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86-461: (Redirected from MS Explorer ) "MS Explorer" redirects here. For the Microsoft desktop environment, see Windows Explorer . For the Microsoft web browser, see Internet Explorer . A number of motor vessels have been named Explorer , including - MV  Explorer  (1969) , a Norwegian, Panamanian and Liberian-flagged cruise ship which sank off

172-540: A hotspot located in the bottom-left corner of the screen replaced the Start button, although this change was reverted in Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 . The Windows 95 taskbar buttons evolved from an earlier task-switching design by Daniel Oran, a program manager at Microsoft, that featured file-folder-like tabs across the top of the screen, similar to those that later appeared in web browsers . For this reason,

258-615: A bar across the top of the screen with an Activities button on the left, a clock in the centre, and a notification area on the right. GNOME Shell does not contain a traditional taskbar; users can manage windows, virtual desktops, and launch applications from either a "Dash" on the side of the screen, or by searching from Activities Overview, which is displayed by clicking on the Activities button. GNOME 3.8 introduces Classic Mode, which re-implements certain aspects of GNOME 2's desktop as an alternate desktop environment that can be selected at

344-447: A border of pixels surrounding the Start button which did not activate the menu, allowing the menu to be activated by clicking directly in the corner of the screen. Icons in the notification area could now be hidden to save space and revealed with the arrow button. For Windows Vista , the taskbar remained functionally the same but received a visual overhaul to align the new Windows Aero design language, introducing transparency effects to

430-516: A clock and notification area, while the bottom panel contains buttons for navigating between virtual desktops , the window list proper, and a button which minimizes all windows (similarly to Windows' Show desktop button). The contents of panels are handled by widgets called panel applets, which can consist of application shortcuts, search tools, or other tools. The contents of the panels can be moved, removed, or configured in other ways. In GNOME 3, panels are replaced by GNOME Shell , which consists of

516-626: A folder and hit "Search" was removed in Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Users must open the folder they wish to search in and enter their keywords in the search field located on the top right corner of the window. Alternatively, users can specify other search parameters through the "Advanced Search" UI, which can be accessed by clicking on the Organize Bar and selecting Search Pane under the Layout submenu. Pressing F3 also opens

602-410: A folder on the local network, publish files or folders to a website, and other common tasks like copying, renaming, moving, and deleting files or folders. File types that have identified themselves as being printable also have an option listed to print the file. Underneath "Other Places" is a "Details" pane which gives additional information – typically file size and date, but depending on the file type,

688-464: A folder one can open a command-line prompt in that folder. Windows Explorer also contains modifications in the visualization of files on a computer. A new addition to Windows Explorer in Vista and Server 2008 is the details pane, which displays metadata and information relating to the currently selected file or folder. The details pane will also display a thumbnail of the file or an icon of the filetype if

774-493: A new feature of the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Explorer's search box. When the user clicks in the search box, a menu shows up below it showing recent searches as well as suggested Advanced Query Syntax filters that the user can type. When one is selected (or typed in manually), the menu will update to show the possible values to filter by for that property, and this list is based on the current location and other parts of

860-457: A new layout. The task panes from Windows XP are replaced with a toolbar on top and a navigation pane on the left. The navigation pane contains commonly accessed folders and preconfigured search folders. Eight different views are available to view files and folders, including extra large, large, medium, small, list, details, tiles, and content. In addition, column headers now appear in all icon viewing modes, unlike Windows XP where they only appear in

946-511: A popular category of shareware on these systems. The Dock , as featured in macOS and its predecessor NeXTSTEP , is also a kind of taskbar. The macOS Dock is application-oriented instead of window-oriented. Each running application is represented by one icon in the Dock regardless of how many windows it has on screen. A textual menu can be opened by right-clicking on the dock icon that gives access to an application's windows. Mac OS X 10.2 added

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1032-514: A search of the whole file. Lengthy delays also occur when displaying the contents of a folder with many different types of program icons. The icon is contained in the metadata. Some programs cause the activation of a virus scan when retrieving the icon information from the metadata, hence producing a lengthy delay. Taskbar The taskbar is an exemplar of a category of always-visible graphical user interface elements that provide access to fundamental operating system functions and information. At

