Windows 7 - Windows 7 task bar vs. Vista's Quick launch

What is the main difference between 7's task bar and Vista's quick launch?

I understand that the task bar is more capable, all of the changes that I see could have easily be incorporated into the quick launch.

I must be missing something, for my first impression is that the task bar creates a little confusion for it is easy to confuse task bar items with open programs.

My first post here. I hope this isn't read as a rant. Sometimes emotions get easily misconstrued on the net. This is a genuine question

Glad to be here and I think this site is a valuable windows 7 resource

I have the same issue with confusing the task bar items with opened programs, as a solution I just set the task bar buttons to only combine icons when full, this will make the opened programs look like they did in vista/XP, while the pined programs have small icons, here is a screen shot:

as you can see, the windows explorer is pined by default, the rest is opened programs. I prefer not to pin anything else, because I'm comfortable accessing most programs I need from the start menu, I always maintain what's in the start menu by removing the things I don't use often leaving only the programs I run often in there.

I found it confusing at first, but seriously, after I got used to it, I really started to like it. You should be able to quickly get used to being able to easily discern which programs are open, which are active, and which are simply pinned to the taskbar but not open or in use. So I would strongly recommend trying out the default taskbar of Windows 7, at least for a week or so, before giving up on it. You might be surprised how good and functional it actually is.

Note: I am referring to the way the 7 taskbar behaves in later builds. Don't recall whether it was as good or not in the earlier builds.

Hell Netguysc, and welcome to Seven Forums.

It can be a bit confusing at first until you get use to it. One thing that helps is that the pinned icons that have opened windows will be highlighted, while the other ones are not.



Hope this helps,
Shawn

Hello netguysc,

Welcome to Seven Forums.

I very much like the task bar. As you can see the icons change depending on their state.



Topo (the T) and outlook minimized and IE open with several pages. Might take a bit of getting used to, but worth it. The jumplists also save time.

Gary

Hey Netguysc ,

Once you get used to it its very cool and easy to work with, you can also drag and drop your icons in any order you wish.

The jump lists are the best thing about the task bar in my opinion and make things so easy. Right click on an icon to activate the jumplist . Experiment and play about with stuff .

I, like others, found the 7 taskbar to be confusing at first, but once I got used to it, I couldn't imagine going back to the old style, and this is coming from someone who used Quick Launch A LOT!