Windows 7 tips. Tips & tricks for Windows 7

Changing the Taskbar back to the old Vista/XP style

Tips & tricks

Friday, 23 January 2009 13:37

Få Windows 7 Proceslinjen til at ligne XP eller Vista

The most visible change in Windows 7 is the new "dock style" process bar. It shows icons instead of the old buttons, with all open windows combined into one button. We are however pretty sure that one of the first questions people will ask is" how on earth can i remove that". Fear not because we will show you how to do it right here.

Notice: We do not recommend changing back, because we like the new style, and think you should give it a shot before deciding to change back. But if your dead set on it, this site is about giving you options. So we will explain how its done in this guide.

Picture below shows the taskbar in Windows 7.

Changing the Windows 7 taskbar back to XP / Vista Style

In order to return to the old style, you have to right click an empty spot on the taskbar and choose properties from the menu bar.

From the Taskbars drop-down menu, you now have to choose 'Never combine'. This will make every window open separately or choose 'combine when full' which will do exactly as it says

Now you should see the buttons show up with text labels like you are used to… But in Windows 7 style.

	If you choose to mark the 'Use small icons' the taskbar should shrink and look allot like Vista H
	The only problem is that the "pinned" icons are still sitting on the taskbar, which isn't the same as Vista or XP, but you can easily remove all of them by right-clicking and choosing "Unpin this program from taskbar

And now the Taskbar will both look and feel much like the old Vista bar.

Optional: If you wanted to be really creative, you can choose the "Windows Classic" theme under the Desktop \ Personalize section… But we think it would be taking it a bit to far.