Summary

Windows 7 Taskbar has not only been given a facelift but has also been simplified to consolidate the features that, in previous versions of Windows, were available as individual entities. One such feature was to immediately display the desktop area with one click. In this article, learn where you can find and use the same feature in Windows 7.

Overview

Long gone are days when you could only work with one application at a time. With Windows and other GUI based operating systems, you can have multiple applications — such as, word processor, web browser, IM client, music player, etc. — running at the same time.

But imagine if you have multiple windows open, from all the different applications you are working on, covering each and every pixel of your screen and all of a sudden, the need arises to view the desktop area immediately. What would you do?

One solution to this scenario would be to minimize all of the open windows individually; however, for a better solution, do the following.

Show Desktop button

In previous versions of Windows, there was a button available in the Quick Launch bar called Show Desktop, which, when clicked would hide all the application windows and bring up the desktop at once.

In Windows 7, however, there is no Quick Launch bar to begin with. But fortunately, the same functionality is still available although the place where you can find it has changed a bit.

If you take a look at the very right hand corner of your Windows 7 Taskbar (to the right of Clock and Date), you would see a slim button, which is the equivalent to the Show Desktop feature available in previous versions.

Clicking on the button once would immediately hide all other windows and show the desktop. Click once again and all the windows that were made hidden fromi the first click would be brought up back again.