Middle Click Shortcuts In Windows 7

I utilize middle click shortcuts in my browser all the time. By middle clicking a link, it opens the location in a new tab and by middle clicking a tab, it closes it. So when I ‘accidentally’ did this on my Windows 7 taskbar I was pleasantly surprised to see that is works (almost) exactly the same.

By middle clicking on an item in the taskbar, it opens the program. Additionally, if you middle click on an open program, such as your browser, it opens another copy of the program (note: this assumes the program allows multiple instances). Alternately, if you middle click on the thumbnail (by hovering your mouse over the program in the taskbar), it closes the selected window. Yes, you could simply click the X in the preview, much like you can do with browser tabs, but the middle click is so much easier.

Ever since I found this, I have been using it extensively. Hopefully you will find it as useful as I do.

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Middle-clicking on a program to open a new instance instead of the existing instance seems like a bad decision. While it is nice in that you’re basically using the only other button available on the mouse to provide that (perhaps important) action, I think you’ll find there are two issues.
1) People really don’t need to do it as often as you think – I can’t think of the last time I’ve wanted to do that on my mac, which follows a similar default model for the dock (clicking the icon switches to that app).
2) In every other multi-document interface (e.g. tabbed interfaces), middle-click tends to mean “close the tab”. In fact, I get miffed whenever I use an app where middle-clicking on the tabs doesn’t work. Firefox, IE, Visual Studio, and I’m sure others also follow this paradigm, and I’ve now built the muscle memory that middle-click = close. I’m sure I’ll try it on Win7, too, and be /really/ disappointed that it does the /opposite/ of what I wanted.

ALane
It kind of sounds like you’re commenting on Windows 7 without actually having used it. It actually works remarkably like firefox tabs.
-Middle clicking on an icon opens a new instance of it.
-Mousing over an icon brings up a view of all open windows (tabs). Middle clicking on a window (tab) closes it.
I don’t really see how that is different from conventional usage.

http://www.ben-thomas.org/ Ben Thomas
I prefer to be able to just middle click the taskbar icon, rather than having to do it on the thumbnail. Found an application which can change the Windows 7 taskbar functionality to that instead.
You can get it from this site if you’re interested: http://rammichael.com/ – Just click on the “7 Taskbar Tweaker” link. It’s free too!