A Closer Look at Windows 7's Taskbar
A Closer Look at Windows 7's Taskbar
Posted 11/26/2008 at 1:18pm
| 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.
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guitronics
December 10, 2008 at 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.
ghot
December 07, 2008 at 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.
c8503
December 01, 2008 at 7:36am
Thanks for the update on Vista SP 4 but I'm downloading Ubuntu.
PEACE OUT WINDOWS.
Carbon
November 28, 2008 at 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!
ghot
November 27, 2008 at 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.....
killerxx7
November 27, 2008 at 12:57pm
All i can say is please SHUT THE F**K UP!!U retarded redneck!
hogkill
November 27, 2008 at 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.
srynznfyra
December 08, 2008 at 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.
killerxx7
November 28, 2008 at 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!
srynznfyra
December 08, 2008 at 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!
roninnder
November 28, 2008 at 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.
Keith E. Whisman
November 27, 2008 at 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.
hogkill
November 27, 2008 at 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.
winmaster
November 28, 2008 at 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.
TheDuck
November 26, 2008 at 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.
jvc08
November 26, 2008 at 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!
Keith E. Whisman
November 26, 2008 at 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.
PDeath
November 26, 2008 at 6:36pm
I present to you the gift of Virtual Desktops by Microsoft TechNet!
Mathewpb
November 26, 2008 at 4:43pm
Am I correct in believing the release date is 2010? Unless it gets delayed?
Mathew"
TheDuck
November 26, 2008 at 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.
Caboose
November 26, 2008 at 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! =-
GreenTurtle
November 27, 2008 at 6:43pm
LOL!!!! And then criticize and mock anyone with a different opinion LOL!!!!!!
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