The Windows 7 taskbar is probably the most talked about feature of Windows 7. It has been the focus of many articles, blog posts, videos, and discussions on many forums. So, why is it generating such a buzz? Why is the taskbar one of the most important elements of Windows 7?
The Windows 7 taskbar is not an enhancement of the Vista taskbar. It’s entirely new and functions in a very different way. The first thing that you will notice about the Windows 7 taskbar is that it's slightly bigger than the Vista taskbar and the Quick Launch portion is absent. (However, for backward compatibility reasons Windows 7 keeps the Quick Launch folder and it can be brought back to the Taskbar if you want to).
In Windows 7, Quick Launch and the “taskband” have been unified to provide a new kind of user interface. This unification also makes it possible to move the taskbar buttons. By default the buttons on the taskbar are icons only, but if you prefer to have text along with icons it can be enabled from the taskbar properties. The taskbar buttons in Windows 7 have a unique behavior: when an application is started by clicking on any button on the taskbar the button changes its behavior to a switcher (to switch between the open instances of the application).
When you move the mouse over a taskbar icon, it displays clickable thumbnails of the open documents/windows of that application. This gives you quick and easy access to open or close any instance of the application right from the thumbnail or to switch between them. One nifty feature of the taskbar is that no matter how many instances of an application are running; there is only a single button of that application on the taskbar representing it. (Although it is possible to have individual buttons for each instance of the application, which eventually makes a mess of your taskbar).
Moreover if Aero is enabled it displays the full size window of the thumbnail that you hover your mouse over while all the other open windows become transparent. This feature is known as Aero Peek. This is quite useful to identify the right document window when the small thumbnails are not enough. For example, for images the small thumbnails work great, but if you are looking at the small thumbnails of a word document or an email, it isn’t easy to identify the correct document window with that small preview. The “Show Desktop” button on the far right of the taskbar (right after the date/time display) also uses Aero Peek to make all the windows on the desktop turn transparent to provide a view of the desktop when you hover over the button.
Another much talked about feature of the Windows 7 taskbar are the “Jump Lists.” This is nothing but the list of menus you get when you right-click on any button on the taskbar. This list contains specific menu items to control various common aspects of the application. For example, the jump list of windows media player lists the frequently played media files and also provides basic player control while the jump list of windows explorer gives you access to the frequently accessed folders and drives and also to special folders like documents, music, pictures, etc. You can also pin a specific file to its application’s jump list if you want to always have quicker access to that specific file. Jump lists offer you the ability to perform common tasks related to an application without having to start that application first, and that is a good comfort factor.
Now let’s take a look on another important part of your taskbar, the notification area. In Windows 7, the notification area has been designed to occupy less space and to show only a few system icons. The rest of the icons appear in a menu. You can also configure which icons and notifications should appear in the notification area.
Along with the features discussed above and some other features like a progress bar in the taskbar icon, by default the taskbar now displays both date and time and what’s called “color hot-tracking.” This is a light source tracking the mouse when a user moves the mouse over a running program on the taskbar with the color of the light based on the icon itself. It makes the Windows 7 taskbar a visual treat, is extremely efficient, and is perhaps the best feature of Windows 7.
