Engineering 7: The Windows 7 Taskbar

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Happy Birthday Windows! Given all the interest in the most used user-interface of Windows we thought it would be good to take a look back and see how we got to Windows 7. --Steven

We were very excited to unveil elements of the Windows 7 desktop at this year?s Professional Developers Conference (as seen in the Welcome to the Windows 7 Desktop session, among others). In previous posts (User Interface: Starting, Launching, and Switching and Follow-up: Starting, Launching, and Switching) we looked at the history, anatomy and areas for improvement of the taskbar. In this post, we will continue the conversation. Don?t let looks fool you though?the UI may feel new to Windows for some of you or old hat for some of you, but rest assured it represents a careful evolution that strives to address customer feedback while retaining its familiar Windows DNA.

Continue reading at the source.

What's interesting is not so much the blog entry itself, as it doesn't tell more than what is already known. No, the screenshots are: They're from build 6948 (shell labs build, not a winmain build it seems) and show off more UI polish. I noticed a new tray icon for the Action Center and a new Explorer icon so far.

System tray of build 6948

Taskbar with new Explorer icon showing a progress bar

Can any of you spot any further changes?

Edited November 21, 2008 by Mephistopheles

[Denholm]

Thanks Mephistopheles.

Is it just me or could I have just imagined it, the taskbar is now starting to look and more :unsure: Mac'ish? No?

[KiHu]

Thanks Mephistopheles.

Is it just me or could I have just imagined it, the taskbar is now starting to look and more :unsure: Mac'ish? No?

Id say more KDE

I run both Windows 7 and Mac OS X, and the taskbar in Windows 7 is nowhere near the dock in my opinion.

[Denholm]

Id say more KDE

I run both Windows 7 and Mac OS X, and the taskbar in Windows 7 is nowhere near the dock in my opinion.

Fair comment. The taskbar is very KDE now that you mention it. I think the large icons in the taskbar reminded me of the dock.

[bornslippy]

The progressbar is also in 6801, just in a darker shade of green.

[-KJ]

I'm liking the grouped, interactive thumbnails. I just hope they have an option to pull that close button down to the "Vista" taskbar style level. Would make closing minimized window tabs easier.

[The Teej]

Ah man, the new taskbar looks so awesome. Funnily enough, the bit I'm most pleased about is Aero Peek in conjunction with the desktop, as I like to check the weather on the desktop quickly but clicking on my Desktop Icon in the quick launch or "right click > show desktop" hides these gadgets, and I have to maximise and then minimise a window just to bring them up, which is a bit of a pain. Letting me preview the desktop will most definitely make my browsing experience easier. Also, letting me preview other windows will make my programming easier, usually because I either have notes, tutorials and/or other projects up and running at once, and alt+tab really slows things down. Great stuff, I can't wait for Windows 7 :3

[Mayhem]

they removed the Mute button on the WMP12 thumbnail?

[darkmanx21]

A place where the ugly icons still remain. Try Disk Cleanup...ugh.

There are still the ugly, "Downloaded Program Files" "Offline Webpages" and oh my, the "Hibernation File Cleaner"

...hopefully they get to these before final. Damn..so close. I was really happy with this build (6801), but I saw those icons and I was a little let down.

Windows Media Player will not display Album Art correctly for me and keeps showing the folder.jpg default item for all songs. Retarded. Like a huge step back in that area, but it's overall much faster.

The overlays are dope as are the progress bars..

[Kirkburn]

Windows Media Player will not display Album Art correctly for me and keeps showing the folder.jpg default item for all songs. Retarded. Like a huge step back in that area, but it's overall much faster.

I've got some earth-shattering news for you: it's a beta. Complain about design decisions, praise direction ... but pointing out bugs and calling them "retarded" is pointless.

[PL_ Veteran]

they removed the Mute button on the WMP12 thumbnail?

Why would you want to listen to music in silence? Wouldn't it make more sense to just pause it?

[Mayhem]

just standing a difference from 6801 =P

[Panda X]

Action Center flag should be red on error, not have an overlay.

[Roger H. Veteran]

Action Center flag should be red on error, not have an overlay.

Yeah i agree, that is a good idea. :)

I just wish we could all get to play with this now :) Would be nice.

[Ambroos]

Sinofsky's in Charge... That means 50% less leaks... We had tons of Alpha's of longhorn leaked, and now there's two 7 pre-beta's out... Sad..

[Myrdhinn]

Sinofsky's in Charge... That means 50% less leaks... We had tons of Alpha's of longhorn leaked, and now there's two 7 pre-beta's out... Sad..

It's very sad... especially when the public beta may not be til next year. I wanted a new Xmas toy to play with dammit!!!! lol

[Denis W. Veteran]

Sinofsky's in Charge... That means 50% less leaks... We had tons of Alpha's of longhorn leaked, and now there's two 7 pre-beta's out... Sad..

Less is better in this case. If every single winmain build was leaked, PDC2008 would've been one giant snorefest. Except for a handful of employees at MS, few knew about the superbar and Aero Peek/Snap before it was introduced. By keeping a tight lid on things, when betas are made ready the public gets to sample code that doesn't crash on them every ten minutes, thus equating to positive impressions.

I'd say this is a good compromise between the crazy leakfest that was Longhorn/Vista and the radio silence surrounding new Apple-related products.

[srizo]

Less is better in this case. If every single winmain build was leaked, PDC2008 would've been one giant snorefest. Except for a handful of employees at MS, few knew about the superbar and Aero Peek/Snap before it was introduced. By keeping a tight lid on things, when betas are made ready the public gets to sample code that doesn't crash on them every ten minutes, thus equating to positive impressions.

I'd say this is a good compromise between the crazy leakfest that was Longhorn/Vista and the radio silence surrounding new Apple-related products.

I agree. I was surprised with the amount of new features being introduced with Windows7 pre beta builds. This wasnt the case with vista as there were numerous alpha,prebeta builds leaked to the public which made the whole devolpment a snore fest when microsoft started to release screenshots/upcoming features.

[zhangm Supervisor]

I agree. I was surprised with the amount of new features being introduced with Windows7 pre beta builds. This wasnt the case with vista as there were numerous alpha,prebeta builds leaked to the public which made the whole devolpment a snore fest when microsoft started to release screenshots/upcoming features.

Less leaking is better. At the very least, it avoids all sorts of idiot 1337erz getting ahold of something they don't have the mental faculties to understand, and then launching the whole WinFS fiasco.

[Ci7]

Less leaking is better. At the very least, it avoids all sorts of idiot 1337erz getting ahold of something they don't have the mental faculties to understand, and then launching the whole WinFS fiasco.

but but we went winFS it will make my pc 3000% faster , vista sucks and W7 are joke :o /somewiardos

/joking :rofl: