Office Live Team

Windows 7 promises to provide many aesthetically pleasing features and a potentially smaller, less bloated, footprint than Vista. One of those new features is the taskbar preview pane(s) which provide a thumbnail sized view of the application.

This would be a vast improvement over the Alt-tab method of previewing open applications and move windows a step closer to the recently famed Dock feature of OSX. If you have even played with or even seen a Mac (Macintosh), then you have probably wondered over the spectacular Mac Dock (fancy taskbar). The Mac Dock is a beautiful taskbar equivalent that has some brilliant animations.

Of course, there are a number of add-on applications that you can load onto your existing windows machine that will offer similar features. Unfortunately many of them come at the cost of memory and CPU cycles but provide the nifty effects you may be looking for.

Dock Alternatives

Objectdock

Objectdock, found at stardock.com and originally review on lifehacker.com, offers both a free and a paid version of thier Mac Dock clone.

RocketDock

Rocketdock can be found at rocketdock.com and is totally and completely free. RocketDock also offers free add-on skins and icons.

Rk Launcher

Rk Launcher, not to be confused with Rocketdock,  is your third alternative to installing windows 7 or perhaps purchasing that new Mac Book. Unfortunately the last release was in 2005. So, I wonder about the shelf life.