Comments on: Three Things

By: Rick Williams

Rick Williams — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:03:00 +0000

Hmm, imbedded image didn't seem to work... well the picture can be found here:

http://lh5.ggpht.com/teleksterling/SNmOfmu95TI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/1ESkaoqktyk/SideTaskbar-small.PNG.jpg
and larger version here:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/teleksterling/SNmO5oWIO_I/AAAAAAAAARA/XKcho9EMbcM/SideTaskbar.PNG

By: Rick Williams

Rick Williams — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:01:00 +0000

I’ve kept my taskbar at the top of the screen for a few years now, three button high, auto-hidden, and without grouping of similar apps. Also I have the mouse on the left hand side of the keyboard with the buttons inverted – which in summary means that anyone who comes to use my computer is usually totally stumped!

Like you, I like being able to see all the active apps in nice sized buttons.

Last week my PC was changed over by IT, and I’ve now been presented with a wide screen monitor. I took the opportunity to change my layout and I too have put the taskbar on the left. More interestingly, I have auto-hide off, and have taken advantage of the wide screen by making it approximately two and a half times the width of the start button (about 240 pixels). But in this space I’ve also included an extended Quick Launch bar, and toolbars for folder links, and IE favourites.

Click to Embiggen

By: Doug Glancy

Doug Glancy — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:23:00 +0000

“Lock the Taskbar,” that’s funny. My brain is wired so that I make the association subconsciously, and I start humming “Rock the Casbah” while setting up a new computer. (For a while I found myself humming “Cupid draw back your bow” over and over, and realized our security system plays the first 3 notes of that song when somebody comes in. And old PC’s played the lead-in of a Led Zeppelin tune at startup, – “Good Times Bad Times, I think).

By: Dan Maxey

Dan Maxey — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:23:00 +0000

I’m sure you know by now, but the UT / Arkansas game has been postponed. However, we Austin folk have little regard for hurricanes (we pray for the rain, but are usually left high and dry), so your golf may still be possible. If the weather does disappoint and you run out of things to do, give me a shout and I’ll buy ya a beer.

By: gruff999

gruff999 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could put the task bar on the left but have the START button at the bottom still.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:15:00 +0000

On my laptop, I keep the taskbar to the left of the main screen. When I use my other monitor, it's on the left, but it's still the secondary monitor, and the taskbar doesn't move. I don't keep it on top of the other windows, so it's not at all distracting.

When I used Windows 95 for the first time, I saw the taskbar at the bottom, and thought, what a dumb place to put that, wonder if I can move it. I dragged it to the left, and the whole interface was 100% better. My wife and all my kids learned this placement from me.

I've tried the autohide setting, and don't like it. I removed the language bar, which didn't do anything for me. I don't like the locked setting either, especially with my extensive quick launch toolbar (but I like the song "Lock the Taskbar", wasn't that by the Clash?).

By: Simon Herbert

Simon Herbert — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 15:10:00 +0000

Like Joe, I dual screen to the left so I would have a moving bar... Still not sure if I could get used to the taskbar being anywhere except the bottom of the screen. Not having the start (Windows) button would be very confusing after 13 odd years of seeing it there!

You could always try closing the language bar to free up some more taskbar space!
Locking the toolbars also gives back a few more pixels...

Interestingly, in your screenshot the "Show hidden icons" button for the system tray still points left and not up!

(How about docking the taskbar anywhere except bottom on someone else's machine and setting it to autohide? Sounds like fun!)

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 02:51:00 +0000

Ken – You use Windows in Taskbar? I have always hated that setting, it seems to use up so many slots on the taskbar, and clutter up the Alt-Tab display.

By: fzz

fzz — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 01:11:00 +0000

Use anything other than Windows, and you could try out many different UIs. Mac OS X dock is just one of many possibilities.

I run LiteStep as a replacement for the standard Explorer desktop, and I use different themes depending on what I'm doing. One has a 24-pixel high taskbar along the bottom of the screen. Another has 20-pixel wide icon-only task tiles along the right side of the screen. A third doesn't display any UI components at all by default, giving me full screen for applications but with UI components a middle mouse button click away.

When I do run Explorer as the desktop UI, I always use the Classic theme. Wastes less screen space (and fewer system resources), and just looks better to me. Pity Microsoft never believed the old saw 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

By: Ken Puls

Ken Puls — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:57:00 +0000

Funny that... based on Jon's post I was also trying the Windows Taskbar thing today. It lasted a couple of hours before I had to move it back due to a super rush project. (I was in a huge hurry to get something done, and was having a heck of a time finding what I needed.)

One thing I've noticed is that having multiple Excel files open at once, it's really difficult to figure out which is which with the taskbar that way.

I'm sure it gets easier with time, though, so will probably give it a go tomorrow.