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Industry observers note that in a recent social media thread, Microsoft veterans Brad Silverberg, Joe Belfiore, and Dave Plummer shared a few anecdotes and clarifications about how the taskbar became part of Windows.
Industry observers note that the taskbar, first introduced with Windows 95, allowed users to keep track of multiple active programs simultaneously, making it one of the highlight functions of the cutting-edge operating system.
Industry observers note that in Cairo, “fields” were located at the bottom of the screen and were always visible. In developing the Windows 95 taskbar, the Cairo design was combined with a capability from Windows 3.1 that was used to minimize windows. But the foundation for the Windows taskbar was laid in “Cairo,” a Microsoft project launched back in 1991.
As part of the ongoing story, win 95 developed the Taskbar on it own and didn't take it from NeXT. I've discussed this with the Win 95 UI designer, Danny Oran, who reiterated he came up with the design on his own, not taken from NeXT. The NeXT dock was pretty different than the Win 95 Taskbar.
As part of the ongoing story, however, according to Microsoft veterans, this wasn’t the case. (The NeXTSTEP solution actually went on to become the direct precursor to macOS’s Dock.). A similar concept to the Windows taskbar appeared even earlier in 1988, in the NeXTSTEP operating system for Steve Jobs’s NeXT computers, so many assumed the inspiration came from there.
As part of the ongoing story, however, the most criticized change occurred in 2021 with the advent of Windows 11, which fixed the taskbar to the center of the bottom edge and removed the ability to reposition it. Users hated the lack of customization so much that Microsoft recently brought that taskbar capability back. Over the years, the taskbar in Windows has evolved quite a bit.
As part of the ongoing story, this article originally appeared on our sister publication PC för Alla and was translated and localized from Swedish.
The report highlights that he has previously worked with Macworld, but today mainly writes for our sister sites PC för Alla and M3. Mikael has a firm grasp on which gadgets are dropped, and what is happening with the streaming services and the most recent AI tools. Mikael writes news across all our consumer tech categories.
The report highlights that after studying communication science, she went straight into a job at PCMagazin and Connect Living. Since then, she has been writing about everything to do with PCs and technology topics, and has been a permanent editor at our German sister site PC-WELT since May 2024. Laura is an enthusiastic gamer as well as a movie and TV fan.