Anatomy of the Windows 7 taskbar – TabbedThumbnail (Part 1)

One of the “features” of the new taskbar that excites me is the TabbedThumbnail interface! This allows me to quickly see which applications are open and what their status is! From the screen capture above, you can easily see that I have my favourite Google group (The WPF Disciples) open and also my own website (Shameless plug). Even these buttons are customizable… and it’s VERY easy to do!!!

To create a new TabbedThumbnail:

preview = new TabbedThumbnail(this, this, VisualTreeHelper.GetOffset(this));
preview.Tooltip = "This is a awesome new tooltip";
preview.Title = "Customer XYZ";
preview.DisplayFrameAroundBitmap = true;

And to use it:

TaskbarManager.Instance.TabbedThumbnail.AddThumbnailPreview(preview);

Although I am using the TabbedThumbnail at its most basic form here, it’s got loads of options. Here are some examples:

• TabbedThumbnailClosed - The event that occurs when a tab is closed on the taskbar thumbnail preview.
• TabbedThumbnailMaximized - The event that occurs when a tab is maximized via the taskbar thumbnail preview (context menu).
• TabbedThumbnailMinimized - The event that occurs when a tab is minimized via the taskbar thumbnail preview (context menu).
• TabbedThumbnailActivated - The event that occurs when a tab is activated (clicked) on the taskbar thumbnail preview.
• TabbedThumbnailBitmapRequested - The event that occurs when a thumbnail or peek bitmap is requested by the user.

If you have content that constantly changes (Think media player), you can also call InvalidatePreview!

And that’s it for part 1. In part 2, we will cover custom peek areas and multi-tab interface (like Internet Explorer 8).