In depth with the new Windows 7 taskbar

One of the upcoming changes in Windows 7 that's garnering the most attention is the redesigned taskbar, which has often been described as "Mac-like" in design. Sure enough, it's the biggest change to the taskbar since the Windows 3.x era, and Microsoft has created a helpful and extensive guide on what to expect when Win7 arrives.

The stated goal: Making it easier to find the apps you use the most, with less pointing and less clicking. Some of the ways that will be accomplished follow.

> Most notably, the new taskbar is bigger by default, 10 pixels taller than the Vista taskbar.

> By default, taskbar items will include only icons, no text.

> You'll still have a Quick Launch area where you can "pin" apps you want to frequently access, but because of the larger icons, this will consume substantially more of the taskbar. The fix: Every application will appear just once in the taskbar, whether it's pinned or not. Switching to Firefox will be no different than launching it the first time. Microsoft calls this approach "one button to rule them all," and it is perhaps the most Mac-like change in the taskbar, representing a huge shift in strategy from the current UI.

> You'll be able reorganize icons at will, just like you can do with the Quick Launch area today.

> Vista's "hovering" behavior gets an upgrade: Hover over one of those icons and you'll see thumbnails of all the windows that application has open (with three web pages open, you'll see three thumbs). Windows can even be closed from within the thumbnail via the red X button. Unlike Windows XP's task grouping system, windows will be always grouped when there's more than one open, and you won't have to click to see them. (Obviously since everything is graphical, the "list" view is also done away with.) Microsoft says to think of this as a contextual Alt-Tab system for the taskbar, and I like the idea... at least vs. the horrible attempt at a grouping system that XP offers.

> Say hello to "Jump Lists," which is what you get when you right-click an item on the taskbar. With Windows 7, you'll now see recent documents associated with each app, plus additional context-sensitive tasks.

> The notification area (those bubble pop-ups that everyone loves) will now be easier to get rid of, temporarily or permanently.

> Taskbar icons can double as progress bars -- Explorer can overlay a color that indicates how a file copy is progressing, for example.

It all looks pretty cool so far, and I look forward to getting some hands on time with the new system.