Microsoft is Finally Fixing Another Taskbar Problem in Windows 11

The basics of your Windows taskbar design have remained mostly the same ever since Windows 7 was released 16 years ago—a thick taskbar with big icons for each open app, as well as for pinned apps. You had the option to tweak this in previous operating systems, but the Windows 11 taskbar is famously inflexible. Now, this is finally improving if you want to.

Windows 11 is trying out new customization options on the taskbar. Previously, taskbar icons were a set size, which you couldn’t really change—the closest you could get to changing that was by changing the actual screen density, which also affects other UI elements. Now, though, you can make your taskbar icons smaller. All you need to do once this feature rolls out (right now, it’s only available for Insiders) is go into your Settings to change your taskbar icons size.

You can either choose to keep them as big as they’ve always been or to make them smaller. If you like both and you want the density gains smaller icons give you, you can also choose a setting to make them smaller only if there are too many icons on your taskbar at a given time. Personally, I like how the Windows 11 taskbar looks right now, but it often gets cluttered and I find it to be visually unappealing, so I would be likely going with the latter option.

The main advantage you get from this, aside from any personal visual preferences you might have, is the fact that you can fit more items in your taskbar. This can be a combination of open tasks and windows, or you can also have a lot of pinned apps for easy reach. There was nothing technically stopping you from having tons of open tasks before, but it’s less likely to trigger your OCD now if you do find yourself doing a lot of stuff at the same time.

Related

Start11’s Vertical Windows 11 Taskbar is Now Live For Everyone

Move it side to side.

As we mentioned before, the Windows 11 taskbar is surprisingly inflexible as far as customization options go. You can’t, for one, make the taskbar vertical, and if you need anything other than the very basic customization options the OS gives you by default, you either need to do weird workarounds or use third-party apps such as Start11. This is in stark contrast to previous Windows versions—sure, they might not have had the most customizable UI ever, but basic features like tweaking the sizes of icons have always been there.

It’s good to see Microsoft slowly getting its act together in this regard, even if this is being sold more as a “convenience” feature than anything. Who knows—maybe we’ll have full functionality back by the time the next version of Windows is released. At the very least, I do want to see Microsoft give us the option to not only reduce the icons’ size, but reduce the thickness of the taskbar itself. If it wants to allow users to maximize screen real estate, that’s also a pretty good way of doing so.

This feature is currently being rolled out to the Dev and Beta Insider channels. As we always tell you, you shouldn’t use these insider versions unless you really don’t mind dealing with sporadic, potentially deal-breaking bugs or you have a PC that you don’t use for anything actually important. This should come for all other users whenever the next major version of Windows rolls around.

Source: Jen Gentleman (Bluesky)