The taskbar is a graphical user interface element that was introduced with Microsoft Windows since Windows 95, which is used to launch and monitor applications. Other desktop environments also feature similar interface elements.

Microsoft Windows

In Windows, the default location for the taskbar is at the bottom of the screen. By default, it contains, from left to right: the Start menu button, Quick Launch bar, taskbar buttons, and notification area. The Quick Launch toolbar was added with the Windows Desktop Update and is not enabled by default in Windows XP. Windows 7 removed the Quick Launch feature in favor of pinning applications to the taskbar itself. In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, a hotspot located in the bottom-left corner of the screen replaced the Start button; this change was reverted in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2.

With the release of Windows XP, Microsoft changed the behavior of the taskbar to take advantage of Fitts's law by removing a border of pixels surrounding the Start button which did not activate the menu, allowing it to be activated by clicking directly in the corner of the screen. Icons in the notification area could now be hidden to save space and revealed with the arrow button.

For Windows Vista, the taskbar remained functionally unchanged but received a visual overhaul to align with the new Aero design language, introducing transparency effects to the taskbar and a start button that now slightly overlapped the content displayed above the taskbar.

The taskbar was greatly redesigned in Windows 7 with the introduction of larger application icons, the ability to pin applications to the taskbar so that they are shown even if not running, and hiding the application names by default. Quick Launch was also disabled by default. Users still had the option to show the application labels and reduce the taskbar height to create a taskbar similar to the design used in Windows Vista. At the right side of the taskbar, the Aero Peek button was added, allowing users to quickly view the contents of the desktop and their widgets by hovering over the button, or minimize all applications by clicking on it.

Windows 8 introduced no functional changes to the taskbar, but replaced the Start button and Aero Peek button with hot corners for desktop users. Tablet users could now use the Charms bar. Windows 8.1 restored the Start button, and with Windows 8.1 Update, it was now possible to see Metro-style apps on the taskbar and pin them, as well as access the taskbar while on the Start screen.

Windows 10, version 1507, added various major changes to the taskbar. A search bar was displayed and could be replaced with a search button or hidden. The search function was replaced with Cortana, the digital assistant, until it was discontinued. The Task View button allowed users to quickly view their running apps and desktops. A button to open the Action Center was also added to the left of the clock, before being moved to the right in Windows 10, version 1607. The taskbar would now change when Windows was set to tablet mode, hiding pinned and running apps and collapsing the search bar into a search icon, with a back button also being shown.

Taskbar elements

• The Start menu contains commands that can access programs, documents, and settings. These commands include Programs, Documents, Settings, Find, Help, Run, and Shut Down.
• The Quick Launch bar, introduced with Internet Explorer 4, contains shortcuts to applications. Windows provides default entries, such as Internet Explorer, and the user may add more shortcuts if they choose, as can third-party software. A single click on the application's icon in this area launches the application. This section may not always be present: for example, it is absent by default in Windows XP, although it can be enabled. In Windows 7 and later versions, the Quick Launch toolbar is replaced by the ability to "pin" an application to the taskbar without enabling any toolbars.
• The Windows Shell places a taskbar button on the taskbar whenever an application creates an unowned window: that is, a window that doesn't have a parent and that is created according to normal Windows UI guidelines. Typically, all SDI applications have a single taskbar button for each open window, although modal windows may also appear there. Windows XP introduced taskbar grouping, which can group the taskbar buttons of several windows from the same application into a single button. This button pops up a menu listing all the grouped windows when clicked. This keeps the taskbar from being overcrowded when many windows are open at once.
• The last part of the taskbar is called the notification area (commonly, and incorrectly, referred to as the system tray). It contains mainly status notifications, though some programs, such as Winamp, use it for minimized windows. Applications can put icons in the notification area to indicate the status of an operation or to notify the user about an event. For example, an application might put a printer icon in the status area to show that a print job is underway, or a display driver application may provide quick access to various screen resolutions. In Windows XP and newer Windows versions, the user can choose to permanently display or hide some icons, or only hide them if inactive for some time; A button allows the user to reveal all the icons. By default, a clock is displayed in the notification area. It can be clicked to reveal a calendar, as well as clocks for additional time zones if the user chooses. A class of utilities typically called taskbar clock replacements can replace the Windows XP taskbar clock with a clock with more features.

