Taskbar masterclass
1 PIN YOUR FAVOURITE APPS
When you open an application, you’ll see its icon appear on the Taskbar. Clicking the logo brings the application to the forefront of your desktop so you can swap between your open applications. You can also ‘pin’ the applications you use the most to your Taskbar. This keeps their icons on the Taskbar, even when the apps are closed. Right-click an icon and select ‘Pin to taskbar’.
2 SEARCH STRAIGHT FROM THE TASKBAR
One of the new additions to the Taskbar in Windows 10 is the search box on the left side, next to the Start menu. Click in the search box and start typing what you want to look for. This could be a file or folder on your PC, an app you want to use, or a web search. As you type, Windows 10 will offer suggestions. Click on the result you want to bring up the file, app or web search.
3 MAKE USE OF THE TASK VIEW
Another feature of the Taskbar in Windows 10 is Task View. You can access this by clicking the icon on the right of the search box. This gives you an overview of all the apps and windows you have open. Click the thumbnail of an app or window to bring it to the front. If you scroll down the Task View, you’ll see a timeline of the documents you’ve previously worked on as well.
4 MOVE AND EXPAND THE TASKBAR
By default the Taskbar sits at the bottom of your screen. Right-click the Taskbar, click ‘Lock the Taskbar’ to deselect the option. Now, if you move your mouse cursor to the top of the Taskbar, you’ll see its icon change. This lets you drag the top of the Taskbar to make it wider. To move the Taskbar, click it and drag it to either side of your screen, or to the top.
5 THE NOTIFICATION AREA
Next to the time and date on the right of the Taskbar is the notification area. This contains important status updates for certain apps. For example, if you use Dropbox, the Dropbox icon will show a notification when it is syncing. You can quickly check your network connection or alter your sound volume from here, too, and you can view more apps by clicking the ‘^’ arrow.
6 QUICKLY ARRANGE WINDOWS
If you have a lot of windows open at once and want to quickly arrange them on your desktop, right-click the Taskbar and select ‘Show windows stacked’. This resizes the open windows and stacks them alongside each other. The option ‘Show windows side by side’ rearranges the Windows in a rectangular layout. ‘Cascade windows’ arranges them behind each other.
7 GO TO WEBSITES DIRECTLY FROM THE TASKBAR
You can quickly go to your favourite websites by adding an address bar to the Taskbar. This lets you type in the URL of a website, such as www.techradar.com, and a web browser will open with that website loaded. Right-click the Taskbar, then select Toolbars followed by Address. You can now type in the URL in the address bar and press Return to go to the website.
8 PIN WEBSITES TO THE TASKBAR
Another way to quickly go to a favourite website is to pin it to the Taskbar. To do this in Edge, browse to the page you want to pin, click the ellipsis (…) and select ‘Pin this page to the taskbar’. To do this in Chrome, click the three vertical dots icon on the right side of the window and select ‘More tools’. Click ‘Create shortcut’ then Create. Drag the icon from the desktop onto the Taskbar.
9 TASKBAR OPTIONS
For more Taskbar options, right-click it and select ‘Taskbar settings’. From here you can select to automatically hide the Taskbar when it’s not needed, use small Taskbar buttons to save space and whether or not to combine Taskbar buttons. By default, Windows 10 combines windows from the same app in one icon to keep the Taskbar getting cluttered, but you can change that here.
10 NOTIFICATION AREA SETTINGS
From the Taskbar settings window you can also change the notification area settings. Scroll down and click ‘Select which icons appear on the taskbar’ to choose which apps display their icons in the area. There is also an option to ‘Turn system icons on or off’. Click this and select which Windows 10 icons you want in the notification area. Your Taskbar is now set up for your needs!