Inside The Windows 7 Taskbar

One of the best sites around for inside Windows 7 information is from Microsoft themselves – the Engineering Windows 7 blog. In their latest posting, they give an in depth look at the new Taskbar by first going back 23 years to examine the Taskbar in Windows 1.01. They then come full circle to take a look at new features in the Win 7 Taskbar like Peek, Aero, etc and how they came about. Very interesting reading for those who like the “back story”.

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.

Engineering Windows 7 : The Windows 7 Taskbar.