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Windows 7: Superbar Overview

Chakkaradeep Chandran
15 January 2009 - 11:54
105 Comments
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So far, in our Windows 7 Overview series, we have published the following:


Over the next few weeks we will be adding many more focus items on Windows 7 including Touch, Windows 7 networking and media enhancements. Stay tuned for the ultimate Windows 7 focus from Neowin.net. Here is an overview of the new Taskbar in Windows 7.

Superbar
Even though the Taskbar is still named "Taskbar" in Windows 7, due to its fresh new look and awesome features, it is called as Superbar by many. The superbar has taken the Windows Taskbar to the next level since its launch in Windows 95.

The superbar by default uses large icons and is also more glassy than in Vista!

Improved Thumbnail Previews
Like Vista, Windows 7 taskbar also provides thumbnail previews of the running applications. But with the new superbar, you can now see previews of all running instances of that application. For example, if you have three IE tabs open, you can see previews of all the three tabs and easily switch between them by just hovering or clicking over the IE icon in the taskbar.

Aero Peek
The addition of the new improved thumbnail previews to the taskbar has led to a new feature called Aero Peek. This is very important when you want to switch between applications when several other windows are open. You might need to minimize every other window opened to look for your application or use ALT + TAB or Windows Flip 3D to browse the applications. With the new superbar, you can just hover on the thumbnail previews to get a preview of that window while the other windows fade away into glass sheets and easily switch to your application!

Show Desktop
This is one of my favorite icons in the taskbar. It has got a slightly different location in the new superbar with some additional functionality. The show desktop icon is now moved to the right hand corner of the taskbar.

It provides a preview of all windows open faded away into glass sheets when you hover over the icon. This helps to have a peek of your desktop before you switch. Clicking on the icon switches to your desktop.

Identifying Open and Closed applications
With the new superbar, everything is an icon and as we saw earlier, thumbnail previews helps us to easily preview different instances of the same application.

But, how do I differentiate between the applications that are running and closed?

At first, it looks hard to find which applications are running and closed, but it turns out that it isn't hard after all. The applications running appear as overlay icons in the superbar and others appear normal.

In the screenshot below, we can see that the applications - Windows Explorer, IE, Windows Media Player are open and the applications - FireFox, MSN Live Messenger, closed.

The superbar application also indicates that there are multiple windows of the application open by providing extra overlays

In the screenshot above, you can see that the applications - Windows Explorer, Internet Explorer and MSN Live Messenger have multiple windows open.

Another cool way of keeping track of the applications running is using the new Color Hot-track feature. Each running application's icon is given a different color when you move your mouse over the icon in the superbar. The color is based on the icon itself.

Application's Progress
Some applications provide progress - like downloading a file from Internet or copying a file from one folder to another using Windows Explorer. Superbar now provides feedback about the progress by turning that application icon into a progress bar!

But I have noticed that it becomes difficult to keep track of multiple progresses in the same application. For example, I am not sure whether IE icon shows cumulative progress feedback when there are more then one file being downloaded or just shows the progress feedback of the last file being downloaded.

New Application Previews
It looks like now developers can customize the thumbnail previews by adding Thumbnail Toolbars which provides the ability to add window controls right in context of taskbar buttons.

Here is a new look for Windows Media Player icon when you hover on to it

You can pause/play, skip to next or previous track using the thumbnail preview. The Windows Media Player deskband which was present in earlier versions(until Vista) has now transformed into a thumbnail toolbar. It would have been a lot better if volume up/volume down were also added to the toolbar and display visualizations when enabled.

Here is another application - Windows Live Messenger - I am sure this will be improved in later versions

Expect more updates from various other third-party applications too in the future.

Jump Lists
This is again another new feature which developers can make use of. Jump Lists provide quick access to the applications' options like History of recently visited sites in Internet Explorer. They are readily available for you all the time in the list and you can just jump to that item in the list to reach the destination.

Right-clicking an icon in the superbar or moving the icon upwards with left click reveals its jump list. Developers can customize and add their own lists. By default, the list contains the program's shortcut, the ability to pin/unpin from taskbar and the ability to close one or all windows and a program's recent destinations.

Pin and Unpin Applications
Unlike in Vista or earlier versions, it is now very easy to Pin and Unpin icons to the taskbar. You can easily pin/unpin start menu items to taskbar with a right click on that item.

You can also access the application's jump list to pin/unpin it from the taskbar

You can also easily pin/unpin the items in the jump list. Pinning jump list items helps to easily go to that destination.

Notification Area
With the new superbar, users can now configure the notification area on how it should behave and is in total control of the user. The user can customize which applications to show notifications and not.

Customizing the Superbar
There is no joy if Microsoft doesn't provide a way to go back in time. Some users might not like the new way of grouping items, especially the icon overlay display where sometimes it becomes difficult for some users to identify which applications are running and closed.

You can easily access these options in the Taskbar properties dialog window

Below are screenshots of taskbar buttons with different options:

1) Always combine, hide labels (default behavior)

2) Combine when taskbar is full (similar to earlier versions of Windows)

3) Using small icons

4) Using large icons (default behavior)

The superbar is indeed a major feature update for Windows 7. Of course, many users will find the superbar initially surprising as it needs some time to grasp the new features, but once you become familiar with the superbar, you will start enjoying the simplicity of the new evolved Windows Taskbar.

Comments (105)

  1. +M2Ys4U - 15 January 2009 - 12:03

    Is there no way to not combine but lose the labels?

  2. +pasty2k2 - 15 January 2009 - 12:22

    +1

    The one thing missing that would make the superbar work for me, is if this was an option.

    By not including this, they are literally forcing us users who hate combining taskbar objects together and having labels all over stuff into using "their way". I know its only a beta so far, but this should be in here by now. At this rate it wont be there before release - lets hope some people provide tools for this later if its not added by MS!

  3. iamwhoiam - 15 January 2009 - 12:49

    So, submit feedback on it. They won't know people want that option if they're not aware of it.

  4. este - 15 January 2009 - 13:51

    pasty2k2 said,
    The one thing missing that would make the superbar work for me, is if this was an option.

    Why don't you just unpin those icons not wanted from the superbar then

  5. geoken - 15 January 2009 - 14:04

    How would you differentiate windows if they weren't combined and had no labels?

  6. +pasty2k2 - 15 January 2009 - 15:38

    geoken said,
    How would you differentiate windows if they weren't combined and had no labels?

    By the order in which they are on the taskbar. I can easily remember the order in which I opened a window.


    iamwhoiam said,
    So, submit feedback on it. They won't know people want that option if they're not aware of it.

    I have.

    este said,
    Why don't you just unpin those icons not wanted from the superbar then

    Huh? That doesnt make sense, I want to be able to uncombine icons that group together under mulitple instances, ergo 3 IE windows to show as 3 separate icons on the superbar, without labels.

  7. excalpius - 15 January 2009 - 20:39

    +1 This is beginner's 101 interface design here. They should take a GOOD look at the options present in Stardock's ObjectDock Plus if they want to make the Superbar truly Super.

  8. Julius Caro - 15 January 2009 - 12:15

    While it is not any less effective than the traditional windows taskbar, the superbar is on the verge of being a mess.
    The application progress is confusing since it only refers to one of the windows, but it's shown on the icon shared by all the instances of that application. The "improved thumbnails" thing mentioned only happens on internet explorer. I'm sure more apps will be able to make use of it, but right now it's like: why is IE the only app that shows icons for things that are not windows?
    And the "desktop peek" thing is useless. Seeing the borders of the windows won't help you determine what is what, and the way to show that there is a full-screen window open is not 'that' clear. If its purpose is for you to be able to peek at your gadgets, it's pointless since you can't interact with them. Cool for those gadgets that dont require interaction (like weather). The gadgets 'layer' should be pinned to the taskbar so that people can click on that icon and see and interact with the gadgets.
    Aero peek is cool, cuz it's like "If you can't tell by the thumbnail what the window is, now you can!", but nothing else..

  9. LTD - 15 January 2009 - 12:18

    Julius Caro said,
    While it is not any less effective than the traditional windows taskbar, the superbar is on the verge of being a mess.

    It's certainly easy for it to look like one. It's an attempt at something Dock-like, but not as elegant or easy. Seems to suffer from a case of "featuritis." MS usually errs on the side of messiness, even when implementing something potentially useful. Things end up looking and feeling crammed.

  10. simsie - 15 January 2009 - 13:22

    I don't think it's a dock attempt at all. It's an extension of qucik launch. I never got the hang of the Mac dock. Why do minimized windows go to the bottom right of the dock and not group with the icon that starts them etc.

  11. LTD - 15 January 2009 - 14:42

    simsie said,
    I don't think it's a dock attempt at all. It's an extension of qucik launch. I never got the hang of the Mac dock. Why do minimized windows go to the bottom right of the dock and not group with the icon that starts them etc.

    Because they're a different category - minimized windows. In one simple space you see all of your open, minimized windows. This is more organized and prevents clutter. it's completely logical. Plus it doesn't look stupid.

  12. lt8480 - 15 January 2009 - 15:06

    I actually dont think either the windows bar or the apple dock are particulary great. To me my favourite setup across windows and apple is to use a 3rd party solution to a dock in windows...

    This results in a mac / windows style bar at the bottom. At the moment in Vista im running the traditional windows vista style bar at the bottom without any quicklaunch icons. Then on hovering the mouse at the very edge at the bottom of the screen objectdock appears (just above the windows bar with all my most used programs - identifying which ones are currently already open with a white triangle.

    Prior to this setup I used to just have two lines on windows, the bottom line had 20 icons for quick launch and then the top line was my windows bar. - the only problem with this was the tendency to occasionally open programs by accident. Now with the 1/2 second hover needed at the edge of the screen to display shortcuts means this doesnt happen, and also privdes a tiny bit more space. (on a small laptop screen this would be even more useful). It also lets me always see what I have open, which I find essential, and objectdock make hovering over them even easier by magnufying the icons you are hovering over.

    eg. http://mmck.co.uk/dock.jpg

  13. hxuanv - 15 January 2009 - 15:09

    The "improved thumbnails" thing mentioned only happens on internet explorer."


    Wth r u talking about, work with my computer, cc cleaner, norton antivirus, nero, microsoft word, and almost all except for gaming that require full screen like wow and stuff.

    And the "desktop peek" thing is useless. Seeing the borders of the windows won't help you determine what is what and the way to show that there is a full-screen window open is not 'that' clear.

    another idiot comment, aero peek is to peek at the desktop, like gadget and stuff. and u can interact with the gadget if u click on the button instead of just hover over it. Major Noob

  14. fdiv_bug - 15 January 2009 - 15:47

    LTD said,
    Because they're a different category - minimized windows. In one simple space you see all of your open, minimized windows. This is more organized and prevents clutter. it's completely logical. Plus it doesn't look stupid.

    So why do minimized windows go with document/folder shortcuts over on the right-hand side? Those seem to be two rather different categories of thing; what I would've expected is for document shortcuts to go with app shortcuts on the left, since they're both quick links to objects which exist somewhere else in the system.

    And why is the trashcan over there? Why provide global access to an application-specific trash? I used to work for Apple doing new user training, and the number of times I would see people drag a mail message from within Apple Mail to the Dock's trashcan was somewhat staggering.

  15. GP007 - 15 January 2009 - 16:22

    LTD will never admit it, but the OSX dock is a bigger mess than the Win7 superbar can ever become. If you don't like the default superbar setup, you can make it like the old one with a few changes to the options.

