Comments on: How to use the Windows 7 taskbar

By: In praise of jumplists (and how to use them) | PC Pro blog

In praise of jumplists (and how to use them) | PC Pro blog — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:45:04 +0000

[...] already written heady words of praise about Windows 7’s taskbar, but as “Paul” commented to that original blog I didn’t touch upon jumplists. And [...]

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 16:52:51 +0000

Thanks. There are articles on how terrible Windows is, and how terrific it is; it’s good to see balanced coverage. That is why PCPro is my favorite PC magazine — that, and the podcasts, which are very helpful, and fun to listen to.

I still have XP Pro on all our office and home computers; I plan to switch them all to 7, as soon as it has been out long enough to take care of the bugs.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:41:00 +0000

For me the changes to the taskbar are part of a bigger shift that lifts the usabiilty of Windows 7 above its predecessors (and for that matter, for the moment, its competition). You don’t mention the mini jump lists that pop on a right click – but that combined with the ability to aggregate folders from different partitions or disks under a single navigation folder just makes it so much easier and faster to get around – and particularly to find the files you use all the time. There’s not much radical in Windows 7 but the overall impact of its refinements is considerable. I’ve gone back to Vista for the moment because there seems to be an issue with my Hauppage TV drivers but unlike with Vista the differences are significant enough to make me consider buying a retail copy when it’s available. I only hope that the pricing is a little more sensible (there’s a lesson Microsoft could certainly learn from Apple).

By: Darren

Darren — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 13:20:53 +0000

Personally I think the task bar will deter people not convince them to use it. It’s better looking but isn’t user friendly when compared to what people have been used to for years. hiding taskbar icons isn’t a great idea either. I personally want to see if any 3rd party apps are running in the background when they don’t need to be and wasting system resources. At least then I can remove them from start up if they don’t need to be there. This will take alot of getting used to for some people and maybe too big of a change for the casual user.

By: muck

muck — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:51:52 +0000

This is about WIn 7 though. It’s not some competition ffs

By: Obvio Capitao

Obvio Capitao — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 17:01:13 +0000

Please, write an article about KDE’s taskbar:

http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.2/screenshots/panel-controller.png

http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.2/desktop.php

By: John

John — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:58:23 +0000

WINDOWS+NUMBER KEY= new instance of the correspondingly numbered button on the taskbar.
eg: if your browser is the 4th button on the taskbar. WINDOWS+4= New browser window

By: Duncan Smart

Duncan Smart — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 20:56:52 +0000

SHIFT+clicking a taskbar shortcut = new instance
CTRL+SHIFT+clicking a taskbar shortcut = new elevated instance