Five years later, Windows 11 brings back much-missed taskbar options (and more)



When Windows 11 launched in 2021, we mostly liked its refreshed look—the rounded corners and menus with just a hint of translucency were a nice change from the flat colors and hard corners of the Windows 8/10 era. But its reformulated taskbar and Start menu came with a number of functional regressions from the versions in Windows 10. Some of these were addressed quickly; others continue to linger.

A new Windows Insider Preview build released to testers includes a new wave of improvements that fix longstanding regressions while trying out new things.

Most significantly, the Windows 11 taskbar can now be docked to any edge of your screen, including the left and right, something that was possible in Windows 10 (and many older versions of Windows) but has been missing from Windows 11 since launch. Users can configure slightly different taskbar behavior for every taskbar position—if you prefer a different icon alignment or a left/right-mounted taskbar over a top/bottom-mounted taskbar, or if you want different settings for labels and icon groupings, you can choose different options for each position and Windows will remember them.

Microsoft says there are several features that haven’t been implemented yet—the taskbar won’t auto-hide in any of the alternate positions, and the “tablet-optimized taskbar” with larger, more finger-friendly icon sizes and spacing also isn’t supported. Touch gestures and the Search box also aren’t supported. All of these features are coming at some point; they just aren’t ready now. Microsoft is “evaluating additional features like different taskbar positions per monitor” for multi-monitor setups.



Source link

  • Related Posts

    What to expect from Google this week

    But a foundation model’s reputation these days rests largely on its coding capabilities, and for months Google’s coding tools have been outgunned by Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex. Those…

    Google I/O 2026 Live Updates: Latest News on Android 17 and Gemini

    Zooey Liao/CNET/Shutterstock/Google Google I/O 2026 starts on Tuesday, with a keynote at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. BST) that’s likely to unveil the company’s next wave of…

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    You Missed

    Two women allege they were raped during filming of Married at First Sight UK | Channel 4

    Two women allege they were raped during filming of Married at First Sight UK | Channel 4

    Southwest Airlines’ Free Starlink WiFi Has 1 Major Catch In 2026

    Southwest Airlines’ Free Starlink WiFi Has 1 Major Catch In 2026

    How To Balance Being Online With Mindfully Logging Off

    How To Balance Being Online With Mindfully Logging Off

    Joint statement from foreign ministers condemning Democratic Republic of Korea-Russia cooperation

    Joint statement from foreign ministers condemning Democratic Republic of Korea-Russia cooperation

    Volvo EX60 EV to start at $58,400; CEO says more cars to be built in the US

    Volvo EX60 EV to start at $58,400; CEO says more cars to be built in the US

    CBSA check-in kiosks back online at Canadian airports after outage

    CBSA check-in kiosks back online at Canadian airports after outage