In earlier versions of Windows, the Taskbar displayed the names of open program windows. With the small icons this was useful to determine exactly which programs were running, as well as which window would open when you clicked a button.

Windows 7 by default does not show these windows titles. With the larger icons and window previews by hovering over buttons, this is done to clean up the Taskbar display and allow more buttons to appear simultaneously. However, if you do not like this behavior and want program labels to appear, do the following:

1. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose "Properties".

2. The "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" dialog box appears. Make sure the "Taskbar" tab is selected.

3. Next to "Taskbar buttons", click the pull-down and choose from the following options:

* Always combine, hide labels - the default

* Combine when taskbar is full - this displays labels and combines buttons when the taskbar is full, such as combining buttons for two open Notepad windows into one

* Never combine - displays all labels and does not combine open windows from the same application into one Taskbar button

Note that when labels are configured to be shown, buttons representing non-opened programs (icons pinned to the Taskbar) will not show labels.

4. Click "OK" to close the dialog box.

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