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Chapter 1, Lesson 5, Customizing the Start Menu and Taskbar, Part 1
In this video, we will cover that how you can customize the Start Menu and Taskbar according
to your preferences. Why and when you will need those customization options?
Hello Friends, and Welcome again to our Windows 7, Basic to Advance Video Training Series.
Today, we will talk about Windows 7, Start Menu and Taskbar Properties. As I had mentioned
in my first video, that what is Start Menu and Taskbar, and what are their usage.
In this video, I will teach you that, how you can customize the Start Menu, and the
Taskbar, matching to your preferences. You will also get, detail information on each
customization option. After completing this chapter, you may have
comprehensive information about, using Start Menu and Taskbar, your own way, and you will
also get to know that what else is available on them.
So, lets begin with our first command, that is, Locking / Unlocking and Positing the Taskbar.
If you right-click on an empty area of your Taskbar, you will see that, by default, Lock
the Taskbar option is checked. What is the locking the taskbar means? If your taskbar
is locked, which is actually locked by default, then you cannot move your taskbar to any other
location of your screen and you may also not be able to resize it.
So, how we can unlock it? To unlock the taskbar, right-click on an empty area of your Taskbar
and uncheck the Lock the Taskbar option, by clicking once on it. After unlocking the taskbar,
if you move your pointer towards the border of the taskbar, you may notice that, your
mouse pointer has changed in double-sided arrow.
If you hold down the left mouse button of your mouse, and move the mouse up or down,
you can see that the size of taskbar is increasing and decreasing. So, after unlocking the taskbar,
the first thing you can do is, resize your taskbar as required. But why someone will
need to resize the taskbar if it already has a lot of space.
Windows has the ability to run multiple-instance of a single program. As I had showed you in
my previous video, that how you can run multiple-instance of Notepad to copy data from one file to another.
So, while working on computers, you have to work with multiple applications at once.
At that time, you feel that the area of the Taskbar is reducing, as you open more and
more applications. The icons of open applications on the taskbar, start getting smaller and
you may think of having a larger taskbar. Resizing the taskbar will be the easiest way
to work happily with many applications at once.
There is one more thing that you can do, after unlocking the taskbar. That is, you can move
it to any other corner of your screen, instead of the default bottom area.
To move your taskbar to any other corner of the screen, move your mouse pointer between
empty areas of your taskbar and hold down the left mouse click of your mouse, and drag
the taskbar to left, right, or top corner, as required.
After positing and resizing the taskbar, you can again lock it, so the taskbar remain at
that location and of exact size, and no one could accidentally move or resize it again.
Now, lets move to some advance Taskbar properties. If you right-click on an empty area of your
taskbar and choose properties, then you will be presented with a dialog box some advance
Taskbar customization option. Through this properties box, you can customize, the taskbar,
the start menu and even the toolbars that you want on you taskbar.
The first option in Taskbar properties, under the Taskbar appearance, is “Lock the Taskbar”.
As, I describe earlier in this video, this is the same option that if you want to Lock
or Unlock your taskbar. If this option is checked, then you cannot move or resize your
Taskbar until you uncheck it. Either, you can check or uncheck this option
from Taskbar properties or you can also do it by right-clicking on your Taskbar as well.
The second option, in the taskbar properties is, Auto-hide the Taskbar. This is a useful
feature, if you want to hide your taskbar while working with applications. This will
give you a little more space on the screen. When you will move your mouse pointer away
from the Taskbar, it will get auto-hide, and as soon as you again move your mouse pointer
to the area, where you taskbar exist, it will get reappear. When you want your taskbar to
be permanently appear, uncheck this option. The third option is, using small icons, in
the taskbar. As soon as, you make a check mark on this option and click on OK button,
you will notice that the 3 default icons on your taskbar get smaller and also whenever
you will open an application, their taskbar icons will also be appear smaller. This will
give you little much space on your taskbar, if you do not want to resize your taskbar.
The other option in the Taskbar properties is, Taskbar location on the screen. As I describe
you earlier that how you can move your taskbar to other corner of the screen, if the taskbar
is unlocked. This is the same option, with two foremost differences.
The first difference is, you do not have to move your taskbar manually. You can choose
the desire location, from the drop down menu, and clicking OK button will move the taskbar,
to the location specified. The second difference is that, you can move
your taskbar through this option even if the “Lock the taskbar” option is checked.
Means, you do not need to unlock the taskbar to move it to different location through this
option. The “Taskbar Buttons”, was an important
change in Windows XP version. We called it “Group Similar Taskbar buttons” in Windows
XP. This option was not available in prior to Windows XP.
What this option do, is to group similar application taskbar buttons in to a single button. Which
then save a lot of space on your taskbar. To give you an example, I am going to open
a single application many times, so you may better understand how this option works?
As I am opening many instance of Notepad, you may see on the taskbar that, as soon as
the Taskbar get filled with application buttons, it start compressing the icons, but as soon
as the number of the icons get increased for the same application, windows combine them
into a single button. This then saves a lot of space on your taskbar. If you click on
the combined application button, you will have a list of open instances for that application
and you can click to open the particular. You have 3 choices in drop down menu for Taskbar
buttons. Which are: “always combine hide labels”, “combine when taskbar is full”,
which is the default option and, “never combine”.
If I choose the first option, Always Combine Hide Label option, the first thing you will
notice is that Windows has removed the application name from taskbar button causing the buttons
to get smaller. But if now you open the second instance of the same application, it will
be combined under single button, instantly. The second option is, combine when the taskbar
is full, which is the default option, will only combine the buttons when the taskbar
will get full with application buttons. This option works in auto mode, means, it will
automatically decide which buttons to group and ungroup.
For instance, I am opening my 5 instances of Notepad. Then I start opening WordPad many
times, and as soon as the taskbar get full, it automatically combines the Notepad buttons.
Then I start opening more instances of WordPad. As soon as they get increased, it groups the
WordPad buttons and ungroups the Notepad. The last option under Taskbar button is, never
combine. That means, if you can open as many instances of any application but they will
not be combined or grouped at all. If the number of icons get increased in the taskbar
then Windows will automatically place a scroll bar, so you can scroll between the taskbar
buttons. If you ask me, that why someone will need
so many of these functions? And those because only for a taskbar. Then, let me clarify you
that, every user has their personal work environments, like different software and hardware configurations.
Maybe, you will not require those options, if you have a larger screen to work on. But
on a smaller screen, your taskbar may get fill with buttons quickly. And what about
if I am exploring ten different internet pages and meanwhile working on two documents and
three spreadsheets. There is lot more other ways to customize
the start menu and taskbar. We will cover them in next part of our, customizing the
start menu and taskbar video. Do not forget to subscribe, to get latest update from our
channel. My name is Rajiv Kohli and “Good Day” for now.