Windows 7: How to Set the Taskbar Buttons to Show Text Instead of Icons-Only

Contributed by Rob Rogers  
Tagged: Microsoft Windows 7  

Unlike the Windows of old, Windows 7 uses an icon-only Taskbar. If you find this difficult to use, you can return the buttons back to the way they used to be so that the button displays a label for the open file or application.

1. Right-click on an empty portion of the Taskbar and select Properties.

2. Go to the Taskbar buttons section and use the dropdown to change it from Always combine, hide labels to Never combine.

3. Click the OK button.

Your Taskbar will go from this:

to this: