In Windows 7, the taskbar acts somewhat like a
mini-application. The purpose of this “application” is to launch other
programs, display a button for each running program, and to enable you
to switch from one program to another. Like most applications these
days, the taskbar also has its own toolbars that, in this case, enable
you to launch programs and documents.
Improving Productivity by Setting Taskbar Options
The
taskbar comes with a few options that can help you be more productive
either by saving a few mouse clicks or by giving you more screen room
to display your applications, so let’s start there. Follow these steps
to set these taskbar options:
1. | Right-click
the taskbar and then click Properties. The Taskbar and Start Menu
Properties dialog box appears with the Taskbar tab displayed, as shown
in Figure 1.
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2. | Activate or deactivate the following options, as required to boost your productivity:
- Lock the Taskbar—
When this check box is activated, you can’t resize the taskbar and you
can’t resize or move any taskbar toolbars. This is useful if you share
your computer with other users and you don’t want to waste time
resetting the taskbar if it’s changed by someone else.
Tip
You
can also toggle taskbar locking on and off by right-clicking an empty
section of the taskbar and then clicking Lock the Taskbar.
- Auto-Hide the Taskbar—
When this check box is activated, Windows 7 reduces the taskbar to a
thin, blue line at the bottom of the screen when you’re not using it.
This is useful if you want a bit more screen room for your
applications. To redisplay the taskbar, move the mouse pointer to the
bottom of the screen. Note, however, that you should consider leaving
this option deactivated if you use the taskbar frequently; otherwise,
auto-hiding it will slow you down because it takes Windows 7 a second
or two to restore the taskbar when you hover the mouse pointer over it.
- Use Small Icons—
Activate this check box to shrink the taskbar’s program icons. This not
only reduces the overall height of the taskbar (so you get more room
for the desktop and your programs), but it also allow you to populate
the taskbar with more icons.
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3. | Use
the Taskbar Location on Screen list to choose where you want to situate
the taskbar: Bottom, Left, Right, or Top. For example, if you want to
maximize the available screen height, move the taskbar to one side or
the other.
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4. | Use
the Taskbar Buttons list to choose how you want Windows 7 to group
taskbar buttons when an application has multiple windows open (or an
application such as Internet Explorer has multiple tabs open):
- Always Combine, Hide Labels— Choose this option to have Windows 7 always group similar taskbar buttons.
- Combine When Taskbar is Full—
Choose this option to have Windows 7 only group similar taskbar buttons
when the taskbar has no more open space to displays buttons.
- Never Combine— Choose this option to have Windows 7 never group similar taskbar buttons.
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5. | Click Customize to configure the notification area to your liking. (See “Taking Control of the Notification Area,” later in this chapter, for more information.)
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6. | If you don’t want to use Windows 7’s new Aero Peek feature, for some
reason, deactivate the Use Aero Peek to Preview the Desktop check box.
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7. | Click OK.
Note
Aero
Peek is Windows 7’s answer to the perennial question, “Why should I put
anything on my desktop if I can’t see it?” This question is
particularly urgent in Windows 7 because all gadgets now reside on the
desktop itself (the Sidebar that was introduced in Windows Vista is
history). If you have Aero Peek activated, hover your mouse pointer
over the Show Desktop button on the right edge of the taskbar, and
Windows 7 temporarily turns your open windows transparent so that you
can see the desktop. Slip the mouse pointer off the Show Desktop button
and your windows rematerialize. Nice!
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Pinning a Favorite Program to the Taskbar
Earlier you saw that you can pin an icon for your favorite program to
the Start menu, which is nice. But we live in a “two clicks bad, one
click good” world, so even the apparent benefit of having a favorite
application a mere two clicks away pales when you’ve got icons for
Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, and Media Player a mere one click
away on the default Windows 7 taskbar.
Vista
and XP refugees may think of these icons as being glorified Quick
Launch toolbar icons, but there’s a big difference: In Windows 7, when
you click one of these icons, it turns into its own running program
icon! In other words, a separate icon doesn’t show up on the taskbar;
instead, Windows 7 puts a frame around the icon to indicate that its
program is running.
