![]() In the past, no feature of Windows packed more frustration per square inch than the System Tray. But its changes to the System Tray - aka the Notification Area -have a huge positive effect. ![]() Windows 7's Taskbar and window management tweaks are nice. Instead of occupying the Sidebar, Gadgets now sit directly on the desktop, where they don't compete with other apps for precious screen real estate. That's because Windows 7 does away with the Sidebar, the portion of screen space that Windows Vista reserved for Gadgets such as a photo viewer and a weather applet. Getting at your desktop may soon become even more important than it was in the past. (Microsoft calls this feature Aero Peek.) Click the nub, and the windows scoot out of the way, giving you access to documents or apps that reside on the desktop and duplicating the Show Desktop feature that Quick Launch used to offer. The extreme right edge of the Taskbar now sports a sort of nub hover over it, and open windows become transparent, revealing the desktop below. If you nudge a window into the top of the screen, it will maximize to occupy all of the display's real estate. That makes comparing two windows' contents easy. Nudge another into the opposite edge of the screen, and it'll expand to occupy the other half. Shove a window into the left or right edge of the screen and it'll expand to fill half of your desktop. Other Windows 7 interface adjustments are minor, yet so sensible that you may wonder why Windows didn't include them all along. Non-Microsoft apps can offer Jump Lists, too, if their developers follow the guidelines for creating them. Internet Explorer 8's Jump List, for example, lets you open the browser and load a fresh tab, initiate an InPrivate stealth browsing session, or go directly to any of eight frequently visited Web pages. These menus resemble the context-sensitive ones you get when you right-click within various Windows applications, except that you don't have to be inside an app to use them. (The process would be even simpler if the thumbnails were larger and easier to decipher.)Īlso new in Windows 7's Taskbar is a feature called Jump Lists. Windows 7's version of this feature is slicker and more efficient: Hover the pointer on an icon, and thumbnails of the app's windows glide into position above the Taskbar, so you can quickly find the one you're looking for. But when you have multiple windows open, you see only one preview at a time. In Windows Vista, hovering the mouse pointer over an application's Taskbar icon produces a thumbnail window view known as a Live Preview. To indicate that a particular application on the Taskbar is running, Windows draws a subtle box around its icon - so subtle, in fact, that figuring out whether the app is running can take a moment, especially if its icon sits between two icons for running apps. You can also organize icons in the Taskbar by moving them to new positions. Drag an app's icon from the Start menu or desktop to the Taskbar, and Windows will pin it there, so you can launch the program without rummaging around in the Start menu. Windows 7 eliminates Quick Launch and folds its capabilities into the Taskbar. In the past, you could get one-click access to programs by dragging their icons to the Quick Launch toolbar. If you don't like it, you can shrink the icons and/or bring the labels back. If you can keep the icons straight, the new design painlessly reduces Taskbar clutter. The new Taskbar replaces the old small icons and text labels for running apps with larger, unlabeled icons. Vista gave the Start menu a welcome redesign in Windows 7, the Taskbar and the System Tray get a thorough makeover. The Windows experience occurs mainly in its Taskbar - especially in the Start menu and System Tray. ( is a NBC Universal-Microsoft joint venture.) Read on here for an in-depth look at how Microsoft has changed its OS - mostly for the better - in Windows 7. Consult " Windows 7 Performance Tests" for Windows 7 performance test results, and " How to Upgrade to Windows 7" for hands-on advice on the best way to install it. Microsoft's release of Windows 7 also roughly coincides with Apple's release of its new Snow Leopard for a visual comparison of the two operating systems, see our slideshow " Snow Leopard Versus Windows 7." Of course, an OS can't be a winner if it turns a zippy PC into a slowpoke or causes installation nightmares. But overall, the final shipping version I test-drove appears to be the worthy successor to Windows XP that Vista never was. And some long-standing annoyances remain intact. Some features feel unfinished others won't realize their potential without heavy lifting by third parties.
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