> I'm still not sure that the move from actual buttons on a button bar to just a flat series of icons was right, and many such changes happened after that (culminating in the horror of the ribbon bar).
To be fair, they've left the classic mode in. Right click the taskbar, then click 'taskbar settings', scroll to the bottom and there's a dropdown for 'combine taskbar buttons'. Change it to 'Never' for the classic mode. (This is also present in Windows 7/8)
I prefer the new mode, less mouse movement required and looks tidier personally but it's nice the option is still there.
I meant the regular toolbars underneath the menus (in MFC it was CToolbar, I think), that in Win95 were a set of regular icon buttons, including a beveled edge.
Within a few Office and OS versions, that changed to first dropping the beveled edge, as we might realize that icons under the menu are buttons, and there would be less visual noise, then large buttons with icons + text, and finally getting into an incestous relationship with the menu and becoming ribbons.
(Although, I do the old-fashioned taskbar settings, too.)
To be fair, they've left the classic mode in. Right click the taskbar, then click 'taskbar settings', scroll to the bottom and there's a dropdown for 'combine taskbar buttons'. Change it to 'Never' for the classic mode. (This is also present in Windows 7/8)
I prefer the new mode, less mouse movement required and looks tidier personally but it's nice the option is still there.