Pecos SWW<>Changes to the Windows 7 Taskbar You Should Know About

Changes to the Windows 7 Taskbar You Should Know About

What is the single biggest change to Windows 7? Perhaps it is the less onerous UAC behavior? How about the improved responsiveness? My take is that the single biggest change is to the Taskbar. These changes will have the greatest impact how you will experience Windows 7. After all, you will be using the Windows 7 Taskbar every time you sit down to your computer.

Overview

At first glance the Taskbar in Windows 7 is similar to Vista�s Taskbar. Make no mistake about it, the changes are bold and may be confusing to you � at least until you get more comfortable with them.

Perhaps Microsoft hasn't fully understood how the changes would impact users. If they had they might have done a better job telling you about them. While beta testing Windows 7 I failed to fully understand the changes myself. It wasn�t until later when I realized how different the Windows 7 Taskbar really was and how it worked.

In this article I will detail the changes and let you decide for yourself whether or not you like them.

Nomenclature
The Changes
How To
The Problems
Editorial Privilege

Nomenclature

Some of the Windows 7 Taskbar terminology may be new or confusing to you. Let me define some of those terms for you right now before we get started.

Pin � Adding a program shortcut to the Taskbar is known as Pinning.
Taskbar Button - An icon on the Taskbar representing a pinned program.
Jump List � Accessible from each Taskbar Button, a Jump List allows quick access to Most Recently Used items, an option to launch another instance and the option to unpin this program from Taskbar
Peek or Aero Peek - A quick way to navigate to an open window from any Taskbar Button.
Action Center - A new feature that details important information that may require action from you.

Taskbar Nomenclature

The Changes

Here is a quick summary of the changes to the Windows 7 Taskbar:

Vista�s Quick Launch bar gone
Show Desktop button moved to right side of Taskbar
Notification Area simplified
Programs can be pinned to Taskbar
Taskbar Buttons are larger and descriptive text removed
Highlighted Taskbar Buttons denote open windows
Hovering over highlighted Taskbar Button shows thumbnails of open windows
Taskbar Buttons show progress

Taskbar Button Shows Copying Status

Copy a file in Explorer and you will see the copy progress in a second window as usual. What has changed is that the progress is also displayed in the Explorer Taskbar Button.

How To

So, how do you use the Windows 7 Taskbar?

Open Jump List

There are two ways to open the Jump List for any Taskbar Button:

Right-Click on Taskbar Button
Drag and Drop the Taskbar Button onto the desktop

The Jump List includes the Most Recently Used items in the top section. See the image below for a picture of the Jump List for Mozilla Firefox.

Launching a Program

Launching a program is easy. Unlike a desktop shortcut where you have to Double-Click to launch a program, programs pinned to the Taskbar work like Vista's Quick Launch icons. Click once on any Taskbar Button to launch the program.

Right-Click on the Firefox Taskbar Button and Select Mozilla Firefox to Launch a Second Firefox Window

Open the Jump List to launch more than one instance of a program.

If a window is already open for the program, the Taskbar Button will be highlighted. You must open the Jump List and select the program, Mozilla Firefox in this example, in order to launch a second instance of the program.

Pinning and Unpinning Programs

Drag and Drop Program Shortcut to Pin to Taskbar

In this example I Dragged and Dropped the Mozilla Firefox shortcut icon onto the Taskbar.

There are four ways to pin a program to the Taskbar:

Drag and Drop the program shortcut onto the Taskbar
Right-Click on any program shortcut, whether on the desktop or in the start menu, and select Pin to Taskbar
Drag and Drop the program file (.exe file types) from Windows Explorer to the Taskbar
Right-Click the program file (.exe file types) in Windows Explorer and select Pin to Taskbar

Unpin Program From Taskbar

To unpin a program from the Taskbar open the Jump List and select 'Unpin this program from taskbar'.

Using Aero Peek

Aero Peek

Aero Peek � This example shows four Firefox windows open and I am peeking at the full window of the first thumbnail.

Hover over a Taskbar Button to view small thumbnails of all the open windows. Move the cursor to any thumbnail and hover over the thumbnail to 'peek' at the open window. If you want to navigate to that window, simply click on the thumbnail. It sounds complicated but it is a natural way to find and navigate to open windows.

Notification Area

Notification Area Action Center

Notification Area Action Center � Click on the small flag in the right side of the Taskbar to view the Action Center.

The Notification Area has been simplified. New to the Notification Area is the Action Center icon. The icon looks like a small flag. Click on this icon to view any important actions that you may need to take.

