100 vista tips and tricks » Vista Task Bar

Automatically Hide the Windows 7 Taskbar

Buddy — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:25:07 +0000

The Taskbar of the Windows Vista is quite larger than the other previous versions of the Windows. When the screen’s real estate is actually at a bounty as in the case of few netbooks, you may wish to hide the taskbar when ever it is not in use in order to supply more viewable space for the open programs and applications. It’s a better option to automatically hide the taskbar when you are working on some programs/files or any window is open as you can have more viewable area.

Note: By doing so you will switch between the windows like as clicking on to the Windows by utilizing Win + Tab or Ctrl + Tab.

1. Initially, Right-click a vacuous area on to the taskbar and choose option “Properties”.

2. After this a window naming “Taskbar and Start Menu Properties” will popup. You must click on to the “taskbar” tab for sure.

3. Beneath, the “Taskbar appearance” option and check on “Auto-hide the taskbar”.

4. In order to close the dialog windows just click on “OK” button.

After performing the above steps the result will be:
When you will take away your mouse pointer from the Taskbar, what you will see that it will slide out of your view means will hide. In order to bring the taskbar back, only move your mouse pointer towards the edge of the screen where in the Taskbar is situated and the taskbar will come into view again.

Bring back your desktop by restarting Windows explorer.exe

mitz — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 05:34:35 +0000

When your computer crashes, sometimes you lose your icons, taskbar, start menu, and so on. This is called Windows Explorer.exe. This video tutorial shows you how to stop or restart explorer.exe so you can get the desktop back to normal. Starting the explorer.exe will bring back your desktop icons, taskbar, notification area, and start menu.

How to restore a Flip 3D shortcut icon to your Vista desktop tasbar

mitz — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:58:26 +0000

Just say you accidentally delete the Windows Vista Flip 3D icon and then realise that you cannot find the program to create another icon. Well there is no need to panic as it is easily fixed. There are two detailed steps to restore your Flip 3D icon to your desktop or quick launch toolbar on the taskbar.

Step 1 : Create a desktop shortcut that opens the Windows Vista Flip 3D application

Right click on the blank area on your desktop
Choose New from the menu
Then choose shortcut
Now copy this RunDll32 DwmApi #105 and paste it into the area that says Type the location of the item
Press next. Then Type in a name for your shortcut. (Flip 3D)
Press Finish. That’s it.

Now when you double press on this icon it will start Flip 3D.

Step 2 : Change the icon to a proper Windows Vista Flip 3D icon

Right click on the icon that you just created
Choose properties from the menu
Now the shortcut properties will appear and you need to be on the shortcut tab
Then press the Change icon button
Press browse to find the right icon for Flip 3D
The file you want is in C:/Windows/System32 folder and is called imageres.dll
Once you have selected this file press open
Now you will have lots of icons to choose from. The Flip 3D icon will be in there somewhere.

Please watch the video tutorial below to see more details.

Add or remove icons from your Windows Vista notification area

mitz — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:44:16 +0000

The Windows notification area is the most frequently used part of the desktop taskbar. It keeps you up to date with whats going on on your computer by animated icons that occassionally poup with messages for you. A great example is when there are Windows updates ready for your computer or if your laptop battery is running low.

The notification area also holds the volume control icon, the time, and any other program icons that are enabled to show there. You can change the settings for a program icon to Hide when inactive, Always hide, or Always show. This allows you to remove annoying icons and just keep the important ones.
What are the most common icons that appear in the Windows Vista notification area?

Time
Volume
Windows update icon
Network connections icon
Bluetooth icon
Laptop Power icon
Windows Live Messenger

How to add or remove icons in the notification area in Windows Vista

Go to the start menu icon in the left corner
Right click on it to bring a menu
Choose properties from the menu
Go to the Notification Area Tab
Click on customize to change the settings for each icon that shows up in the notification area

Watch this video tutorial to see more details..