Have you ever wondered where the optimal position for the Windows taskbar is?  Windows allows the taskbar to be moved to the top, bottom, left, or right of your desktop.  Since Windows 95, Microsoft has positioned the taskbar  at the bottom of the desktop.  I’ve always thought this was the best position for the taskbar until I started working with Apple’s OS X.

All of Apple’s OS’s have the taskbar at the top the desktop. This got me thinking: why does Apple position their taskbar at the top?  After using Leopard for a short time, I was convinced that the most efficient position for the taskbar is not at the bottom but at the top.

The position of the taskbar can affect how efficient you are with Windows and the strain on your eyes.  Lets consider a scenario where you have the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, and you are browsing the Internet using a few instances of IE.  Every time you want to switch IE windows (I’m aware that there’re tabs in IE7–and they are at the top!), you would have to move the mouse cursor all the way down to change windows.   Your eyes will also have to follow the mouse cursor to the bottom of the screen and then back to the first word on the webpage – very inefficient.

Having the taskbar at the top will solve both of these issues by reducing eye and mouse movements.

The best ergonomic position for your monitor is where your eyes are leveled with the top of the monitor, so it makes sense to have the taskbar at eye-level.

There is one problem I’ve found with having the the taskbar on top: sometimes Windows will position a program so the top border is hidden behind the taskbar.  This makes it difficult to move the program window.  But there’s  a great utility called AltMove by DeskEx that lets you move any window by holding Alt and dragging the window, similar to how it’s done on Linux.

What about the left and right sides you ask?  Well, the right side is not a good place for the taskbar and has the same disadvantages as the bottom.  The left side on the other hand is a good alternative from the top, but  there’s an annoying problem: the name of the programs gets cutoff on the taskbar buttons (Microsoft, please make it so the buttons automatically resize based on how many are being displayed). If you can live with this, then having the taskbar on the left side is good, especially if you have a widescreen monitor–this will make good use of the extra screen estate.

Useful Tips:

• Taskbar Shuffle from Jay at Nerd Cave lets you drag a taskbar program button to any position and also lets you close a program by middle clicking the program on the taskbar.
• To move the Windows taskbar, click and hold  the left mouse button on an empty taskbar spot and then drag it to  a new position on your desktop.