1118-513: A set of XML files that define what these file types are. The Search Companion can be disabled in favor of the classic search pane used in Windows 2000 by using the Tweak UI applet from Microsoft's PowerToys for Windows XP , or by manually editing the registry. Windows XP improves image preview in Explorer by offering a Filmstrip view. "Back" and "Previous" buttons facilitate navigation through

1204-518: A slider or by holding down the Ctrl key and using the mouse scrollwheel. Live icons can display the content of folders and files themselves rather than generic icons. With the release of Windows Vista and Server 2008 and Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP, Internet Explorer is no longer integrated with Windows Explorer. In Windows Vista and Server 2008 (and in Windows XP as well if IE7 or 8

1290-415: A special NTFS stream, if the file is on an NTFS volume, or from a COM Structured Storage stream, if the file is a structured storage document. All Microsoft Office documents since Office 95 make use of structured storage , so their metadata is displayable in the Windows 2000 Explorer default tooltip . File shortcuts can also store comments which are displayed as a tooltip when the mouse hovers over

1376-407: A strip along one edge of the screen . Icons or textual descriptions on this strip correspond to open windows . Clicking the icons or text enables the user to easily switch between windows, with the active window often appearing differently from the others on the strip. In some versions of recent operating systems, users can "pin" programs or files to this strip for quick access. In many cases, there

1462-403: A taskbar onscreen by default. Application switching prior to Mac OS 8.5 was done by clicking on an application's window or via a pull-down menu at the right end of the menu bar . Prior to version 8.5 the menu's title was the icon of the foreground application. Version 8.5 introduced the ability to optionally also display the application name and to "tear off" the menu by dragging the title with

1548-522: A thumbnail preview, author, image dimensions, or other details. The "Folders" button on the Windows Explorer toolbar toggles between the traditional tree view of folders, and the task pane. Users can get rid of the task pane or restore it using the sequence: Tools – Folder Options – General – Show Common Tasks/Use Windows Classic Folders. Microsoft introduced animated "Search Companions" in an attempt to make searching more engaging and friendly;

1634-404: A user could type in directory paths directly, and be taken to that folder. Another feature that was based on Internet Explorer technology was customized folders. Such folders contained a hidden web page that controlled the way the Windows Explorer displayed the contents of the folder. The "Web-style" folders view, with the left Explorer pane displaying details for the object currently selected,

1720-483: Is a file manager application and default desktop environment that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user interface for accessing the file systems , as well as user interface elements such as the taskbar and desktop . The application was renamed from "Windows Explorer" to "File Explorer" in Windows 8 ; however,

1806-403: Is also a notification area, which includes interactive icons that display real-time information about the computer system and some of the running programs. With the rapid evolution of operating systems and graphical user interfaces, items that are native to each operating system have been included in the various designs. Windows 1.0 , released in 1985, features a horizontal bar located at

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1892-401: Is also a shortcut key combination: Windows key + E . Successive versions of Windows (and in some cases, Internet Explorer ) introduced new features and capabilities, removed other features, and generally progressed from being a simple file system navigation tool into a task-based file management system. While "Windows Explorer" or "File Explorer" is a term most commonly used to describe

1978-612: Is also hidden by default but is still available by pressing the Alt key or changing its visibility in the layout options. Several other features are removed such as showing the size on the status bar without selecting items, storing metadata in NTFS alternate data streams , the IColumnProvider interface which allowed addition of custom columns to Explorer and folder background customization using desktop.ini. The ability to right-click

2064-598: Is different from Wikidata All set index articles Windows Explorer 24H2 (10.0.26100.2454) (November 21, 2024 ; 3 days ago  ( 2024-11-21 ) ) [±] 23H2 (10.0.22635.4515) (November 22, 2024 ; 2 days ago  ( 2024-11-22 ) ) [±] 24H2 (10.0.26120.2415) (November 22, 2024 ; 2 days ago  ( 2024-11-22 ) ) [±] 10.0.27754.1000 (November 20, 2024 ; 4 days ago  ( 2024-11-20 ) ) [±] File Explorer , previously known as Windows Explorer ,

2150-426: Is fairly similar to Windows ME and Windows 2000, with one major addition: Search can also be instructed to search only files that are categorical "Documents" or "Pictures, music and video"; this feature is noteworthy largely because of how Windows determines what types of files can be classified under these categories. In order to maintain a relevant list of file types, Windows Explorer connects to Microsoft and downloads

