A Deeper Look Into the Windows 11 Taskbar. 

As it goes, I am pretty much a cyber stick in the mud.  But that doesn't mean everybody else is, or even should be. Just because I turned off Taskview and the Widgets doesn't mean that's the only way of setting up Windows 11.  Maybe you have multiple monitors or a huge screen, then maybe you might want to explore Taskview.  As far as the Widgets go, well that's a personal decision each user should make for him or herself.

To get to our Wasckly Widgets, and to engage Taskview, we must first Right Click a blank section of the Taskbar.  That will bring up a small box that reads Taskbar settings.  Left click the Taskbar settings box.

When you click Taskbar settings, the Taskbar Settings control page appears.  From this page you toogle on/off certain Taskbar features.  Microsoft calls this "Personalization."  We will focus on Taskview and Widgets. If I setup your Windows 11, most likely these features are turned off.  To turn a feature on, simply move the button with the mouse.  The icon associated with the feature will appear on the Taskbar.

Taskview is useful if you are adept at managing multiple windows or monitors.  Taskview will allow you to create multiple desktops each with its own characteristics.  So why do I turn off Taskview off?  I turn it off because when I accidently mouse over Taskview my screen changes to something like below.  I have enough troubles  with ADHD.  To me, this looks like a visualization of the symtoms of ADHD.  But to each his or her own, eh?

Widgets first appeared with Windows Vista.  Back in the day, Widgets were placed on the desktop.  And not only were they annoying, they used up a lot of system resources.  Now the Widgets are on the Taskbar.  Common Widgets are the weather, the news, sports, and "Traffic every ten minutes."

The point of all these little applets is to make Windows be as much a consumer product as your smart phone.  As Windows and the Android OS merge we may see more of these distractions.  But heck, one person's mere distraction is another's rubber necking car wreck. 

Gerald Reiff