Customizing the Taskbar

Taskbar is the long horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen. Unlike the desktop, which can get covered by the windows on top of it, the taskbar is visible almost all the time. It has four main sections:



- The Start button , which opens the Start menu.
- The Quick Launch toolbar, which lets you start programs with one click.
- The middle section, which contains buttons that represent any opening programs and documents. You can switch among them by clicking the buttons or by pressing ALT+TAB.
- The notification area, which includes a clock and other icons indicating the status of certain programs settings.

You can customomize the Taskbar behaviour by accessing the taskbar dialog box:

- Right-click the blank section of taskbar, and then click Properties. This will open the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box.

- Click the Taskbar tab.

- There you will see several checkboxes that represents the behaviour and configurations of the taskbar. You can select or deselect any options as your wish. Here the glance of the options you may customize:

• Lock the taskbar: By selecting this, user will not be able to move the Taskbar to other position (top, right, or left).
• Auto-hide the taskbar: Selecting this will hide the taskbar when not being pointed. you can redisplay it by pointing to the bottom of the desktop.
• Keep the taskbar on top of other windows: If selected, as its name says, all program windows will not cover the taskbar.
• Group similar taskbar buttons: If selected, then when too many programs are running, the similar buttons will be arranged into one stacked button.
• Show Quick Launch: If selected, then the quick launch icons appear.
• Show the clock: If selected, the clock appears at the notification area.
• Hide inactive icons: If selected, the inactive icons will be invisible. You can also specify which icons to be visible or invisible by clicking the Customize button.

- When you are finished making changes, click OK button.