One of the coolest additions to the new Windows 7 OS is definitely the taskbar. Now a super-sized toolbar of program icons with corresponding menus and thumbnail previews, the new taskbar has dramatically changed the way I interact with my applications. I’ve been perfectly happy with the way the taskbar works out-of-the-box, but others have wanted to tweak the taskbar to fit their needs. To do so, one developer has created a program called Taskbar Overlord that has let him change some of the default behavior of the new Windows taskbar.

Once installed, you can use Taskbar Overlord in order to middle-click to close an open application – just like closing a tab in the IE8 or Firefox web browser. He also added a feature that lets you left-click a program icon to switch to the last active window you were using instead of showing you the thumbnail previews (available when you have multiple windows of that application open).

The Taskbar Overlord is actually a little AutoHotkey script that makes these two changes for you. If you’d rather have one of the changes and not the other – you’re in luck. There are actually several different versions of the program available for download:

• Taskbar Overlord – Source Code. This includes both the left click and middle click functionality as an .ahk script file.
• Taskbar Overlord Executable – Left and Middle Click.
  Has both features. Switches to the last active window when left clicking. Closes all windows when middle clicking.
• Taskbar Overlord Executable – Left Click Only.
  One feature only. Switches to the last active window when left clicking.
• Taskbar Overlord Executable – Middle Click Only.
  One feature only. Closes all windows when middle clicking

[UPDATE: Direct links above may not work for you, click here and download directly.]
Future releases and bug fixes will be announced in the following feed: http://www.ocellated.com/tag/taskbar-overlord/feed/.

Tweak the Windows 7 Taskbar with Taskbar Overlord | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

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