Increase your desktop real estate by hiding the taskbar!

As you know by now, Microsoft's design improvements for the XP interface included the removal of a lot of icons that appeared by default on the Windows desktop. The thought process behind this idea was to make the desktop more streamlined, free of clutter, and therefore easier to work with. If you subscribe to these ideals, you might want to consider hiding the taskbar from view as well. Doing so not only frees up more desktop space, but also makes it easier to see additional portions of the screen, which can be helpful when you're working with large images.

Right-click on an empty portion of the taskbar and unlock it, if necessary, by selecting the Lock The Taskbar menu item to remove its associated check box. Then, right-click on the taskbar again and choose Properties. In the Taskbar And Start Menu Properties dialog box, select the Auto-hide The Taskbar check box. Then, click Apply and OK. You'll see the taskbar quickly drop down below the bottom edge of the screen. To access the taskbar when the Auto-hide The Taskbar option is selected, simply move your pointer to the edge of the screen where your taskbar was previously located. When the pointer nears the edge, the taskbar jumps back into position; when you move your pointer away from the taskbar, XP automatically hides it again.