When you use the Windows 7 taskbar to resize

The Window 7 taskbar redesign appears to have dropped some functionality, even as it adds some nice new features.
The most obvious missing feature to me is the lack of windows controls: minimize, maximize, restore etc.
While these functions do not appear to be available when a taskbar icon represents just one task, it is possible to control windows sizing functions from the taskbar if the icon represents more than one instance of an application.
For example, if you have two versions of notepad running, then the notepad icon on the taskbar represents both instances of notepad, and so you can gain access to windows sizing functions.
Here’s how it works.
If you have several versions of a program open, Notepad for example, you can get thumbnails of each instance to appear in a row above the taskbar by hovering the pointer over the Notepad icon on the taskbar.
When you hover over a particular thumbnail, a close button appears at the top right of the thumbnail. This location is actually a mini title bar for the application.
You can right-click on the title bar and get exactly the same context menu as when you right-click on the title bar of the full sized application.
When you use the Windows 7 taskbar to resize windows, it feels different from doing the same operations in previous versions of Windows.
In fact it is very similar.
In previous versions of Windows, you had to left-click on a taskbar icon, then right-click on a program instance within the instance stack.  This gives you the window sizing context menu.
In Windows 7, you left-click on an icon like before, then hover over a thumbnail, then right-click the mini-title bar to get the window sizing context menu.
The former is slightly more efficient as far as speed and mouse gestures, however it is sometimes difficult to identify the window you want to work with.
Windows 7 offers an interface that seems a little less efficient, but is actually a little easier to use in many circumstances.