How to See Full-size Previews of Your Windows Via Taskbar Thumbnails

Do you have Windows Vista? If you answered yes, then probably you are familiar with its feature called taskbar thumbnails. This feature allows you to see a miniature image of a specific programs window when you hover the mouse pointer on it.

Windows 7 kept this great feature but they made it better. The latest version of the Windows operating system now allows you to see a full-size preview of a selected window without making it “active”. This would enable you to quickly browse through the data on a selected window and then immediately go back to the window that you are currently using.

Even though it’s easy it’s not crystal clear how to do this step. To do this, hover your mouse cursor over the window’s taskbar icon, which will launch the thumbnail-size image of the application. Next, hover the cursor over the thumbnail image itself. As soon as you do this, a full-size window will appear on your screen and all the other windows will fade. After you get the information that you need from this window, just move the mouse cursor off the thumbnail preview, and it will immediately go back to where you were earlier.

Moreover, Windows 7 also allows you to close a specific application directly from the thumbnail image by using the red “x” on the upper right hand side of it. You can also do this by clicking the center button/scroll wheel on your mouse.