Screenshots

A Windows ME standard taskbar with no tasks running.

A Windows XP standard taskbar with two tasks running.

A Windows XP taskbar in the Windows Classic theme with two tasks running.

A Windows Vista standard taskbar with two tasks running.

A Windows Vista taskbar in the Windows Classic theme with one task running (nearly identical in appearance to the Windows Classic theme of XP).

A Windows 7 taskbar with no tasks running.

A Windows 8 taskbar with three tasks running (and no Start menu button).

A Windows 10 taskbar with three tasks running.

A Windows 11 taskbar with two tasks running.

Others

Other toolbars may be added to the taskbar, and it can also be hidden, placed on top of other applications, or moved to the side or the top of the screen.

• Upon opening the Taskbar properties on Windows 95 and Windows 98 whilst holding down the CTRL key, an extra tab for DeskBar Options is shown, but no part of it can be used. The DeskBar option was a feature that never got included in these versions of Windows.

Other desktop environments

Windows is not the only operating system with a taskbar: similar bars are present in various Linux desktop environments. The Dock, as featured in Mac OS X and its predecessor NEXTSTEP, is also a kind of taskbar. The Mac OS X Dock is application-oriented instead of window-oriented. Each running application is represented by one icon in the Dock regardless of how many windows it has on screen. A textual menu can be opened by right-clicking on the dock icon that gives access to an application's windows, among other functions determined by the app. Minimised windows also appear in the dock, in the rightmost section, represented by a graphical thumbnail.

The first known implementation of the taskbar concept is seen in Acorn's Arthur operating system, which was released in 1987 for their Archimedes computer. It is called the Iconbar and remains an essential part of Arthur's succeeding RISC OS operating system. The Iconbar holds icons which represent mounted disc drives and RAM discs, running applications and system utilities. These icons have their own context-sensitive menus and support drag and drop behaviour. It should be noted that Windows 1.00, released in 1985 (two years earlier than Arthur), also sported a variant of the taskbar. Running tasks were iconified in the bottom panel. There was no notification area, though.Windows 2.x and 3.x had no taskbar, but showed minimised running tasks on the Desktop.

In various KDE distributions, the taskbar is run by the Kicker program, and consists of two parts: the panel and the taskbar. The panel is a control bar across the bottom of the screen, which is used to find and launch applications and navigate among windows and desktops. It contains the menu, which is comparable to the Windows start menu; the disk navigator, which allows access to the file system by menus (a similar thing can be done in Windows); and the desktop pager, which changes between desktops. The last item is not possible in Windows by default. As with the Windows 'Quick Launch bar', additional buttons can be added to the KDE panel, to quickly open applications, directories, and URLs. The second part is the taskbar runs across the top of the screen and helps keep track of running applications. This is similar to the 'Taskbar buttons' area of the Windows taskbar.

Similarly, the GNOME desktop environment uses its own type of taskbar, known as panels (the program responsible for them is therefore called gnome-panel). By default, GNOME usually contains two full-width panels at the top and bottom of the screen. The top panel usually contains navigation menus labelled Applications, Places, and System in that order. These menus hold links to common applications, areas of the file system, and system preferences and administration utilities, respectively. The top panel usually contains a clock and notification area, which can double as a sort of dock, as well.

The bottom panel is commonly empty by default, other than a set of buttons to navigate between desktops and a button to minimise all windows and show the desktop, due to its use in the navigation between windows (windows minimise to the bottom panel by default).

These panels can be populated with other completely customizable menus and buttons, including new menus, search boxes, and icons to perform quick-launch-like functions. Other applications can also be attached to the panels, and the panels are highly reconfigurable: anything on these panels can be moved, removed, or configured in other ways. For example, a dedicated Windows user migrating to GNU/Linux might move the menus usually posed in the top panel into a 'start' menu on the bottom panel as well as moving the notification area into the place normally occupied by the Windows notification area, then remove the top panel altogether, to emulate Windows.

External links

• How to use the taskbar in Windows 11 and 10 at Microsoft Support
• How to Get the Classic Start Menu Back in Windows 8 by Chris Hoffman at How-To Geek (2017-07-05)
• Taskbar at Wikipedia

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