The Windows taskbar, 1995 to today

#1995: Windows 95 introduces the taskbar

Windows 95, released on 24 August 1995, put a grey bar at the bottom of the screen with a Start button, one button per open window with its title, and a clock with a small notification area. That layout lasted, with changes, until Windows Vista. It is RetroBar's default theme.

#1997–1998: Quick Launch

The small icons next to the Start button first came with the Windows Desktop Update in Internet Explorer 4 (September 1997) and were on by default in Windows 98, released on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 otherwise kept Windows 95's taskbar, which is why RetroBar has one theme for both. Turn off Quick Launch for the strict 1995 look. RetroBar's Quick Launch shows the programs pinned to the Windows taskbar by default (how it works).

#2000: Windows 2000 and Windows Me

Windows 2000 (17 February 2000) and Windows Me (14 September 2000) kept the classic layout with a warmer beige-grey and, in 2000, the Tahoma font. RetroBar has a theme for each.

#2001: Windows XP and Luna

Windows XP, released on 25 October 2001, gave the taskbar the blue Luna style with a green start button, in Blue, Olive Green and Silver colour schemes. Two behaviours were new: grouping similar buttons into one when the taskbar filled up, and hiding inactive notification icons behind an arrow. RetroBar has the three colour schemes and the hiding (“Collapse notification area icons”), but it never groups buttons: every window keeps its own button. The pale Watercolor style appeared in the XP betas (codename Whistler) and never shipped; RetroBar has it too.

#2004–2006: Royale and Zune

Later XP editions and add-ons brought new styles: the brighter Royale of Windows XP Media Center and Tablet PC editions, the dark Royale Noir, and the black Zune theme that Microsoft gave away for XP in November 2006 to promote its Zune player. All three are in RetroBar.

#2007: Longhorn and Windows Vista

The Longhorn betas tried a glass taskbar, and Windows Vista, released to consumers on 30 January 2007, shipped it: a black, translucent taskbar, a round Start orb without the word “start”, and live thumbnails of each window when you point at its button. RetroBar has Longhorn, Vista Aero and Vista Basic, the version without glass. Its Vista theme blurs what is behind the taskbar where Windows allows it, and it can show window previews (“Show window previews” in Properties).

#2009: Windows 7 and the end of the classic taskbar

Windows 7, released on 22 October 2009, replaced the classic taskbar with a taller one: large icon buttons, programs pinned to the taskbar, and windows combined under their program's icon. Quick Launch disappeared from view (it could still be added back as a toolbar). RetroBar has no built-in Windows 7 theme, but a community theme recreates it, and we tested it.

#2021 onwards: Windows 11

Windows 11, released on 5 October 2021, centred the icons, removed toolbars and, until an update in 2026, could not move the taskbar to the top or sides (what changed). It is the taskbar most people now replace with RetroBar, for the layouts above.

#What RetroBar keeps, version by version

Release dates are the general-availability dates of each version. Screenshots: RetroBar 1.22.122 on Windows Server 2025, from our test runs.

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