2236-411: Is installed), Windows Explorer no longer displays web pages, and IE7 does not support use as a file manager, although one will separately launch the other as necessary. When moving or copying files from one folder to another, if two files have the same name, an option is now available to rename the file; in previous versions of Windows, the user was prompted to choose either a replacement or cancel moving

2322-414: Is therefore called gnome-panel ). By default, GNOME 2 usually contains two full-width panels at the top and bottom of the screen. The top panel usually contains navigation menus labeled Applications , Places , and System in that order. These menus hold links to common applications, areas of the file system, and system preferences and administration utilities, respectively. The top panel usually contains

2408-624: Is turned on by default. For certain file types, such as pictures and media files, a preview is also displayed in the left pane. The Windows 2000 Explorer featured an interactive media player as the previewer for sound and video files. However, such a previewer can be enabled in Windows ME through the use of folder customization templates. Windows Explorer in Windows 2000 and Windows ME allows for custom thumbnail previewers and tooltip handlers. The default file tooltip displays file title, author, subject and comments; this metadata may be read from

2494-484: The Arthur operating system from Acorn Computers . It is called the icon bar and remains an essential part of Arthur's succeeding RISC OS operating system. The icon bar holds icons which represent mounted disc drives and RAM discs, running applications and system utilities. These icons have their own context-sensitive menus and support drag and drop behaviour. AmigaOS featured various third party implementations of

2580-522: The Image Mastering API , as well as Live File System support was added. If a file is in use by another application, Windows Explorer tells users to close the application and retry the file operation. Also, a new interface IFileIsInUse is introduced into the API which developers can use to let other applications switch to the main window of the application that has the file open or simply close

2666-402: The "Advanced Search" interface. Windows Explorer in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 supports libraries, virtual folders described in a .library-ms file that aggregates content from various locations – including shared folders on networked systems if the shared folder has been indexed by the host system – and present them in a unified view. Searching in a library automatically federates

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2752-566: The Quick Launch toolbar in certain versions and configurations). In addition to deskbands, Windows supports "Application Desktop Toolbars" (also called "appbands") that supports creating additional toolbars that can dock to any side of the screen, and cannot be overlaid by other applications. Users can add additional toolbars that display the contents of folders. The display for toolbars that represent folder items (such as Links, Desktop and Quick Launch) can be changed to show large icons and

2838-790: The Seas , cruise ship SS  Explorer , a steam trawler on the National Historic Ships register. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] List of ships with the same or similar names This article includes a list of ships with the same or similar names. If an internal link for a specific ship led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended ship article, if one exists. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MV_Explorer&oldid=1216237049 " Categories : Set index articles on ships Ship names Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description

2924-510: The Shell Technology Preview, and often referred to informally as "NewShell". The update was designed to replace the Windows 3.x Program Manager/File Manager based shell with Windows Explorer. The release provided capabilities quite similar to that of the Windows "Chicago" ( codename for Windows 95) shell during its late beta phases, however was intended to be nothing more than a test release. There were two public releases of

3010-568: The Shell Technology Preview, made available to MSDN and CompuServe users: May 26, 1995, and August 8, 1995. Both held Windows Explorer builds of 3.51.1053.1. The Shell Technology Preview program never saw a final release under NT 3.51. The entire program was moved across to the Cairo development group who finally integrated the new shell design into the NT code with the release of NT 4.0 in July 1996. With

3096-530: The Window Explorer pane is in Details view mode showing a property contained within the metadata (for example Date, Length, Frame Height), Windows Explorer might have to search the contents of the whole file for the meta data. Some damaged files can cause a prolonged delay as well. This is due to metadata information being able to be placed anywhere within the file, beginning, middle, or end, necessitating

3182-417: The ability for an application to add items of its own to this menu. Minimized windows also appear in the dock, in the rightmost section, represented by a real-time graphical thumbnail of the window's contents. The trash can is also represented in the Dock, as a universal metaphor for deletion. For example, dragging selected text to the trash should remove the text from the document and create a clipping file in

3268-506: The associated program from the temporary location when opened, to make the appearance that the ZIP file is a real directory. Windows Explorer includes significant changes from previous versions of Windows such as improved filtering, sorting, grouping and stacking. Combined with integrated desktop search, Windows Explorer allows users to find and organize their files in new ways, such as stacks. The new Stacks viewing mode groups files according to