Notification Area Show Hidden Icons

Notification Area Show Hidden Icons Up-Arrow � Click on the Up-Arrow to view hidden icons.

Important icons may be hidden and only accessible by clicking the small Up-Arrow. When a program adds an icon to the Notification Area it is hidden by default for a much cleaner look. You can modify the settings for hidden icons if you want them to always be visible.

Click on Show Desktop Button

Show Desktop - The Show Desktop icon has been changed to a transparent bar and placed to the right of the system clock.

Click on the Show Desktop bar to minimize all open windows and view the desktop. Click on it again to restore the windows to the desktop. You can also temporarily view the desktop by hovering over the Show Desktop bar. All open windows will become transparent allowing you to 'peek' at the desktop - another variation of Aero Peek. Move the cursor away from the Show Desktop bar to return the open windows to normal.

The Problems

Microsoft will likely disagree with me but I see some problems with the Windows 7 Taskbar.

How many instances?

When you open more than one window for any given program the Taskbar Buttons become stacked like a deck of cards shifted slightly off center so you can view the underlying cards in the deck.
However, if you have three or more instances of the same program running you cannot tell whether there are three, four or more open windows.
How many Firefox windows are open?

The last two images appear to be identical and they are but what they represent is very different. One represents three windows open and the other ten windows open.
No descriptive text

Two of the Taskbar Buttons appear to be identical and they are but what they represent is very different.
Take a look at a sample of the Taskbar above. You might think that there are two Taskbar Buttons for the same program. Actually, they are different. The images below shows what happened when I hovered over the Taskbar Buttons and waited about three seconds. As you can see, one is MyDefrag Daily and one is MyDefrag Monthly.

If you don�t like having to wait, you can Right-Click the Taskbar Button:
Inconsistent behavior
Click on a Taskbar Button and the application opens. Click on the same Taskbar Button a second time and another instance of the program will not be launched. Instead, Aero Peek will show thumbnails of all open windows for that program. This inconsistent behavior is confusing. How do you open a second instance? Right-Click on the Taskbar Button and you can then select the application from the Jump List.
Software developer acceptance
Applications must be changed in order for them to take full advantage of the new features. Existing applications that use the system API to populate the Most Recently Used list will automatically populate the Jump List.
Not all shortcuts pinnable
The Recycle Bin is not pinnable to the Taskbar and some program shortcuts may not be pinnable, i.e. one of my desktop shortcuts, the MySQL Command Line Client, could not be pinned to the Taskbar.
I have a shortcut on my desktop to a text file where I like to keep notes handy. When I tried to pin this shortcut to the Taskbar I saw a curious message:

This behavior occurs because only programs can be pinned to the Taskbar. What actually occurs is that the program Notepad is pinned to the Taskbar and the text file is pinned to Notepad.

I can open the Notepad Jump List to access the text file I have pinned to Notepad but that is hardly convenient. I want to open the text file in Notepad with only one click.
Something similar happens when you try to pin the Recycle Bin to the Taskbar. It gets pinned to Windows Explorer and can then be accessed from the Windows Explorer Jump List.
Icon Clutter
I pinned 22 of my desktop program shortcuts to the Taskbar. I found it convenient to be able to launch a program with one click but didn't like the cluttered look. The solution is to pin only the programs you use the most.

Editorial Privilege

What you think about the Windows 7 Taskbar is entirely a matter of personal preference. Some think it is terrific, others think it's terrible. I question whether or not it increases productivity. Personally, I don't see any performance gains by having the desktop shortcuts pinned to the Taskbar. Too many pinned programs look messy and they can't be organized like shortcuts can on the desktop.

I find the combination of program launching and highlighting to signify an open window confusing. The inconsistent behavior that occurs when you click on a Taskbar Button with and without a window already open is poor UI design.

Thumbnails and Aero Peek on the other hand are convenient ways to quickly identify and go to an open window.

I wanted to use Windows 7 for a while before coming to a final conclusion about the Taskbar. I have been using Windows 7 for quite a few months now and have decided that I prefer the Vista Taskbar. Of course there is always the possibility that I have finally become that stereotypical stodgy old fart that finds any change unacceptable.

If you don't like the Windows 7 Taskbar you can modify it to better fit your preferences, but I will leave that for another time. Until I write that article I will point you to this article that shows you how to change the Windows 7 Taskbar to look more like the XP or Vista Taskbar.

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