The easiest way to enable the new Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 Beta
Here's what the new taskbar looks like. The icon with no image is Firefox. I'm not sure why its image won't show unless I ungroup (as I explain later) - probably a bug.
A lot of people were disappointed that the new taskbar (superbar) showed off at PDC was not included in the pre-beta build (build 6801) of Windows 7 that was distributed to developers. Rafael managed to find this hidden superbar and talks about it at his website.
We’re just going to talk about how to unlock the superbar. He does have a method of unlocking it on his website but there is a much faster and better way to do it.A commenter on Rafael’s blog by the name of war59312 was able to write a .exe file to speed up the whole process. You first need to download the file:
Download for 32-bit Windows 7
Download for 64-bit Windows 7
(At the very bottom of the post, I have included a video demonstrating what you can do with the Superbar)
Once you download the file, simply open it and select Unlocked Protected Features. This will place a file into your Windows folder to unlock the features and also place two temporary files on your desktop that you can delete afterwards. Once you press OK, the Superbar should be enabled! The same file is needed to disable the Superbar as well. Of course, not all the features shown off (such as peeking) are included in this build. Microsoft probably kept the Superbar hidden because they want to show it off at its full potential.
You can switch between Windows of the same application by selecting one of the windows that pop up when you hover your mouse over the large application icon. You can even close them.
If you notice the Windows Defender icon, the bottom left corner lights up, which is where my cursor is actually located. The bright light follows your cursor depending on where you hover it.
This is what a jumplist looks like. I used a bad example, but the jumplist is just as basic for the other applications. Pinning the program to taskbar makes it act as a Quick Launch item that doesn't leave the taskbar at any time.
This is what the taskbar looks like if you want to have it show text.
You simply right click the taskbar, select properties, then choose "Never Group" from this drop-down menu
(This is my first shot at recording a video and it didn’t turn out completely the way I wanted to. I’m going to try making future videos better)
Related posts:
Tags: build 6801, superbar, superbar hack, taskbar, taskbar hack, windows 7 taskbar
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11 Responses to “The easiest way to enable the new Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 Beta”
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Thanks a lot
as i was serching this only…………
[...] background box to change colour according to the hues in the application’s icon. There’s an entire article on how to unlock this hidden taskbar in Windows 7, and a preview of its features [...]
it does not work can someone please help me
and i did everything you said i have been trying to do this for 5 days
[...] The unlocked taskbar (superbar) is much like the one demonstrated at PDC on build 6933. Large icons are used, window previews can be shown by hovering over them, applications can be moved around in the taskbar, you can close windows as shown, and the new graphics engine displays a bright hue that follows your cursor as you move your cursor around the taskbar (kind of difficult to describe but you’ll know what I mean when you see it.) You can check out the review on the features here. [...]
[...] The easiest way to enable the new Windows Taskbar in Windows 7 Beta A lot of people were disappointed that the new taskbar (superbar) showed off at PDC… [...]
Will this work on windows 7 rc?
One thing we don’t grasp, why don’t you guys, put the taskbar on top? for a while we did put it on the left with automatic hide, but that too was cumbersome, like on the bottom…and lock it NOT automatic hide, try this for a change, why should you ask, well to have a full desktop at your disposal, with lots of space to put your windows in. have fun, don’t worry, be happy.
Please somebody help me.
I downloaded and installed the file.
After installation, everything is gone (Taskbar,my comupter icon..entire screen is blacked.)
I can’t even use window button in my keyboard.
When I restart computer, error message popped up saying
explorer.exe – entry point not found. the procedure entry point could not be located in the dynamic link library USER32.dll.
I found I installed winpeshl.log file so I guess this file should be deleted but I don’t know how.
Please help me!!
first of all, never (if you are NOT an expert with computers, download and install a beta version of everything…
second, did you make a repair disk in case of a crash like this?
third or a complete image backup of your C disk or partition?
if the answers are NO, No, No, we can’t help you or short to say:
START ALL OVER AGAIN and install weeseven from scratch…
Thanks allot, for this useful post!
i found a youtube video about xbox live hacks, that I would like to share- Xbox Live Hacks!…
But seriously, great post and thanks alot !
i look forward to your next post !
I would like to say, nice blog. Im not sure if it has been addressed, but when using Chrome I can never get the whole site to load without refreshing many times. Could just be my modem. Enjoy!