So
how can you get in on this one-click action for your own programs? You
can pin those program to the taskbar. You have three choices:
Right-click a program’s icon or a program’s shortcut and then click Pin to Taskbar.
If the program is already running, right-click its taskbar icon and then click Pin This Program to Taskbar.
Drag a program’s icon or a program’s shortcut to an empty section of the taskbar and then drop it.
If
you decide later that you longer want a program pinned to the taskbar,
right-click the program’s taskbar icon and then click Unpin This
Program from Taskbar.
Tip
Once
you’ve pinned a program to the taskbar, you can use that icon to open
documents that aren’t normally associated with the program. You
normally do this by right-clicking the document, clicking Open With,
and then selecting the other program. In Windows 7, however, you can
hold down Shift, click and drag the document, and drop it on the
program’s taskbar icon.
Pinning a Destination to a Program’s Jump List
A new feature in Windows 7 is the jump list,
which is a menu of program commands, the 10 most recently used files,
and other features that appears when you right-click a program’s
taskbar icon. For example, the Internet Explorer jump list includes a
History list of recently viewed sites, and the Media Player jump list
includes a list of frequently played music and a command to Play All
Music Shuffled.
Tip
By
default, the jump lists only show the 10 most recently used
destinations. If you’d like to see more (or, I guess, fewer) recent
items, you can customize that number. To do this right-click Start,
click Properties, and then click Customize. Use the Number of Recent
Items to Display in Jump Lists spin button to set the number of items
you prefer (the maximum is 60), and then click OK.
Most
jump lists also include a hidden section that enables you to pin your
favorite destinations to the jump list. Here, “destinations” depends on
the application: For Internet Explorer, it’s websites; for Windows
Explorer, it’s folders; for Media Player, it’s media (a song, an
artist, or whatever); for just about any other application, it’s
documents you create in that application.
Pinning
a destination to its program’s jump list is a handy way to launch that
destination because all you have to do is right-click the taskbar icon
and then click the pinned icon at the top of the jump list. Windows 7
offers a couple of ways to pin a destination to its program’s jump list:
If the destination already appears in the program’s jump list, right-click the destination and then click Pin to This List.
Drag the destination to its program’s taskbar icon (or to an empty section of the taskbar) and then drop it.
Figure 2 shows the Internet Explorer jump list with a few sites pinned at the top.
Tip
To
add a website to Internet Explorer’s jump list, either drag an item
from the Favorites list and drop it on the Internet Explorer taskbar
icon, or navigate to the site, drag the address bar icon, and drop it
on the Internet Explorer taskbar icon.
If
you decide later that you no longer want a destination pinned to the
program’s jump list, click the program’s taskbar icon, right-click the
pinned destination, and then click Unpin from This List.
Using the Windows Key to Start Taskbar Programs
I’m
a big fan of the new super-duper Windows 7 taskbar because it offers
the easiest way to launch my favorite programs: Just click the icon.
However, even that easy-as-pie method is ever-so-slightly inconvenient
when your hands are busy typing. It would be a tad more efficient if
you could launch taskbar icons from the comfort of your keyboard.
But wait, you can! In Windows 7, you can use the Windows Logo key and the numbers across the top of your keyboard (not the ones on the numeric keypad) to press taskbar icons into service without having to reach all the way over to the mouse.
The
trick here is that Windows 7 numbers the pinned taskbar icons starting
at 1 for the leftmost icon, 2 for the icon to its right, and so on. The
first nine icons are numbered from 1 to 9 (again, left to right), and
if there’s a tenth icon it’s numbered as 0. To select a particular
pinned taskbar icon from the keyboard, hold down the Windows Logo key
and press the corresponding icon number on the top row of the keyboard.
For example, on most Windows 7 systems, Windows Explorer is the third
pinned taskbar icon from the left, so you can start it by pressing
Windows Logo+3.
