Windows 7 Do you guys like the new taskbar at all?

[Nurb]

In a way, I like the pinning feature, it eliminates the quicklaunch bar, but the way it groups application windows bugs me. When I have a chat program with multiple windows, I have to go to the icon, wait for the previews to load then select the window I want. They add two extra steps to something where I used to just go down and click what I wanted in the taskbar, which makes it seem inefficent to me.

I'm glad they let you ungroup them in the properties myself

 

[Gabe]

I dont understand what you mean when you say you have to wait for the windows to appear???? If I have pages open in IE or any program for that matter;;;;;;;;; as soon as my pointer is over the program a mini preview of the windows open appear. There is no wait. What kind of PC are you using? Size, Ram, HD?

 

[TdA7freestyle]

I like it.

However I agree with the OP. It's annoying when having a MSN conversation on Windows live messenger. everytime someone replies, you have to wait for the preview (not quite instantaneous), locate that specific conversation, then click on it. As opposed to just clicking on the bottom task bar.

I hope MS make an option where you can CHOOSE which applications get grouped and which do not. For example all word documents grouped and all firefox grouped but not msn would be ideal for me...

 

[hoopsdavis]

Yes I like the new taskbar, but as Skin87 mentioned, it takes a while getting used to it, actually getting used to taking advantage of some of the extras or the taskbar will take a while, when I say extras, just talking about things such as clicking the exact page you want to bring up for IE, I still just click to open and then go to the tab I want. But its nice and more user friendly I think.

 

[Ahmed Alzayani]

I love it, it's transparent it's fast, just big icons with no unneeded text , cool preview with peek ..... and jump lists ... the only think it's not good when Areo off.

 

[reghakr]

For those of how how would like to bring back the Quick Launch feature, here's a website that tells you how to do it:

Tim Sneath : The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets

Scroll down to @13

 

[eXistenZ]

Hi
I'm experiencing problems regarding 'pin this program to taskbar'. I had programs pinned to taskbar and everything was ok. I recently tried to add 'quick lunch' toolbar and when removed it all my pinned programs disappeard. I looked in User Pinned\TaskBar and the shorcuts where there. When I right click on an open program I don't have the 'pin this ....' menu anymore.

Has anyone experienced the same problem?

 

[sssteve72]

They add two extra steps to something where I used to just go down and click what I wanted in the taskbar, which makes it seem inefficent to me.

I'm with you on that one. It seems to me like they are streamlining by taking out useful shortcuts. I keep seeing where it says "you talked and we listened" That keeps banging around in my head and I have to wonder did they listen to the majority?

You know my first impression when I loaded this beta was that they are trying to make it like OS-X. **cough cough gag**

 

[reghakr]

Hi eXistenZ,

Are you saying when you right-clicked on the tool bar and choose properties, the clicked on Quick launch to remove the quick launch...Is this what happened.

Yep, I believe so,, I just tried It myself.

I guess it's either leave it there and don't mess with it or don't use it at all.

I personally thought you would have the option to recheck it, but apparently not.

Actually, just use the Browse button, then choose the Quick launch folder so it appears in the selection box.

If you'd like it back:

• Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
• In the folder selection dialog, enter the following string and hit OK:
  %userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
• Turn off the “lock the taskbar” setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that “Show text” and “Show title” are disabled and the view is set to “small icons”.
• Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again.

 

[eXistenZ]

I know how to activate/deactivate quick lunch. My problem is that all my 'pinned programs' disappeared from taskbar and I can't pin another program to taskbar (when I right click on an open application the "pin this program to taskbar" is not there anymore).

I hope in this post I've explained better my problem.
Thanks...

 

[reghakr]

That's strange, I still have the option for both..

Could you tell mean what you mean by "open application"?

 

[djwayne]

I like the new taskbar because I can use a custom color of my choosing, instead of the fixed colors of previous OS's. I also like the smaller square icons instead of the long rectangular ones. I like the idea of pinning icons, and scrolling over them to see a small pop-up of the screen. I don't mind it being a little thicker as the trade off is under the clock it shows the date, you can select to use smaller icons, but then you lose the date, I prefer the larger, easier to see icons....I really like that.

I've also installed the Weather Bug program which installs the local outside temperature onto the task bar.

 

[burnsie28]

I think its horrible, and it cuts down on the screen size with the added size of the task bar. I prever the vista one better.

 

[ickymay]

It took me a few days to come round but I now love the new taskbar , so much so I have dragged it over to the right hand side of my Widescreen monitor and now everything fits better laid out horizontally instead of vertically

 

[GreyBat]

Personally, I prefer the XP/Vista look. Here's why....

