The new Taskbar in Windows 7 is the most visible of all the new features revealed in the operating system. Not only does it have a significant increase in functionality, it also provides new menu items for each application icon. The icon background has the ability to act as a progress bar and show many different states including indeterminate, normal, paused and error. A simple example would be to use Internet Explorer to download a file and see the background progress bar in action.

The right-click menu gets its own upgrade with the new “Jump list”. Simply put the Jump List functions as a localized Recent Documents list. In previous versions of Windows, this list was a general list of files accessed by the user and was on the Start menu. In Windows 7, each icon on the Taskbar when right-clicked will reveal a list of recently accessed files as well as some user tasks.

To begin experimenting with the Taskbar code, download the Windows 7 API Code Pack from MSDN. The Code Pack gives managed code access to a few of the improvements found within Windows 7. For examples on how to manipulate the code, you can find code examples on with a search on google.

In conclusion, the Windows 7 Taskbar lets you provide simple user feedback on your application. Through using managed code found in the Windows 7 API Code Pack, accessing these new features is now easier than ever. Using the IsPlatformSupport properties found in the code ensures the new features in your application are compatible with previous versions of Windows.