With the old Taskbar, the open and pinned apps are clearly separated and, I think, this is better for fat PCs like me. But it is certainly not a practical way to find the app you want to launch or select from a list of 45 buttons. Windows 7 highlights open apps to distinguish them from pinned-apps. I mostly work on a laptop with a 17" screen, so you can just imagine how cluttered this taskbar usually looks. If I pin all these apps to the Superbar, then I have about 45 icons in the Taskbar on a normal work day. And believe me, only my most important tools have the honor of being linked there. First of all, I currently have about 28 icons in the Quick Launch bar. Why is this a problem for the Windows 7 Taskbar? Actually, there are several problems. So now you know why I am really a fat PC. You can add another 10 apps to the number I mentioned above. Applications that are minimized to the Systray, such as IM programs and backup software, are not included in this number.
#PREVIEW ON WINDOWS 7 TASKBAR PRO#
Then there are the typical IT pro tools such as virtualization software (usually VMware workstation) and management tools (RDP clients, monitoring tools, etc.). These are the typical end-users apps like Outlook, Word, Firefox (and usually also IE), some folders, TweetDeck (Twitter client), and the likes. Whenever I start working, it usually only takes an hour or two for me to have about 15 applications open or so. ?īefore I wrote this article, I monitored my own manners for several days. Okay, but I'm not in that mood right now.
#PREVIEW ON WINDOWS 7 TASKBAR FOR MAC#
If I were in the mood to make some barbed remarks about Apple (you've heard the OS X Dock looks quite similar), then I would say that this kind of taskbar works fine for Mac users because there are not enough OS X apps to fill the whole taskbar, anyway. The difference between average users and IT pros is that the latter tend to use more applications they usually have more of them open simultaneously and they switch between applications more frequently. However, I think, it will be a different story for IT pros. I have no doubt that all these improvements will be very much appreciated by most users. The Jumplists are also a fantastic enhancement. Multiple thumbnails are displayed if you open more than one window in the application, and applications come to the foreground when you hover over the thumbnails. I like most of the things you see in the demonstration, in particular, the big thumbnails that are now clickable. What I like about the Windows 7 Taskbar ^ However, there are still some things I dislike. I changed my mind about the Superbar because I learned to like some of the Windows 7 Taskbar features. I am still not using Windows 7 in a productive environment, so it is possible that my opinion will change in the future. Yes, I registered my dislike for the new Superbar in the poll, but I have to admit that my view changed the more I worked with Windows 7. However, it probably would have been a good counterweight to the video demonstration. I promised to share my own view of the Superbar only after the poll results were released because I didn't want to influence voters. I attached another video at end of this post that explains the Windows 7 Taskbar in more detail. There is no doubt that the Superbar looks quite cool. I also suspect that some voters were influenced by the demonstration I added to the corresponding article. It is quite possible that we would see a different result if I launched this poll a year after the Windows 7 release. This can be explained by the fact that early adopters tend to accept new features more easily.
In the first few days after I launched the poll, the numbers were even more in favor of the Windows 7 Taskbar.