Note
Bear
in mind that when Windows 7 numbers the taskbar icons, it only looks at
the pinned icons. For example, suppose you start a program, and then
decide later to pin some other program to the taskbar. That pinned icon
will be the fifth icon on the taskbar, but it will be the fourth pinned icon, so you’d launch it by pressing Windows Logo+4.
Taking Control of the Notification Area
The notification area (sometimes called by its old name, the system tray)
on the right side of the taskbar has been a fixture on the Windows
landscape since Windows 95, and for most people it’s either really
useful or it’s a complete waste of otherwise useful taskbar space.
You’re more likely to fall into the latter camp if your notification
area in earlier versions of Windows was bristling with icons, as shown
in Figure 3.
Horror
stories of notification areas threatening to take over the taskbar must
have inspired Microsoft to finally rein in the bloat. Now, in Windows
7, no matter how many of your installed programs try to run roughshod
over the notification area, you’ll always see only the following icons: Volume, Network, Action Center, and (if you have a notebook PC) Power. Bliss!
That
doesn’t mean all your other notification area icons are gone for good,
they’re just permanently hidden, although in two different ways:
Some
icons are visible, but to see them you have to click the
upward-pointing arrow on the left side of the notification area (see Figure 4).
Some icons are completely hidden, but you do see any notification messages displayed by those icons.
This
new setup simplifies things considerably and gives you more taskbar
breathing room, but there are times when it’s not so convenient. For
example, if you frequently control a program by right-clicking its tray
icon, you either have that extra click to get at the icon, or you can’t
get at it at all. Fortunately, you can customize the notification area
to show an icon right in the tray, hide it in the extra menu, or remove
it completely and see just its notifications. Here’s how:
1. | Click
the notification area arrow and then click Customize. (You can also
right-click the taskbar, click Properties, and then click Customize.)
The Notification Area Icons window appears, as shown in Figure 5.
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2. | For each icon, use the Behaviors list to choose one of the following options:
- Show Icon and Notifications— Choose this option to add the icon to the main notification area.
- Hide Icon and Notifications— Choose this option to shuffle the icon off to the notification area’s extra menu.
- Only Show Notifications—
Choose this option to completely remove the icon from the main
notification area. Windows 7 will still display the icon’s
notifications, however.
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3. | Click the Turn System Icons On or Off link. The System Icons window appears, as shown in Figure 6.
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4. | Deactivate the check box for each system icon you don’t use.
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5. | Click OK in each open window.
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If you have zero use for the notification area, you can disable it entirely by following these steps:
Note
These
steps require the Group Policy Editor, which is available only with
Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Enterprise, and Windows 7 Ultimate.
If you’re not running one of these versions, I’ll show you how to
perform the same tweak using the Registry.
1. | Select Start, type and press Enter. The local Group Policy Editor appears.
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2. | Open the User Configuration branch.
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3. | Open the Administrative Templates branch.
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4. | Click the Start Menu and Taskbar branch.
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5. | Double-click the Hide the Notification Area policy, click Enabled, and then click OK.
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6. | Double-click the Remove Clock from the System Notification Area policy, click Enabled, and then click OK.
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7. | Log off and then log back on to put the policy into effect.
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If you prefer (or need) to implement this policy via the Registry, first open the Registry Editor (click Start, type regedit, press Enter, and enter your UAC credentials). Navigate to the following key:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
(If you don’t see the Explorer key, click the Policies key, select Edit, New, Key, type Explorer, and press Enter.)
Now follow these steps:
1. | Select Edit, New, DWORD (32-bit) Value.
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2. | Type NoTrayItemsDisplay and press Enter.
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3. | Press Enter to open the NoTrayItemsDisplay setting, type 1, and then click OK.
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4. | Select Edit, New, DWORD (32-bit) Value.
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5. | Type HideClock and press Enter.
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6. | Press Enter to open the HideClock setting, type 1, and then click OK.
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7. | Log off and then log back on to put the policies into effect.
