Oh my. As if the speed, stability and compatibility wasn't enough, I stumbled upon an article about how to activate the new taskbar in the Windows 7 Pre-beta.
Taskbar:
Taskbar:
Icons can be "Pinned" to the taskbar. These icons now control the programs when they are launched.
All I have to say is WOW. It looks like the Windows 7 dev team has been working on making the Windows Experience better. Vista was simple, this is better. The new interface is completely intuitive. Within minutes I figured out how to use it completely. Simply hover over the icons for a clickable preview/switcher thing and you can choose between windows.
Hover over a program icon to display the open windows launched from that icon and click one to switch to it. (Hover over the preview to see it wherever it may be on your desktop, hiding all the other windows)
Now, if you drag the icon up (or click on a button next to the icon) you can bring up a menu that allows you to launch another instance, select to pin the program to the taskbar, or view recent files, bookmarks, etc. (This seems to be something developers can write into their programs because not many of them have this option yet) One other thing, you can pin files within that programs Pin-menu (as I am calling it...)
Drag up on the program icon to reveal this pin-menu to launch recent files, bookmarks or pinned files set by the user.
Window Management:
Dragging a window to the top shows an animation that suggests maximization. And sure enough, dropping the window there maximizes the window.
Drag a window to the top and drop it = maximize.
Dragging the window to the side of the desktop displays an animation that suggests resizing the window to half the width of the desktop and the entirety of the height.
In summary
Frankly I can't wait. That is all.
UPDATE:
Window Management:
Thanks to Kaleb, I found another neat trick: Shaking a window hides all other windows, and shaking it again brings 'em back. Wow. Microsoft is getting cozy with the mouse.
Taskbar
There are more options! Smaller icons is one and you can choose whether or not to group windows into icons. Here are a few screenies of the different options:
DEFAULT: Large Icons, Always Grouped.
Large Icons, Grouped when the taskbar is full
Small Icons, Always Grouped (My least favorite...)
Small Icons, Grouped when the taskbar is full. (My favorite settings - alot like the old taskbar with all the new features...)
1 comment:
This new taskbar seems rather familiar... Oh wait! It's almost like the OS X dock!
>_>
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