I’ll admit, I have my oddities. As a programmer and writer, I’ve always found vertical screen space to be precious. I like to see lots of lines of code or text. So anything I can do to increase the number of lines that I can see is a benefit. Years ago, when Windows 95 first came out, I learned that I could move the taskbar from the bottom of the screen to the right side. (You can also move it to the left or top, if you like.) Doing so gave me a little bit more vertical screen space and also made the taskbar less crowded. You can fit a whole lot more programs on the vertical taskbar than on the horizontal taskbar. I often have a whole lot of windows open. In addition, you can see all of the items in your quick launch and task tray. And I get a laugh whenever somebody sits down at my machine and says, “Where’s the taskbar?” I love confusing people.

All in all, I think the taskbar to the right is much better than on the bottom–especially on this wide-screen monitor.

Except for one thing. For some reason, the Windows XP installation on my laptop insists on resetting the taskbar width to the default whenever I reboot. The default width is too narrow, so the reboot sequence for me always includes the three-step process of unlock the taskbar, adjust the width, lock the taskbar. When I’m installing updates or making modifications to the machine, it becomes incredibly monotonous. Lock the taskbar. Lock the taskbar. I wonder if The Clash would be terribly upset by a parody . . .