Parallels Tip: Relocate Your Windows Taskbar

Since the introduction of Leopard’s new 3D dock, one of my major quirks with the new design is how windows behaves when they are brought close to it. No longer are the days when you can just drag a window and have it stop at that distinctive line that cuts off the dock from the rest of the desktop.

One application that illustrates this quirky display issue is Parallels, especially when in its incredibly handy “Coherence” mode. But having the Windows taskbar at the bottom of the screen mixed with a 3D dock doesn’t make for an exactly pleasurable experience.

Coherence is a major feature of Parallels Desktop for Mac that allows you to ditch the actual OS window and allow for fairly seamless integration between the guest operating system and Mac OS X. One of the things that it does when entering coherence mode is basically removing the background image and your windows desktop, leaving only the taskbar visible (which can be manually turned off as well).

Most people have their taskbars set to the bottom of the screen because that’s where they feel most comfortable. However, when in coherence mode, this setup doesn’t work as nicely as it did in the days of Tiger because of the controversial 3D “shelf” dock. Luckily, making XP or Vista (or probably other Windows OS’s too) work with coherence in a more clean fashion isn’t that difficult to do. All that’s involved is “unlocking” the taskbar, and then dragging it to the top (or side) of your screen.

Taskbar on the Bottom

Taskbar on the Bottom + Magnification = Weirdness

Right (or control) click on the taskbar in your Windows guest OS and make sure that the option to “Lock the Taskbar” is unchecked.

After the taskbar is unlocked (if it wasn’t already), just click down in an empty space along it and drag it to one of the sides, and while still holding down, onto the top of your screen. It should relocate, and to move it back, you just do the same process in reverse.

With the taskbar on top, there’s no more annoyances with it interfering with the dock or anything else on your system. It’s conveniently located at the top of your screen right underneath the menubar and all of your dock settings are the same.