3354-424: The bottom of the screen and cannot be moved to the top, left, or right side). Up to and including Windows Server 2008, the taskbar is constrained to single display, although third-party utilities such as UltraMon allow it to span multiple displays. When the taskbar is displayed vertically on versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista, the Start menu button will only display the text "Start" or translated equivalent if

3440-465: The bottom of the screen where running programs reside when minimized (referred to as "iconization" at the time), represented by icons. A window can be minimized by double-clicking its title bar , dragging it onto an empty spot on the bar, or by issuing a command from one of its menus . A minimized window is restored by double-clicking its icon or dragging the icon out of the bar. The bar features multiple slots for icons and expands vertically to provide

3526-435: The coast of Antarctica in 2007. MV  Explorer  (2001) , a passenger ship which has had several names and is now called Blue Dream Star . MS  Explorer II , a cruise ship now called MV  Minerva . See also [ edit ] Explorer (disambiguation) for other ships named "Explorer" or with "Explorer" in their name. HMS  Explorer , two ships with this name. MS  Explorer of

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3612-1108: The criterion specified by the user. Stacks can be clicked to filter the files shown in Windows Explorer. There is also the ability to save searches as virtual folders or search folders. A search folder is simply an XML file, which stores the query in a form that can be used by the Windows search subsystem. When accessed, the search is executed and the results are aggregated and presented as a virtual folder. Windows Vista includes six search folders by default: recent documents, recent e-mail, recent music, recent pictures and videos, recent changed, and "Shared by Me". Additionally, search operators for properties were introduced, such as kind:music . Since at least Windows 7, comparison operators "greater than" and "less than" are supported to search for any supported attribute such as date ranges and file sizes, like size:>100MB to search for all files that are greater than 100 MB. Attributes sortable and searchable in Windows Explorer include pictures' dimensions, Exif data such as aperture and exposure, video duration and framerate and width. When sorting items,

3698-407: The current folder in a simple editable combobox, this new style structures the path into clickable levels of folder hierarchy (though falls back to the classic edit mode when a blank area is clicked), enabling the user to skip as many levels as desired in one click rather than repeatedly clicking "Up". It is also possible to navigate to any subfolder of the current folder using the arrow to the right of

3784-600: The default character is a puppy named Rover (previously used in Microsoft Bob ), with three other characters (Merlin the magician, Earl the surfer, and Courtney) also available. These search companions use the same technology as Microsoft Office 's Office Assistants , even incorporating "tricks" and sound effects, and they can be used as Office Assistants if their files are copied into the C:\Windows\msagent\chars folder. The search capability itself

3870-457: The details icon viewing mode. File and folder actions such as cut, copy, paste, undo, redo, delete, rename and properties are built into a dropdown menu which appears when the Organize button is clicked. It is also possible to change the layout of the Explorer window by using the Organize button. Users can select whether to display classic menus, a search pane, a preview pane, a reading pane, and

3956-827: The file does not contain visual information. Furthermore, different imagery is overlaid on thumbnails to give more information about the file, such as a picture frame around the thumbnail of an image file, or a filmstrip on a video file. The details pane also allows for the change of some textual metadata such as author and title in files that support them within Windows Explorer. A new type of metadata called tags allows users to add descriptive terms to documents for easier categorization and retrieval. Some files support open metadata, allowing users to define new types of metadata for their files. Out-of-the-box, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 supports Microsoft Office documents and most audio and video files. Support for other file types can however be added by writing specialized software to retrieve

4042-596: The file from the "File in Use" dialog. If the running application exposes these operations by means of the IFileIsInUse interface, Windows Explorer, upon encountering a locked file, allows the user to close the file or switch to the application from the dialog box itself. Windows Vista introduced pre-included support for the Media Transfer Protocol . The ability to customize the layout and buttons on

4128-618: The file management aspect of the operating system, the Explorer process also houses the operating system's search functionality and File Type associations (based on filename extensions ), and is responsible for displaying the desktop icons , the Start Menu , the Taskbar , and the Control Panel . Collectively, these features are known as the Windows shell . File Explorer is the default user interface for accessing and managing

4214-517: The file systems, but it is possible to perform such tasks on Windows without File Explorer. For example, the File ;▸ Run menu option in Task Manager on Windows NT or later functions independently of File Explorer, as do commands run within a command prompt window. After a user logs in, the explorer process is created by the userinit process. Userinit performs some initialization of

