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To be productive using Windows XP, you should know how to manage the open windows with the taskbar. You can move the taskbar to any of the 4 sides of the screen. To do so, first, if necessary, unlock the taskbar by right-clicking on an empty part of the taskbar itself, and uncheck or uncheck it in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box (shown below), which is loaded by selecting from the context menu.
Then drag the taskbar to the desired side.
Although the taskbar is displayed by default at the bottom, moving the taskbar to the side of the screen has certain advantages, as you can see on the left. By making the taskbar a little wider, more window buttons, Quick Launch icons, and Notification icons can be displayed. Below the Notification area (formerly known as the System Tray) is the clock and calendar display, showing not only the time, but also the day of the week, and the date. Another advantage is that the main screen is a little narrower instead of being a little shorter, which makes it easier to read.
By clicking on an empty part of the taskbar to get the context menu, you can cascade all of the windows, or tile the windows either vertically or horizontally.
Cascaded windows show the title bars of each window, making it easier to find the window that you want, since the full title is usually displayed in the title bar.
Tiling the windows either vertically or horizontally is useful if you want to compare documents, or if you are writing a document in one window, and looking up references in another window, or you are following an outline displayed in one window while you write in an another.
In most cases, tiling is most useful when only 2 windows are tiled. But what if you have more than 2 open windows, but you only want to tile 2 of them? Press Ctrl + click each button on the taskbar to select it, right-click one of the selected buttons, then click the appropriate item from the context menu. When the windows are tiled, you can drag the borders of the windows to change their sizes. If you want to change the size of all windows, you must drag the border of each window separately; otherwise, they will overlap the other windows, but maybe this is what you want to do. For instance, as I was writing this article in FrontPage, I was also following an outline in Word. I tiled the 2 windows horizontally, then dragged the lower border of the FrontPage window downward until it covered up Word's menu and toolbars, as you can see below.
To eliminate tiling, just maximize the windows.
Another method for managing windows with the taskbar is by grouping them. You can group windows by checking Group similar taskbar buttons in the Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box (shown in 1st image at top).
When the taskbar becomes too crowded, it starts grouping the windows of the same application into 1 button. The taskbar is more likely to become crowded if the taskbar is at the top or bottom of the screen, since there is less room to display even partial titles. As you can see below, clicking the group button displays all of the titles in the group, making it easier to read. Clicking a member of the group displays that window. Right-clicking a member of the group displays the context menu with options to restore, move, size, minimize, maximize, or close the window, depending on the state of the window. Right-clicking the group button shows the context menu for the group, which includes minimizing, maximizing, cascading, tiling, or closing the windows of the group.
Note, however, that you cannot select individual windows of a group by Ctrl + clicking. You can however, Ctrl + click to select a group, and other groups or windows on the taskbar.
Grouping occurs when the taskbar becomes too crowded, but this can be changed by editing the registry. Type regedit in the Run dialog box to open the registry editor.
Open HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
If it is not already present, create a new DWORD value called TaskbarGroupSize
Enter a value of 2 or greater. A value of 2 will group similar buttons as soon as the second window of an application is created. A higher value would allow numerous windows of the same application before grouping occurs.
| An example of 2 windows tiled vertically, with the author writing in 1 window, and looking something up in another. Note that keystrokes go to the selected application which has a darker title bar. To click a menu or toolbar button in the unselected application, you must click it once to select the window, then click the menu or toolbar button. |
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Hover the mouse over any taskbar window button to read the full title.
You can minimize all windows by pressing Windows + M—that's the key on both sides of the bottom of most keyboards for Windows computers that usually has the Windows symbol on it, that looks like this: ˙ ...or something similar. You can also press Windows + D to show the desktop which is the same effect as minimizing all windows; press it again to restore the programs.
To restore minimized windows, press Shift + Windows + M. The only bug about this, and with pressing Windows + D a 2nd time to restore the windows, is that the 1st window in the taskbar is the one that is displayed, rather than the one that was displayed before showing the desktop.
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