How to customize the taskbar in Windows 11? If you are planning to upgrade your PC to Windows 11, you may not be comfortable with the taskbar or its taskbar, or it may not seem as useful to you as before.
One of the changes that users have criticized so far is the abandonment of the Start menu with live tiles. Also, the taskbar search box is now larger, but to access it you need to click on the Start menu, which is an extra step.
Of course, Cortana is no longer part of this search box by default, which may even be an advantage for some users.
Another thing is that this bar is now permanently at the bottom of the screen and you can no longer move it to the sides or top of the screen like in previous versions of Windows.
As you may have guessed, some Windows users have already come up with solutions to these problems, or at least some of them. For example, one of them solves the problem of moving the taskbar to the top of the screen, or another that allows you to resize the taskbar.
How to customize the taskbar in Windows 11?
Microsoft may fix the issues in future Windows updates, but for now we’re customizing the taskbar based on the same versions available:
Pin apps to the taskbar
Pinning apps to the Windows 11 taskbar can be a little weird. In fact, there are several ways to do this:
- If the app is running, its icon will appear in the taskbar with a line below it indicating that the app is active. If you want the icon to remain in the taskbar after closing the app, you must right-click on it and then select the Pin to taskbar option.
If the app is not running, but its icon is on the desktop screen, you can still add it to the taskbar. All you have to do is right-click on the icon on the desktop and then select Show more options. At this stage, a longer list will appear, at the bottom of which you will see the Pin to taskbar option.
- Another way is to click on the All apps button from the icons in the Start menu and then right-click on the app and select Pin to taskbar. If you did not see this option, you can find it in the More menu.
Remove an app from the taskbar
Most apps are removed from the taskbar with a simple solution: right-click on the icon and then select Unpin from taskbar.
But some of the icons in the taskbar require more effort to remove. The Start Menu icon is one that is impossible to delete, but there are 4 other icons that cannot be deleted but can be hidden. The easiest way to do this is to use the following method:
- Right-click on the taskbar.
- Select the Taskbar settings option (you can also access this section from the Windows settings menu, the Personalization section, and the Taskbar option).
- Disable one of the 4 Search, Task view, Widgets or Chat icons that will eventually hide them.
Move the icons to the left
Those users who have used Windows 10 (or even 7 or earlier) are accustomed to having a Start menu in the left corner of the screen. But this menu has been added to the middle of the taskbar in Windows 11. You can try the following method to move the icons to the left of this bar:
- Right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings.
- Select the Taskbar behaviors option.
- Look for the Taskbar alignment option and click on the button on the right to change the location from Center to Left.
- Close the settings window to then move the icons to the right and place the Start menu in its usual place.
Now that the Taskbar behaviors section is mentioned, it’s good to know that this section is more useful than changing the location of icons. With the features of this section you can hide the taskbar, activate the notification counter of your desired apps, as well as how to work with the taskbar in multi-screen mode and display an empty desktop by clicking on the right side of the bar.
Taskbar and overflow window corner icons
While “taskbar corner icons” and “overflow window” are not new features, perhaps none of us knew what name or title we should refer to them before Windows 11 was introduced.
The taskbar’s corner icons refer to the items in the right-hand corner of the taskbar, such as date and time indicators, battery status, volume level, Wi-Fi connection status, and… which are also useful tools.
The overflow window is the part that appears by clicking on the up arrow next to the taskbar icons. The icons displayed in the overflow are placed in this section to inform you about what you need to do. One of the most used overflow notifications is definitely the notification about updates. Also, some apps, such as Discord, that run in the background can be completely disabled by right-clicking on their icons.
While most of the taskbar corner icons are displayed permanently, some, such as the stylus menu, touch keyboard, and virtual touchpad, can be hidden. To do this, go to the Taskbar settings menu and hide these icons by clicking on the Taskbar corner icons option and disabling it.
Source: The Verge