4300-445: The file. Also, when renaming a file, Explorer only highlights the filename without selecting the extension. Renaming multiple files is quicker as pressing Tab automatically renames the existing file or folder and opens the file name text field for the next file for renaming. Shift+Tab allows renaming in the same manner upwards. Support for burning data on DVDs (DVD±R, DVD±R DL, DVD±R RW) in addition to CDs and DVD-RAM using version 2.0 of

4386-422: The last item. The menu bar is now hidden by default but reappears temporarily when the user presses Alt. Check boxes in Windows Explorer allow the selection of multiple files. Free and used space on all drives is shown in horizontal indicator bars. Icons of various sizes are supported: 16 x 16, 24 x 24, 32 x 32, 48 x 48, 64 x 64, 96 x 96, 128 x 128 and 256 x 256. Windows Explorer can zoom the icons in and out using

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4472-548: The libraries special folder, which allows them to be displayed on the navigation pane. By default, a new user account in Windows 7 contains four libraries, for different file types: Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. They are configured to include the user's profile folders for these respective file types, as well as the computer's corresponding Public folders. In addition to aggregating multiple storage locations, Libraries enable Arrangement Views and Search Filter Suggestions. Arrangement Views allow users to pivot their views of

4558-545: The library's contents based on metadata. For example, selecting the "By Month" view in the Pictures library will display photos in stacks, where each stack represents a month of photos based on the date they were taken. In the Music library, the "By Artist" view will display stacks of albums from the artists in their collections, and browsing into an artist stack will then display the relevant albums. Search Filter Suggestions are

4644-472: The metadata at the shell's request. Metadata stored in a file's alternate data stream only on NTFS volumes cannot be viewed and edited through the summary tab of the file's properties anymore. Instead, all metadata is stored inside the file, so that it will always travel with the file and not be dependent on the file system. Windows Explorer in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 also introduces

4730-462: The mouse. The torn off menu was displayed as a palette . The palette window could be configured using AppleScript to appear much like a taskbar, with no title bar and fixed to one edge of the screen. No control panel was provided by Apple to access this functionality, but third-party developers quickly wrote applications that allowed users unfamiliar with AppleScript to customize their application palettes. Third party taskbars such as DragThing were

4816-412: The navigation pane. The preview pane enables users to preview files (e.g., documents or media files) without opening them. If an application, such as Office 2007 , installs preview handlers for file types, then these files can also be edited within the preview pane itself. Windows Vista saw the introduction of the breadcrumb bar for easier navigation. As opposed to the prior address bar which displayed

4902-480: The old name of "Windows Explorer" can still be seen in the Windows Task Manager . Windows Explorer was first included with Windows 95 as a replacement for File Manager , which came with all versions of Windows 3.x operating systems. Explorer could be accessed by double-clicking the new My Computer desktop icon or launched from the new Start Menu that replaced the earlier Program Manager . There

4988-525: The option to show the application labels and reduce the taskbar height to create a taskbar similar to the design used in Windows Vista. At the right side of the taskbar, the Aero Peak button was added, allowing users to quickly view the contents of the desktop and their widgets by hovering over the button, or minimize all applications by clicking on it. Windows 8 introduced no functional changes to

5074-448: The options to display these pictures as a slide show, to print them out, or to go online to order prints. Conversely, a folder containing music files would offer options to play those files in a media player or to go online to purchase music. Windows XP had a Media bar but it was removed with SP1. The Media Bar was only available with Windows XP RTM. Every folder also has "File and Folder Tasks", offering options to create new folders, share

5160-523: The pictures, and a pair of "Rotate" buttons offer 90-degree clockwise and counter-clockwise ( lossy ) rotation of images. Aside from the Filmstrip view mode, there is a 'Thumbnails' mode, which displays thumbnail -sized images in the folder. A Folder containing images will also show thumbnails of four of the images from that folder overlaid on top of a large folder icon. Web sites that offer image hosting services can be plugged into Windows Explorer, which

5246-450: The query already typed. For example, selecting the "tags" filter or typing "tags:" into the search box will display the list of possible tag values which will return search results. The metadata written within the file, implemented in Vista, is also utilized in Windows 7. This can sometimes lead to long wait times displaying the contents of a folder. For example, if a folder contains many large video files totaling hundreds of gigabytes, and

