Where do you place your taskbar/dock?

Where do you place your taskbar/dock?

  • Bottom

    Votes: 26 83.9%

  • Top

    Votes: 3 9.7%

  • Left

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Right

    Votes: 1 3.2%

  • Other; Please specify

    Votes: 1 3.2%
  • Total voters
    31
Well, mine's on the top for a while now and have gotten quite used to it. So much for "real estate."

I'm not quite down with the taskbar positioned on the left as the author recommended. I mean, if you have umpty desktop shortcuts, they automatically are placed on the left-hand side also though you can move them manually. But it's an extra step and Windows has too many of those as it is.

Docker on the bottom here. It looks nice on the left in the article, though. Whatever suits, there's no right or wrong.
 
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silversurfer said:
Here on the bottom as well.
I would like to see another option like on Linux to hide the taskbar automatically until hover on the place where is the hidden taskbar...
Click to expand...
It's possible to do that on Windows too. Here:
 
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@Protomartyr nice poll - question to discuss (y)(y)(y)

A vertical position of the taskbar makes sense because most screens on PC's are wide screen landscape, so having the taskbar on the left or the right leaves more pixels for content.

On a tablet or mobile phone a top or bottom position of taskbar makes more sense because tablets and phones are most used in portrait position.

Most apps have most used tasks/icons oriented on the left (a natural result of western languages written from left to right and top to bottom). So from a mouse distant perspective the left vertical position makes most sense.

Since most application taskbar's are at the top, it would make more sense to put the desktop taskbar at the top also. Why is it that most desktop GUI-designers put their taskbar at the bottom? The reason is structure and task separation. Most people find information easier when they are not placed adjoining but with spacing. So from a human information interpretation point of view the best position is on the right.

User behavioral tests have also shown that bottom-horizontal position taskbar users adopted the right vertical position easier than a top-horizontal or left-vertical position.
 
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Lenny_Fox said:
Since most application taskbars are at the top, it would make more sense to put the desktop taskbar at the top also.
Click to expand...
You brought up a good point about applications taskbars being at the top. I'm curious to see if I would prefer the top taskbar over the bottom one. Application taskbars are at the top, and so are browser tabs/tab management. Having everything up top would make for less time moving the mouse towards the bottom of the screen.

oldschool said:
Bottom, automatically hide, Peek to preview desktop. (y) :D
Click to expand...
I used to automatically hide the bottom taskbar as well. However, I ran into problems where certain applications/web browsers wouldn't render the bottom of the window properly with the autohide function. Have you run into similar issues?
 
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Protomartyr said:
However, I ran into problems where certain applications/web browsers wouldn't render the bottom of the window properly with the autohide function. Have you run into similar issues?
Click to expand...
Only an occasional problem with accessing the taskbar if a number of apps are open and hidden behind a browser window, which happens rarely.
 
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Bottom. Left and right are impractical, I would have to travel way too far with a mouse. I have my taskbar set to autohide, so top would interfere with the browser, tabs, minimize, close.
 

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Well, so far every place for the task bar EXCEPT on the left side has been chosen in the poll. Doesn't seem an intuitive place for many, does it. You just get so used to its placement where you've had it all along. If I reinstall Windows and it's on the bottom, I'm automatically noodging at the top margin out of longtime habit.

It's like asking you to change where you keep your car keys or something like that.
taskbar poll.PNG
 
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Unity (UI for Ubuntu / Canonical) has had this vertical set-up since 2010.
Unity debuted in the netbook edition of Ubuntu 10.10. It was initially designed to make more efficient use of space given the limited screen size of netbooks, including, for example, a vertical application switcher called the launcher, and a space-saving horizontal multipurpose top menu bar.
Click to expand...
Wikipedia: Unity (user interface) - Wikipedia
 
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plat1098 said:
Doesn't seem an intuitive place for many, does it.
Click to expand...
All monitors are widescreen, so you can literally count the distance in pixels, it is twice as far. If I go left, I hit the keyboard, if I go right, I hit the table. Up and down is more comfortable.
 

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I always like the default setup. On Windows and Mac I keep it at the bottom, on Linux I prefer it at the left. Everything else feels weird to me.

The auto-hide taskbar “feature” was available on Windows 7 as well and I am not sure about Vista.
On Windows 7 it wasn’t very responsive (at least not for me), you had to keep the pointer for some time and then it would appear.
It wasn’t like the Ubuntu dock. Now they have improved it slightly.
 
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