Tag: SUPERBAR

Now that Windows 8 images have begun leaking out, it's only a matter of time until developers start releasing mods for Windows 7 which mimic upcoming features. Over at Into Windows, they've spotted one such mod already. In the earliest Windows 8 images, we saw Windows Live integration on the taskbar. In the far right corner, there's a user tile displayed. If you'd like to do the same on ...

Pinning programs, folders, and even frequently used documents to your Windows 7 taskbar can be a real time-saver. Certain folders, however, aren't so easy to add -- especially if you want them right on the taskbar and not buried in the Explorer jump list. Windows 7 Taskbar Items Pinner makes pinning everything from your downloads folder to the control panel to network connections as easy ...

You may have tried to pin a document or file you work on frequently to your Windows 7 taskbar, only to learn that it's too smart for that. Instead, you wind up with a pinned item for the program associated with the file's type, with your file pinned to the jump list. After reading a writeup at Lifehacker earlier today, I couldn't help thinking there was an easier solution than what they proposed ...

This week, we're running a series of keyboard tips and tricks that help you make the most of Windows 7. To see the previous tips, check our Tips index. The Windows 7 taskbar has large, chunky icons. They're easy to hit with the mouse, but what's nicer still is that they're easy to count. You can easily see what's the third icon, for example, and so, hitting Win+3 would be like clicking that ...

I admit it -- I'm not much of a Recycle Bin user. Usually if I press the delete key on my Windows system I'm also holding down the shift key for instant vaporization. If, however, you enjoy the safety net that the Recycle Bin provides and you're using Windows 7, you really should check out RecycleBinEx. It's made by the same developers who created FCleaner -- a very capable CCleaner ...

I love Skype. I use it daily and consider it to be one of the best applications installed on my system. However, recent Skype versions started exhibiting a pretty annoying feature: they stick around on your Windows 7 Superbar (and possibly on the taskbar in earlier versions of Windows, but I haven't tested that). No matter how many times you click the X to close Skype's window, it still sits ...

Windows 7's Superbar (what used to be the taskbar) is packed with useful features -- like Jump Lists, for example. Unfortunately, there are plenty of programs out there which I really wish made use of Jump Lists but don't. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to bolt on that functionality? As it turns out, there is! Over on the NeoWin forums, they've posted Jumplist Extender. It's a free, ...

File this one under "why didn't I think of that." Blogger and software engineer Abhishek Bhatnagar has posted a simple, clever way to pin multiple folders to your Windows 7 taskbar (or Superbar). Yes, you can already pin as many as you want to the Explorer icon, but it's still nice to be able to have single-click access to your most-used folders. Or you could just switch on the quick launch ...

The improved taskbar -- or Superbar, as it's really called now -- in Windows 7 offers loads of features which make getting at the files and folders you use frequently easier and faster. The four options I'll cover here don't require any additional software. They're all possible using features built right in to your OS, you just might not have realized it yet! Pin 'em to your Explorer icon ...

It's only been a couple of weeks since I first wrote about weatherbar. The slick, free program integrates weather information into your Windows 7 taskbar (or Superbar, depending on how geeky you are). It looks like weatherbar's author took some of our commenter suggestions to heart in version 2 which is now available for download. What's new? You can now choose to display temperatures in ...

I've never been one to run sidebar gadgets on my desktop. If they're on top, they're usually covering something I need to see. If they're in back I forget about them entirely. The developer of WeatherBar had an interesting idea: why not take advantage of Windows 7's Superbar instead? Extract the zip file, launch WeatherBar, and enter your location. Within a few seconds the taskbar icon will ...

We've covered a few Windows 7 friendly status indicators before -- like these two for monitoring your CPU and memory utilization. Another developer decided to have a go at his own version, and the results are pretty slick. Five meters are available: power, volume, disk, CPU, and memory. The meters are very configurable, with options for custom colors, overlays, and whether or not to launch ...

While Mozilla's release schedule may have hit some snags lately, Firefox developers keep chugging along. Though Windows 7 shell integration features have taken a back seat in 3.6, they're alive and kicking in the 3.7 pre-alpha. Jump List support is much more complete now, and it's also highly customizable. The about:config page now includes preferences for each group on the list -- tasks, ...

Plenty of people were thrown off by the Quick Launch toolbar's disappearance from Windows 7. It hadn't actually disappeared, per se - it's just hiding where you're not likely to notice it. You can handle this a couple of different ways. The Superbar still supports toolbars, so you can right click it, choose toolbars -> new toolbar and paste "\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick launch" in the ...

I'm not sure I'd ever go for the kind of 3D desktop BumpTop implements, but I don't mind seeing a little imaginary depth rendered on my 2D Windows desktop. Enter T3Desk, a Window manager which does exactly that. It's a bit of an alt-tab replacement and reminiscent of the Window arranging wizardry provided by Compiz. One of my favorite features of T3Desk is that all applications you minimize ...