Before going further is there a specific reason why you use floating windows as opposed to tabbed documents?
The reason I ask is that ever since the 'Tabbed' documents feature became available I personally have not had the need to display more than one document at a time......and to be honest almost every screen shot I've seen here on PSG seems to indicate that 'Tabbed' documents is the preferred method of working.....for everyone!
Is there something you think you cannot do with 'Tabbed' documents or is it genuinely personal preference?
I'm not trying to make you change your workflow but just wondered if there was a specific task you do whereby 'Floating' windows is the only option.
I haven't seen the old style method of documents being minimised to the bottom of the workspace for years.....not even on old images on the net...but then I guess if I'm not looking for them I'll not see them.
If you need to temporarily 'view' a document 'windowed' you can always drag and drop the 'tab' into the workspace.....just like 'docking' panels, documents can be removed from being 'tabbed' to 'windowed' just by dragging them away from the tab bar.
Likewise, 'windowed' documents can be 'tabbed' by dragging up to the tab bar and dropping when the blue line appears.
Layers from documents can be 'dragged' to other documents in a similar fashion....using the 'move' tool a layer can be dragged to the 'tab' of another open document....when the target document is displayed the layer can be dropped into the workspace. Holding 'Shift' at the same time will center the image in the workspace.
To answer your question....finally, I assumed that minimised floating document windows still resided in the workspace, like they used to, but having tried it I see that indeed they do completely disappear....is this what you meant in your first post?
I'm not sure what you mean by...
going down to the PS box at the very bottom of my screen?
... I have no such 'PS box' anywhere at the bottom of my UI.
As far as I can tell the easiest way to restore minimised 'windows' is to select them from the PS icon in the Windows 7 Taskbar.....each 'document' acting as if it were a completely separate 'window' of PS...which I guess it is.
The only other way I can see is to select the document from the WINDOW menu...as in WINDOW > [ Document ]
Tabbed documents, believe it or not, is an improvement over windowed documents.....they have as much if not more functionality......maybe as you say its just a case of using them for a while to fully appreciate their benefits.
Regards.
MrToM.
Now about minimizing: Is the only way to maximize going down to the PS box at the very bottom of my screen? That's the only way I see, tell me if there is another way. I am used to a minimize tab at the bottom. My favorite way to work is using the "float all" tab. 