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5332-470: The query to the remote systems, in addition to searching on the local system, so that files on the remote systems are also searched. Unlike search folders, Libraries are backed by a physical location which allows files to be saved in the libraries. Such files are transparently saved in the backing physical folder. The default save location for a library may be configured by the user, as can the default view layout for each library. Libraries are generally stored in

5418-500: The release of the Windows Desktop Update (packaged with Internet Explorer 4 as an optional component, and included in Windows 98 ), Windows Explorer became "integrated" with Internet Explorer, most notably with the addition of navigation arrows (back and forward) for moving between recently visited directories, as well as Internet Explorer's Favorites menu. An address bar was also added to Windows Explorer, which

5504-451: The separate search dialog found in all previous Explorer versions. Search capabilities were added, offering full-text searches of documents, with options to filter by date (including arbitrary ranges like "modified within the last week"), size, and file type. The Indexing Service has also been integrated into the operating system and the search pane built into Explorer allows searching files indexed by its database. The ability to customize

5590-428: The shortcut. The right-hand pane, which usually just lists files and folders, can also be customized. For example, the contents of the system folders aren't displayed by default, instead showing in the right pane a warning to the user that modifying the contents of the system folders could harm their computer. It's possible to define additional Explorer panes by using DIV elements in folder template files. This feature

5676-437: The sort order no longer remains consistently Ascending or Descending. Each property has a preferred sort direction. For example, sort by date defaults to descending order, as does size. But name and type default to ascending order. Searching for files containing a given text string became problematic with Vista unless the files had been indexed. An alternative is to use the findstr command-line function. After right-clicking on

5762-540: The standard buttons was also added. There were significant changes made to Windows Explorer in Windows XP , both visually and functionally. Microsoft focused especially on making Explorer more discoverable and task-based, as well as adding several new features to reflect the growing use of a computer as a digital hub . Windows Explorer in Windows Server 2003 contains all the same features as Windows XP, but

5848-410: The task panes and search companion are disabled by default. The task pane is displayed on the left-hand side of the window instead of the traditional folder tree view . It presents the user with a list of common actions and destinations that are relevant to the current directory or file(s) selected. For instance, when in a directory containing mostly pictures, a set of "Picture tasks" is shown, offering

5934-531: The taskbar concept, and this inheritance is present also in its successors. For example, AmiDock , born as third-party utility, has then been integrated into AmigaOS 3.9 and AmigaOS 4.0. The AROS operating system has its version of Amistart that is provided with the OS and free to be installed by users, while MorphOS has been equipped with a dock utility just like in AmigaOS or Mac OS X . The default settings for

6020-500: The taskbar in Microsoft Windows place it at the bottom of the screen and includes from left to right the Start menu button , Quick Launch bar , taskbar buttons , and notification area . The Quick Launch toolbar was added with the Windows Desktop Update and is not enabled by default in Windows XP . Windows 7 removed the Quick Launch feature in favor of pinning applications to the taskbar itself. In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012 ,

6106-431: The taskbar is wide enough to show the full text. However, the edge of the taskbar (in any position) can be dragged to control its height (width for a vertical taskbar); this is especially useful for a vertical taskbar to show window titles next to the window icons. Users can resize the height (or width when displayed vertically) of the taskbar up to half of the display area. To avoid inadvertent resizing or repositioning of

6192-451: The taskbar was originally intended to be at the top of the screen. But the final configuration of Windows 95 put the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, replacing a user interface element called the tray that had been borrowed from Microsoft's Cairo project. Windows 95 OSR 2.5 would add the Quick Launch toolbar. With the release of Windows XP, Microsoft changed the behavior of the taskbar to take advantage of Fitts's law by removing

6278-402: The taskbar would now change when Windows was set to tablet mode, hiding the pinned and running apps and collapsing the search bar into a search icon. It would also show a back button. The Windows taskbar can be modified by users in several ways. The position of the taskbar can be changed to appear on any edge of the primary display (except in Windows 11 , where the taskbar is permanently fixed at

6364-442: The taskbar, Windows XP and later lock the taskbar by default. When unlocked, "grips" are displayed next to the movable elements which allow grabbing with the mouse to move and size. These grips slightly decrease amount of available space in the taskbar. The taskbar as a whole can be hidden until the mouse pointer is moved to the display edge, or has keyboard focus. The Windows 7+ taskbar does not allow pinning any arbitrary folder to

