[Wayne Luke]

It's their solution to providing an application dock that users wanted without copying what is in OSX and keeping the Windows flavor. When I started with the new taskbar, I thought I would hate it but now I don't think I would ever want to lose the functionality. It combines everything about quicklaunch with application and document management. If you use small icons on the task bar without titles, you have plenty of room for 30 or so applications with a widescreen monitor. Can even launch and/or switch to applications with the keyboard easily without assigning keyboard shortcuts. Just press Win plus a number to launch your favorite ten applications.

If you want though you can always recreate the "Quick Launch" toolbar. Create a folder called "Quick Launch". Add your application shortcuts to it. Then add it as a new toolbar on the taskbar. In my opinion, the new functionality is much better though.