The Taskbar

By default, we find the taskbar at the bottom and it has the four buttons on the left, “Getting Started”, “Internet Explorer”, “Media Player” and “Explorer” (1). On the right we find the system tray (2).

If you wish to move up, left or right, no problem, but you must unlock it first.
One way to do this is to right click the taskbar, and click on the option “Lock the Taskbar” in the pop-up menu.
A second way is to select the “Properties” option from the pop-up menu.
This opens the dialog box “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties (4).
Click the option “Lock the Taskbar” so that the tick is removed.

As you can see in the image below we have some other options in this dialog. All seem obvious to me.
The only thing that needs explanation is perhaps the “Customize” button under the section
“Notification” (5).
When you click this button, it opens a second dialog box in which we have the buttons that appear in the system tray and option to show or hide them.

When an application opens, an icon for it is placed in the taskbar.
As you can see in the picture above, “Live Mail”, “Live Messenger” and “Dreamweaver” appliations are open.

If you want an application to be always available in the taskbar, right click it in the taskbar and choose “Pin this program to taskbar,” or right click the program in the “Start” menu and choose “Pin to Taskbar” option.

If you wish to remove this application from the taskbar, you can repeat these actions, but then choose the option to “unpin this program from taskbar.”

Pinned applications to the taskbar are not the programs itself, but only shortcuts.
You can click and drag the application on the taskbar to the position you want.

Another way to place a shortcut to an application is to click and drag from the “Start” menu to the desktop.
A shortcut on the desktop icon has curved arrow at the bottom left corner of the icon.

Removing a shortcut from the taskbar or the desktop, will only delete the shortcut, not the program.

Jump Lists

Also new in Windows 7 are “Jump lists”.
Jump lists are lists of recently opened files, folders or websites.
We found that in the “Start” menu and I already explained it to you in the previous lessons, we also find it in the taskbar and I will explain it in this lesson.

To open a Jump list in the taskbar, we have two ways.

One way is to right click on the icon in the taskbar.

A second way is by dragging up the icon in the task bar.

Whether this application is pinned or not, that does not matter. Any application that resides in the taskbar has its own jump list.

By default, Windows stores the last 10 recently used items in the jump list.
If you want to secure an item to this list, then move your mouse pointer over the item and click the pin icon that appears on the right.
This puts the item at the top of the list in the “Pinned” section.
Another way is to right click the item in the list, and choose “Pin to this list” in the pop-up menu.

To detach a pinned item from the jump list, repeat this action.
A detached item is placed back into the “Recent” section.

A third section in the jump list of Internet Explorer is “Tasks”.
Here we have two options.
What the second option does seems clear to me, this opens a new tab in the browser window.

What the first option does seems interesting. This option will prevent the data such as cookies and browser history to be stored in Internet Explorer.

So if you wish to visit the sites banned by your spouse, then use this option in the jump list.

Aero Themes

As in Windows Vista, it is possible to give a personal touch to the Windows 7 desktop, for this we use “Themes”.
A theme is a combination of pictures, colors and sounds on your computer.
A theme contains a wallpaper, a screensaver, a color for the window frame and a sound scheme.

To change theme, right click an empty space in the desktop and select “Personalize” from the pop-up menu.

By default, Windows 7 is equipped with 6 different themes (1).
You have the opportunity to adjust (2) each of the components of these themes and if you do not find anything enthusiastic here, other themes can be downloaded from the Internet (3).

All the themes of several photos, including the theme “Architecture”, each of these photos are shown on a preset time (30 minutes).

If you want to change this time period, wish to remove photos or wish to use other images, click the “Desktop Background” (4).
This opens another dialog box where you have all these options.

If you have changed a theme, this will be displayed at the top of the dialog in the “My Themes” section if it is not a saved theme.
With the theme selected click the “Save Theme” button.
This opens another dialog box where you can name your theme, and click the “Save” button.

Maybe another tip.
If you wish to see the next photo from your theme immediately, right click the desktop and choose “Next Desktop Background” from the pop-up menu.

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