6450-418: The taskbar, and a start button that now slightly overlapped the content displayed above the taskbar. With Windows 7 saw the first major redesign of the taskbar since its introduction with larger application icons, the ability to pin application to the taskbar so that they're shown even if they aren't running, and hiding the application names by default. Quick Launch was also disabled by default. Users still had

6536-477: The taskbar, but replaced the Start button and Aero Peek button with hot corners for desktop users. Tablet users could now use the Charms bar. Windows 8.1 restored the Start button, and with Windows 8.1 Update, it was now possible to see Metro apps on the taskbar and pin them, as well as to access the taskbar while on the Start screen. Windows 10 , version 1507 added various major changes to the taskbar. A search bar

6622-450: The taskbar, it gets pinned instead to the jumplist of a pinned Explorer shortcut, however third party utilities such as Winaero 's Taskbar Pinner can be used to pin any type of shortcut to the taskbar. Other toolbars, known as "Deskbands", may be added to the taskbar. This feature, along with many other taskbar features is currently absent in Windows 11. Windows includes the following deskbands but does not display them by default (except

6708-489: The text for each item. Prior to Windows Vista, the Desktop Toolbars could be dragged off the taskbar and float independently, or docked to a display edge. Windows Vista greatly limited , but did not eliminate the ability to have desktop toolbar not attached to the taskbar. Windows 7 has deprecated the use of Floating Deskbands altogether; they only appear pinned into the taskbar. Classic Mac OS did not display

6794-425: The time of its introduction in 1995, the taskbar was unique among such elements because it provided the user with a means of switching between running programs through a single click of the pointing device . Since the introduction of Windows 95, other operating systems have incorporated graphical user interface elements that closely resemble the taskbar or have similar features. The designs vary, but generally include

6880-506: The toolbars has been removed in Windows Vista's Explorer, as has the ability to add a password to a zip file (compressed folder). The Toolbar button in Explorer to go up one folder from the current folder has been removed (the function still exists however, one can move up a folder by pressing Alt + ↑ ). Although still fully available from the menus and keyboard shortcuts, toolbar buttons for Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Delete, Properties and some others are no longer available. The Menu Bar

6966-479: The trash. The right side of macOS's Menu bar also typically contains several notification widgets and quick access functions, called Menu extras . In KDE Plasma 5 , taskbar uses Widgets as elements in taskbar. In the update 5.20 (November 2020) they updated the taskbar to look more like Windows 10 by only displaying icons by default and grouping application windows together. GNOME 2 used its own type of taskbar, known as panels (the program responsible for them

7052-435: The user can use to select images on their computer, and have them uploaded correctly without dealing with comparatively complex solutions involving FTP or web interfaces. ZIP and CAB files are integrated into the user interface so they can be browsed as if they were ordinary folders. Given that files contained inside ZIP files can not be opened directly, they are automatically extracted to a temporary location and launched with

7138-469: The user environment (such as running the login script and applying group policies) and then looks in the registry at the Shell value and creates a process to run the system-defined shell – by default, Explorer.exe. Then Userinit exits. This is why Explorer.exe is shown by various process explorers with no parent – its parent has exited. In 1995, Microsoft first released test versions of a shell refresh, named

7224-473: The user with more rows as more slots are needed. Its color is the same as that of the screen background, which can be customized. Minimized windows can be freely placed in any of the empty slots. Program windows cannot overlap the bar unless maximized. The Start button did not make an appearance in these early implementations of the taskbar, and would be introduced at a much later date with the release of Windows 95 . Another early implementation can be seen in

7310-412: Was abused by computer viruses that employed malicious scripts, Java applets, or ActiveX controls in folder template files as their infection vector. Two such viruses are VBS/Roor-C and VBS.Redlof.a. Other Explorer UI elements that can be customized include columns in "Details" view, icon overlays, and search providers: the new DHTML-based search pane is integrated into Windows 2000 Explorer, unlike

7396-493: Was now shown by default that could be replaced with a search button or be hidden, when Cortana was available, the search function was replaced with the digital assistant. The Task View button allowed users to quickly view their running apps and desktops. A button to open the Action Center was also added on the left hand side of the clock, before being moved to the right hand side in Windows 10, version 1607 . Additionally,

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