Rail taskbar

Rail replaces your Windows taskbar with a tall glass rail fused to the left or right screen edge. The system tray sits at the top, your apps run down the middle, and the games and start buttons anchor the bottom. Pick the side in Settings > Taskbar, where auto-hide can also slide it away until your mouse touches the edge.

A soft glow follows your pointer, the icon under the cursor lifts toward the screen with its name beside it, and one accent notch slides to the focused app. Launches pulse until the app lands.

Pinned apps come first, in your order, then running apps with a tick per open window. A click launches, focuses or minimizes; several windows open live previews beside the rail.

The games button opens your library beside the rail: the Steam and GOG games installed on this PC, with their cover art, most recently played first. Click one to play it, with nothing to sign in to. Low-spec machines and reduced-motion preferences switch the animations off.