    And like another poster said, all MS did was extend the already present quick launch bar to the rest of the taskbar. The thinking is that you'll pin apps you always open and always use anyways, and that's how I'll do it. You don't like that? Then don't pin anything there, and turn the QL toolbar back on.

  16. Memnochxx - 15 January 2009 - 17:50

    hxuanv said,
    Wth r u talking about, work with my computer, cc cleaner, norton antivirus, nero, microsoft word, and almost all except for gaming that require full screen like wow and stuff.

    Maybe you should try quoting the whole thing and you'll understand. "why is IE the only app that shows icons for things that are not windows?" Sure thumbnails work for separate windows. He's not saying that. He's saying IE is the only thing that displays thumbnails for things which are /not/ separate windows, like a bunch of tabs in one window. I don't have those programs you mentioned, but explorer and Word don't have any tabbing capabilities, just previews for separate windows.

  17. Chaks - 15 January 2009 - 18:49

    Memnochxx said,
    Maybe you should try quoting the whole thing and you'll understand. "why is IE the only app that shows icons for things that are not windows?" Sure thumbnails work for separate windows. He's not saying that. He's saying IE is the only thing that displays thumbnails for things which are /not/ separate windows, like a bunch of tabs in one window. I don't have those programs you mentioned, but explorer and Word don't have any tabbing capabilities, just previews for separate windows.

    You have to understand that Windows 7 just got released to beta and since IE is an Microsoft app, they made it work with the new development APIs made available for Superbar. IE is a proof of concept that things can be done. As Windows 7 hits RTM, expect more and more to come.

    You wont get things working just like that. Give it time.

    AND IT IS NOT WINDOWS CONCERN FOR APPLICATIONS NOT TO TAKE THE ADVANTAGE OF SUPERBAR. IT IS AVAILABLE THERE, IF YOU WANT IT, USE IT, DONT BLAME

  18. Julius Caro - 15 January 2009 - 22:05

    hxuanv
    Wth r u talking about, work with my computer, cc cleaner, norton antivirus, nero, microsoft word, and almost all except for gaming that require full screen like wow and stuff.

    No. What I meant was that you have thumbnails for every tab in internet explorer, whereas you dont have them for opera, chrome, or firefox. I guess that's what the article meant by "improved thumbnails", because otherwise they look like the same old thumbnails to me.

    hxuanv
    another idiot comment, aero peek is to peek at the desktop, like gadget and stuff. and u can interact with the gadget if u click on the button instead of just hover over it. Major Noob

    The other day I got called out for talking about the "peek at the desktop" and calling it "aero peek", apparently aero peek is when you hover over the window thumbnails. I wont admit to being a major noob until you neowinians make up your damn minds about what "aero peek" actually is. Maybe both things are aero peek, I dont care, I think my post is pretty damn clear.


    And I explained why peeking at the desktop is pointless if you can't interact with your gadgets.


    I understand that other apps will obviously be able to take advantage of it, but it makes it more confusing to some extent, since a thumbnail does not always translate into a window.

  19. Memnochxx - 16 January 2009 - 07:00

    Chaks said,
    You have to understand that Windows 7 just got released to beta and since IE is an Microsoft app, they made it work with the new development APIs made available for Superbar. IE is a proof of concept that things can be done. As Windows 7 hits RTM, expect more and more to come.

    You wont get things working just like that. Give it time.

    AND IT IS NOT WINDOWS CONCERN FOR APPLICATIONS NOT TO TAKE THE ADVANTAGE OF SUPERBAR. IT IS AVAILABLE THERE, IF YOU WANT IT, USE IT, DONT BLAME :(


    Hey, I wasn't complaining at all. I was trying to explain what somebody else said.

  20. Pajter - 15 January 2009 - 12:32

    I don't get what's so great about the whole desktop peek thing. There was Winkey+D since Windows XP. Doesn't get any better than that. :P

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