I like to maximize my use of the taskbar by placing it on the left edge of the screen, expanding it to accomodate rows of 8 small toolbar icons, using Auto Hide, and a neat utility called TaskBarActivate which has worked since win95, and adds a delay (default 200ms) during which the mouse pointer must be stationary on the edge before the bar will unhide. This avoids unwanted pop-outs of the hidden bar when brushing the edge of the screen in passing. I also make big use of Quick Launch, Desktop toolbar, and other toolbars of my own creation to provide one-click access to my most used apps, organized as I want them.

I have recreated this in Win7 - see attachment. Taskbar buttons are set to Never Combine. Apart from the quick access to launching programs, the list of open windows is organized in a nice column, and many more can be easily seen than when the taskbar is strung horizontally across the bottom.

Link Removed

The problem I have now is with Pinning. In this arrangement, a pinned shortcut takes a complete line of my taskbar "real estate". Again, you can see in the attachment the one pinned shortcut I have ( Windows Explorer, to allow Win+1 hotkey access to My Computer!), If I pin another shortcut to the taskbar, it will take another complete line. What a waste of space.

I have no problem with the principle of pinning, but it seems to have been implemented solely to support the taskbar either in a horizontal layout, or, conceivably in a narrow, vertical layout. I would find it more useful if pinned icons could be placed beside each other in my arrangement, allowing variable numbers on the line depending on the width of the bar - just like icons in the toolbars.

If I have missed a way of achieving this, please let me know - I'm sure someone will!!!

 

[RMT]

jeah i like it , just not handy for some apps. so ive edited mine to meet my prefrences

Link Removed

 

[reghakr]

right click the taskbar and choose properties.
Check \"Use Small Icons\"
Taskbar Buttons: \"Never Combine\"
Unfortunately there is no quick launch for windows 7.

No offense from your first post, but.....

In my line of work this is exactly how I like it. I have up to 12 windows open at a time and can instantly see the name of the program or the path to the directories I'm in and immediately switch to them with one click. If I use the preview, I find myself going left or right trying to locate the right window. Time consuming....Yes.

If anyone missed my earlier post..........

Credit to Tim Sneath for this one:
For those of how how would like to bring back the Quick Launch feature,

Tim Sneath : The Bumper List of Windows 7 Secrets

If you'd like it back, I've slightly modified his to make it easier.

Right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars / New Toolbar
In the folder selection dialog, choose the Browse folder and navigate to::
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Select that folder and now you have the Quick Lauch bar
Turn off the "lock the taskbar" setting, and right-click on the divider. Make sure that "Show text" and "Show title" are disabled and the view is set to "small icons". Use the dividers to rearrange the toolbar ordering to choice, and then lock the taskbar again

One problem, it disappears if you uncheck it. I'm working on that one.

You can also bring back the switch between windows feature by navigating to C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Right-click on the switch between windows shortcut and drag it to the Quick Launch bar and choose copy here,

Also, Sysinternals has an excellent freeware utility called desktops, which gives you four desktop (like Linux, yes). Microsoft apparently bought them out, but here's a link to the Sysinternals Suite:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/0e18b180-9b7a-4c49-8120-c47c5a693683.aspx

 

[eXistenZ]

That's strange, I still have the option for both..

Could you tell mean what you mean by "open application"?

For example Firefox... When it is open and I right click the icon in the taskbar I only have the "Close window" option. As far as I can remember I used to have 3 options: "close", "pin", and one more (I can't remember what it was).

I've looked in AppData and I found this: I think that in AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar are all the shortcuts for the pinned programs. The shorcuts for my pinned programs (that I used to have) are still there, but there is no icon on the taskbar.

 

[reghakr]

Yes, if you're using the default taskbar in Windows7, there should be 3 entries

1. Firefox (or the name of any opened program)
2. Pin this program to the taskbar
3. Close Window

And yes, those icons are located in that location, they just don't show up. There are other locations in various directories that have icons that don't show up in the taskbar. Why...I have no clue.

As noted above in my post, you'll see that the icons for the show desktop and switch between windows are there also, but they don't show up either.

 

[Obsidian]

To be perfectly honest, the pinning to taskbar option is just a variation of the quicklaunch, and I won't be using that either. I like an uncluttered taskbar, one without icons and toolbars and everything. I like the new pereview feature and the grouping, no more text is amazing, but I'll never use the pin to taskbar feature as it's just a bigger, bulkier quicklaunch.

 

[eXistenZ]

Yes, if you're using the default taskbar in Windows7, there should be 3 entries

1. Firefox (or the name of any opened program)
2. Pin this program to the taskbar
3. Close Window

And yes, those icons are located in that location, they just don't show up. There are other locations in various directories that have icons that don't show up in the taskbar. Why...I have no clue.

As noted above in my post, you'll see that the icons for the show desktop and switch between windows are there also, but they don't show up either.

But you still have no idea why this happened? Because you must agree that this is either a bug or it's somehow related with the quick lunch toolbar, because I noticed that my pinned programs dissapeared exaclty after I disabled quick lunch.