CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real)  9  Chapter 1: What are Operating Systems and How Do They Work?       9  Operating System Features            9  The Task Bar and System Tray

The Task Manager 1 Explorer: Understanding the Structure

Whilst the Task Bar allows for quick navigation between multiple windows and applications, various options are available for arranging these windows on the desktop. Right clicking on an empty area of the task bar displays the following popup menu.

Excluding the “Minimize All Windows” option, there are three choices for auto-arranging the on-screen display. The first option, “Cascade Windows”, moves all visible windows to the top left of the screen, then adjusts each one downwards and to the right so that the title bar of the previous window is visible:

The “Tile Windows Horizontally” and “Tile Windows Vertically” options produce much the same result – they both attempt to fit all open windows on screen at the largest possible size, without overlapping any windows. The horizontal and vertical difference controls the bias to which windows are moved. The miniaturized screenshot in Figure 48 shows the result of these options.

When selecting either the cascade or the tile options, the Task Bar popup menu gains an additional item named “Undo Cascade” or “Undo Tile”. Selecting this option reverses your display to the previous appearance, saving a lot of manual resizing.

The Task Manager 1 Explorer: Understanding the Structure