It’s hard to picture the Windows Taskbar’s evolutionary past at Microsoft, because… well it was developed in the dark.

The Milestone 1 Taskbar was switched on with the addition of a Boolean DWORD value named EnableCHS, placed in the HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced key. This iteration of the Taskbar featured very basic grouping features, live preview, and early support for “pinning” although not completely functional.

Milestone 2 builds featured an improved Taskbar, primarily focused on improving past pinning and grouping work. It also featured the beginnings of what we now know as Jumplists and Aero Peek. Unlike the previous Taskbar, the Shell performed more vigorous checks on who you were, under the Microsoft corporate umbrella, to determine if you were authorized to use the new Taskbar.

At the end of what you could call the “private development” tunnel, Microsoft started work on Milestone 3 builds of Taskbar. It is at this time, pinning and grouping features were smoothed out, attention jerking elements were removed (e.g. the awful white gradient), and the more subtle icon resources installed in preparation for the upcoming technical preview. Unpictured, Jumplists still had the small arrow that appeared upon hover over a Taskbar button.

Full read at WithinWindows.

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