Overview

The new Windows 7 Taskbar represents the culmination of many years of Windows launch-surface evolution. The new taskbar streamlines many end-user scenarios including:

• Launching applications
• Switching between running applications and windows within a single application
• Managing recent/frequent user destinations
• Accessing common application tasks
• Reporting progress and status notifications through the taskbar button
• Controlling the application without leaving the taskbar thumbnail

The new Windows 7 Taskbar and Start Menu

The new taskbar is a differentiating opportunity that allows applications to shine on the Windows 7 platform. It is the end user’s primary point-of-contact for initiating and managing activities. Thus, the integration of new taskbar features into modern Windows 7 applications is a critically important goal.

The consolidation of features into the new taskbar user interface is designed to provide a cleaner look to Windows, reduce the number of concepts users must learn in order to interact with the system, ease discoverability of key features, tasks and destinations, and make common end-user scenarios more accessible.

Objectives

In this Hands-On Lab, you will learn how to integrate your MFC application with the Windows 7 Taskbar, including how to:

• Provide visual progress and status indicators using taskbar progress bars and overlay icons
• Quickly access common tasks and frequent destinations using taskbar jump lists, system categories and custom categories
• Customize the taskbar thumbnail with live previews of MDI views

System Requirements

You must have the following items to complete this lab:

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 (or later)
• Windows 7
• Windows 7 SDK