Task view

Step by step

1. Click the Start button! Look at the bottom of this practice computer: the dark strip there is its taskbar. In the middle of it, click the Start button (four blue squares). The main menu opens just above it. If you see two taskbars, use the one inside this page.
2. Click "Calculator". In the menu that opened, click the "Calculator" tile (a square with a small picture and its name under it): the app opens in its own window.
3. Open the Start menu again. The menu closed by itself when the app opened. Click the Start button (the four blue squares, in the middle of the taskbar, the dark strip at the bottom of this practice computer) a second time: the menu opens above it again.
4. Click "Notepad". In the menu that opened, click the "Notepad" tile (a square with a small picture and its name under it): the app opens in its own window.
5. Click "Task view". Task view shows all your open windows side by side. On the taskbar at the bottom, in the middle, click the button with two small rectangles, just right of the "Search" box: your windows show up as big thumbnails (cards).
6. Click the "Calculator" thumbnail. Among the thumbnails, find the one whose name at the top says "Calculator" and click it: Task view closes and the Calculator comes to the front.
7. Close this window. You are done with this window, so close it: click the ✕ button at the top right corner of the "Calculator" window (on its title bar, the strip at the top). The window disappears.
8. Close this window. You are done with this window, so close it: click the ✕ button at the top right corner of the "Notepad" window (on its title bar, the strip at the top). The window disappears.

These steps are written for SafePC, a pretend Windows-style computer in your web browser. On your own computer, the buttons and menus may look a little different, but the idea is the same.

More lessons in The taskbar

• Pin an app
• Close from the taskbar
• Close an app with Task Manager
• Show the desktop in one click