Win 98 Tutorial Part 3 - The Taskbar

Welcome to the third part of our Windows 98 tutorial,
in this section we will introduce you to the taskbar and its different areas.

We will be showing you how to configure your taskbar in an upcoming tutorial.

Before you follow this tutorial you must read the terms of our disclaimer.

In part three:
The Taskbar Overview. The Quick Launch Bar. The System Tray. Back to course menu.

If you have any trouble with any of the terms see our computer dictionary.

The Taskbar Overview

In fig 1.1 above you can see an example of a typical Taskbar.

We have pointed out the areas of interest, these are explained below:

Start Button - access to the start menu (covered in part 2 of our win 98 tutorial).

Quick Launch Bar - This is a handy feature of Windows 98, you can add icons to this area and it provides quick access to programs and/or documents even when the desktop isn't visible, we will be looking at the quick launch bar more closely later in this section.

Windows Tabs - These are used to switch between any open programs, documents, etc, in our example we have 2 windows open (word and excel). To change from one window to another simply click on the corresponding window tab, clicking a second time on the same tab will minimise the window.

System Tray - The system tray displays icons for programs that are loaded into memory, although not all programs place an icon in this tray. We will cover the system tray in detail later in this section.

The Quick Launch Bar

A very useful area of the taskbar, the quick launch bar (see fig 1.2) allows you direct access to your programs, files or folders with just one click and is visible (by default) even when you have a window open.

The quick launch bar can be removed from the taskbar if required, simply right click on a blank part (not an icon) of the quick launch bar and select close toolbar from the menu.

There are usually a couple of standard icons within the quick launch bar:

- Show Desktop Icon, clicking on this will minimise all open windows to reveal the Windows 98 desktop, clicking again will restore the windows to their previous state.

- Internet Explorer Icon, clicking on this will open Microsoft's Internet Explorer program.

Deleting icons from the quick launch bar
It is very easy to delete icons from the quick launch bar, simply right click on the icon you no longer require and select delete from the menu that appears.

note: - only delete icons you do not want, removing the icon will not remove the associated program/file from your computer.

Adding icons to the quick launch bar
It is fairly simple to add icons to the quick launch bar, simply drag the program/file/folder over the quick launch area and drop it (release the mouse button), this will create an icon for future use.

If you add or delete icons you can increase or decrease the size of the quick launch bar by moving the divider (see fig 1.2) left or right.

The System Tray

The system tray includes icons relating to programs currently running and displays the clock.

To change the clock settings see: setting date & time in the first part of our windows 98 tutorial.

As with the quick launch bar there are normally a couple of icons residing in the system tray, in our example (fig 1.3) we have 2 icons.

- Volume Icon, clicking this icon will display the volume control dialogue box from which you can adjust the sound settings of your PC.

- Task Scheduler Icon, clicking this icon will open the task scheduler which can be used to run a program or maintenance task at a scheduled time.

As well as the default icons, the system tray will contain icons of some of the other programs that are run when you start up Windows 98. Some typical programs would be your firewall (if you have one), printer status monitors and some messenger programs.

If you want you can stop programs running by right clicking and using their menu to close them, or if you want to stop a program loading when you start Windows 98 one option is to use the msconfig utility (we will cover msconfig in future sections).