Controlling the Toolbar and Taskbar in Vista
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In this third part of a six-part series on personalizing Windows Vista, you'll learn about controlling the toolbar and taskbar. We also begin a discussion of the system tray. This article is excerpted from chapter four of
Windows Vista Administration: The Definitive Guide, written by Brian Culp (O'Reilly; ISBN: 0596529597). Copyright © 2006 O'Reilly Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Used with permission from the publisher. Available from booksellers or direct from O'Reilly Media.
Grouping Similar Items on the Taskbar
Just as Vista works to keep the desktop as clean as possible, it also does the same with the taskbar. The technique for doing this is to group related program items into a single button that expands when you click it.
For example, if you have seven Word documents open at once, chances are (barring a really large taskbar and no other open programs) that Vista will group these Word instances into a single taskbar button. This reduces the overall number of taskbar buttons, in turn reducing taskbar clutter. Click on the Word button, and all the open documents appear in a list.
Of course, whether you use the taskbar grouping is entirely up to you. If you want each document represented by its own taskbar button, you can instruct Vista not to use the grouping behavior. Here’s how to change the default Vista settings:
- Open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box as instructed previously. (Fine; those instructions were to right-click the Start button and choose Properties.)
- Select the Taskbar tab.
- Clear the “Group similar taskbar buttons” checkbox, as seen in Figure 4-11. Naturally, you can reverse this procedure by ensuring that it is checked.
Figure 4-11. Turning off grouping of taskbar buttons
(To turn off grouping, clear the “Group similar taskbar buttons” checkbox.)
Changing the grouping behavior will not affect the Windows Flip or Windows Flip 3D method of switching among open files. In the case of seven Word documents open at once, as previously introduced, each one still appears as its own item in Windows Flip.
Also, the grouping comes into play only when there’s no more room on the taskbar for additional buttons. If you’ve got only two instances of an application open and nothing else, they won’t group.
Not only can the taskbar house buttons to let you switch among open applications, but it also can host entire toolbars that can add a significant amount of functionality. One example of such a toolbar is the Quick Launch toolbar, discussed next.
In Windows XP, you could add the Desktop Search toolbar. Because of the integration of Desktop Search in Windows Vista, this toolbar is not available on Vista machines.
Next: Working with the Quick Launch Toolbar >>
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 This article is excerpted from chapter four of Windows Vista Administration: The Definitive Guide, written by Brian Culp (O'Reilly; ISBN: 0596529597). Check it out today at your favorite bookstore. Buy this book now.
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