spin!
But lets wait and let ghot tell us how shitty this will be, what a failure Windows 7 is going to be because of this and that Microsoft doesn't know what the hell it's doing and can't make an operating system to save it's lif.
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by GreenTurtle on Thu, 11/27/2008 - 6:43pm
LOL!!!! And then criticize and mock anyone with a different opinion LOL!!!!!!
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