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Displaying Multiple Clocks for Different Time Zones
If
you have colleagues, friends, or family members who work or live in a
different time zone, it’s often important to know the correct time in
that zone. For example, you wouldn’t want to call someone at home at 9
a.m. your time if that person lives in a time zone that’s three hours
behind you. Similarly, if you know that a business colleague leaves
work at 5 p.m. and that person works in a time zone that’s seven hours
ahead of you, you know that any calls you place to that person must
occur before 10 a.m. your time.
If
you need to be sure about the current time in another time zone, you
can customize Windows 7’s date and time display to show not only your
current time, but also the current time in the other time zone. Follow
these steps:
1. | Click
the Clock icon in the notification area and then click Change Date and
Time Settings to display the Date and Time dialog box.
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2. | Click the Additional Clocks tab. Figure 7 shows a completed version of this tab.
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3. | Activate the first Show This Clock check box.
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4. | Use the Select Time Zone list to click the time zone you want to display in the additional clock.
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5. | Use the Enter Display Name text box to type a name for the clock.
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6. | Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the second clock.
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7. | Click OK.
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To see the clocks, click the time to display a fly-out similar to the one shown in Figure 8.
Tip
After
you customize Windows 7 with the extra clocks, you normally click the
time in the notification area to see the clocks. However, if you just
hover the mouse pointer over the time, Windows 7 displays a banner that
shows the current date, your current local time, and the current time
in the other time zones.
Displaying the Built-In Taskbar Toolbars
Windows 7 taskbar comes with four default toolbars:
Address—
This toolbar contains a text box into which you can type a local
address (such as a folder or file path), a network address (a UNC
path), or an Internet address. When you press Enter or click the Go
button, Windows 7 loads the address into Windows Explorer (if you
entered a local or network folder address), an application (if you
entered a file path), or Internet Explorer (if you entered an Internet
address). In other words, this toolbar works just like the address bar
used by Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer.
Links—
This toolbar contains several buttons that link to predefined Internet
sites. This is the same as the links toolbar that appears in Internet
Explorer.
Tablet PC Input Panel—
This toolbar contains just a single icon: the Tablet PC Input Panel
icon, which, when clicked, displays the Tablet PC Input Panel.
Desktop—
This toolbar contains all the desktop icons, as well as an icon for
Internet Explorer and submenus for your user folder and the following
folders: Public, Computer, Network, Control Panel, and Recycle Bin.
Note
You
can adjust the size of a toolbar by clicking and dragging the toolbar’s
left edge. However, this won’t work if the taskbar is locked. To unlock
the taskbar, right-click an empty section of the taskbar and then click
Lock the Taskbar to deactivate it.
To toggle these toolbars on and off, right-click an empty spot on the taskbar and then use either of the following techniques:
Click Toolbars and then click the toolbar you want to work with.
Click Properties, click the Toolbars tab, activate the check box of the toolbar you want to work with, and then click OK.
Setting Some Taskbar Toolbar Options
After
you’ve displayed a toolbar, there are a number of options you can set
to customize the look of the toolbar and to make the toolbars easier to
work with. Right-click an empty section of the toolbar and then click
one of the following commands:
View—
This command displays a submenu with two options: Large Icons and Small
Icons. These commands determine the size of the toolbar’s icons. For
example, if a toolbar has more icons than can be shown given its
current size, switch to the Small Icons view.
Show Text—
This command toggles the icon titles on and off. If you turn on the
titles, it makes it easier to decipher what each icon does, but you’ll
see fewer icons in a given space.
Show Title— This command toggles the toolbar title (displayed to the left of the icons) on and off.
Creating New Taskbar Toolbars
In
addition to the predefined taskbar toolbars, you can create new
toolbars that display the contents of any folder on your system. For
example, if you have a folder of programs or documents that you launch
regularly, you can get one-click access to those items by displaying
that folder as a toolbar. Here are the steps to follow:
1. | Right-click an empty spot on the toolbar, and then click Toolbars, New Toolbar. Windows 7 displays the New Toolbar dialog box.
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2. | Select
the folder you want to display as a toolbar. (Or click New Folder to
create a new subfolder within the currently selected folder.)
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3. | Click Select Folder. Windows 7 creates the new toolbar. |
