A Closer Look at: The Windows 7 Taskbar -Part 2

Mustafa | Sep 17, 2009 | Comments

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In part 1, we discussed how to pin commonly-used applications to the Windows 7 taskbar and how to unpin those that have been already pinned. In this part, we’ll speak about window grouping and overlay icons and how they can help users know the status of a program by just looking at its icon on the taskbar.

Windows 7 Taskbar... When does it get full?

Window Grouping

One of the features that were introduced in Windows XP is the ability to group windows of the same application in one button on the taskbar – known as window grouping. This feature has been further improved in Windows 7 and unlike Windows XP, it groups windows of the same application even when the taskbar is not full.

Windows 7 Taskbar - Window Grouping

Again, by looking at the icons on the taskbar you can tell how many windows are grouped in each button. So in the above screenshot:

Internet Explorer has 1 open window as there’s one border around it.
Microsoft Word has 2 open windows as there are two buttons that partially overlap one another (two boders seen).
Calculator has more than 2 windows open – this could be 3 or more - as there are several buttons that overlap each other.

To access a window that has been grouped in the taskbar: Hover over, or click on, its icon on the taskbar.

Accessing a Grouped Window in the Windows 7 Taskbar

As you can see, windows 7 shows up all the windows that have been grouped and their titles for you to choose the one you want to access. Aero Peek displays a live thumbnail of each window so that you can know what’s going on there without actually switching to it. The live preview works on 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and on 32-bit as well so long as the window isn’t minimized. To read more about aero features, check out this article written by Robert.

To close a specific window that is grouped: Place the cursor over the window you want to close –> Click on the close button that appears.
To close ALL grouped windows at once: Right-click on their icon on the taskbar –> Choose “Close all windows”.

Closing All Grouped Windows from the Windows 7 Taskbar

Last but not least, the taskbar treats tabs in Internet Explorer pretty much the same way. When hovering over or clicking on its icon, it shows all the open tabs. This makes it easier to switch between tabs even when they’re not on the same window.

Internet Explorer

Safari

We should soon be seeing newer versions of other browsers, such as Firefox, that support this feature in Windows 7.

Overlay Icons

Overlay icons have been around since Windows 95. For instance, Windows shows a small arrow next to shortcut icons so that you can know that the file is a shortcut; this is an example of an overlay icon. Microsoft has brought this functionality to the Windows 7 taskbar due to the fact that the user can now hide icons in the notification area. This means that you can know the status of your program from its overlay icon. The following are the standard overlay icons:

Standard Overlay Icons

A good example of a program that uses overlay icons is Windows Live Messenger, which uses them to display the user’s online status:

Windows Live Messenger Overlay Icons

In Windows 7, Windows Live Messenger’s icon always stays on the taskbar instead of appearing in the notification area when clicking on the close button. Some people might find this annoying. Luckily, one of our readers, Eithel, has shared with us a way to make it appear in the notification area. Here’s how:

Click on Start
Type “msnmsgr” in the search bar (if no results are found, try typing “%PROGRAMFILES(x86)%\Windows Live\Messenger\msnmsgr.exe”).
Right-click on its icon
Choose “Properties”
Go to the “Compatibility” tab on the top
Check “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and choose “Windows Vista” from the drop-down list.
Click “OK”

You should now be able to minimize Windows Live Messenger to the notification area by clicking on the close button just like before.

The guide was actually intended to be two parts, however I found out that part 2 would be very long if I included: opening a new window of a running application, progress bars, thumbnail toolbars and arranging of icons on the taskbar. Click here to go to part 3.

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