Bat signal
10 of 13 from Images: What Windows 7 might have looked like
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In this February 2007 prototype, Microsoft first introduced the concept of using the window itself as a preview mechanism, connected to the taskbar via a spotlight a la Batman. Using this approach, it was easy to tell two documents from one another, Hoefnagels said, even if they were two long text documents.
"We were pretty happy with this idea," he said, noting that it was rolled out to the entire Windows organization, who found it was too distracting when the mouse accidentally hit the bottom of the screen.
March 26, 2009 4:00 AM PDT
Photo by: Ina Fried/CNET
