Windows7 taskbar icons

Discussion in 'Software' started by sobeit, Dec 22, 2009.

  1. sobeit

    sobeit Master Sergeant

    Hi all.
    Just upgraded my daughters Vista laptop to Windows 7.
    It wasn't a smooth install but not many things do run smooth when it comes to new stuff from Microsoft.
    It all seems to be running ok apart from the colours of the right hand side taskbar icons.
    They are all grey.
    I hover the mouse over them and it tells me what they are, ie, battery indicator, internet connection, but without colour there is no indication of how much battery there is or how strong the internet connection is.
    I have googled and found others with the same problem but no answer.
    One person has answered saying the icons are supposed to be like that?
    They are of little use without the green infill to give you information.
    Any clues?
    Cheers.
     
    sobeit, Dec 22, 2009
    #1
  2. evilfantasy

    evilfantasy Malware Fighter

    The two computers Windows 7 I have used are the same. If you hover over them they will show you the statistics but until then they are very generic looking. Maybe MS decided that they were better for performance in the generic fashion?

    I looked around briefly at this site, Windows 7 for Beginners, and didn't see anything on it. It's a good site for getting tips on 7.
     
    evilfantasy, Dec 22, 2009
    #2
  3. sobeit

    sobeit Master Sergeant

    Thanks for the reply evil.
    If that is the case then MS are going backwards!
    The icons look broken and very bland.
    Oh well.
     
    sobeit, Dec 23, 2009
    #3
  4. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Hi

    If the icons are like this below from my PC then its normal and the icons came from alot of discussion over coloured, animated or plain as they are now and the decision was that many complained at Vista and XP having too much glitz, so the fancy icons where dropped. Problem for MSFT is that they are dammed if they do and Dammed if they dont.

    http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/6935/32464757.jpg

    You should be able to hover over the battery one for time or % remaining, the network one then no just lists available networks.

    However I did blog about these apps and some alternates in

    BatteryBar (free version)
    Network Activity
     
    DavidGP, Dec 23, 2009
    #4
  5. sobeit

    sobeit Master Sergeant

    Halo, thanks for that, if that's the way they are meant to be then fine.
    I thought something had gone pear shaped with the upgrade as there was one point where it locked but luckily on re-boot it seemed fine.
    It's for my daughter and she asked for Windows 7.
    Personally i'm happy with XP and have never used a more stable and user friendly Microsoft OS.
    Long may I be able to get support for it. Yeah right! Knowing Microsoft as it works they'll find a way to mess it up... :)
     
    sobeit, Dec 23, 2009
    #5
  6. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    You'll find that windows 7 is what many have called the new XP, and it has less bugs on RTM that XP had so SP1 for Win7 will be good but then as MSFT are back on the 2yr release cycle Win8 will be out in 2012!

    Win 7 is very stable and once you get used to the GUI you'll find it intuitive, as even my mom and neices (neices 7 and 9) hav found it easy to use over XP.

    XP is great OS and I have it in Virtual PC still for legacy and support, but Vista and Win7 are expanded better builds imo over XP, Xp became a good OS from Sp1/2. Microsoft never openly want to mess up anything, sadly the end user does that all by themselves ;) I never had issues with any OS, did kill XP a few times due to playing with services, but hey experimentation.
     
    DavidGP, Dec 23, 2009
    #6
  7. evilfantasy

    evilfantasy Malware Fighter

    I'm liking 7 more and more. It's not "flashy" but the small upgrades are really cool and useful.

    I just wish they would put some extra time into polishing up WMP. It still doesn't act totally right and about 5% of my album covers are still just a big gob of pixels.
     
    evilfantasy, Dec 23, 2009
    #7
  8. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    I agree, WMP and Media Center are not perfect yet, but for album covers I use MP3Tag as its best app for getting covers for MP3s


    I'd far rather stability than flashy icons to be honest, while I like flashy, its not always better, maybe Win8 could be better and sign up to MS Connect and when the beta shows sign up and bug fix and feedback ideas and make a difference, they do listen at times to suggestions, but if you dont feedback you cannot make a change.
     
    DavidGP, Dec 23, 2009
    #8
  9. evilfantasy

    evilfantasy Malware Fighter

    I only use Mp3Tag and MediaMonkey. iTunes is a pain also and those two have everything plus some.

    Checking out MS Connect now. Thanks!
     
    evilfantasy, Dec 23, 2009
    #9
  10. sobeit

    sobeit Master Sergeant

    I'll take a peek at my daughters laptop when she starts using it (xmas present) and see what I think.
    Yes I agree Joe Public can make a mess of things, it's the buggy updates that annoy me.
    They are the 'experts', if they release stuff that isn't ready or written correctly, what chance the mortals?
    Then again, there's always Linux or a MAC!!
     
    sobeit, Dec 23, 2009
    #10
  11. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    No major betas on MS connect but sign up now and if possible with a hotmail or live account as they tend to get chosen for betas, its how I got started in beta testing and now dont need to in the main apply as I get invited.

    MediaMonkey is good.

    Will look through my list of apps as I'm sure I have a few more alternates to taskbar or tray apps and will update this thread.


    Ouch I use both more linux than mac and if you think they are less buggy with updates I'm afraid they are not (Windows has a better OOBE than other OSes), world of hurt if going to linux especially with some drivers, mainly wifi, using Mint, Kubuntu and Puppy at present, all ok but very new HW on this PC.
     
    DavidGP, Dec 23, 2009
    #11
  12. sobeit

    sobeit Master Sergeant

    Nooooo, wasn't thinking of going across, just that if I am THAT unhappy I could always try other options.
    Like I say i'm happy with XP, time will tell with 7.
     
    sobeit, Dec 23, 2009
    #12
  13. evilfantasy

    evilfantasy Malware Fighter

    I also didn't like what they did with Windows Mail. But it gave me a good excuse to switch to Thunderbird. ;)
     
    evilfantasy, Dec 23, 2009
    #13
  14. DavidGP

    DavidGP MajorGeeks Forum Administrator - Grand Pooh-Bah Staff Member

    Windows Mail was not good in reality (I moved to Outlook 2007 with Vista, now with Win Live Mail with Win7), Live Mail was the upgrade and was needed as the "anti-trust" law suits caused this, if not for this mail may have been different, sadly if your popular you get crucified!

    Thunderbird is very good, latest beta is good too especially with Sunbird.
     
    DavidGP, Dec 23, 2009
    #14

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