How to Move the Taskbar to Your Favorite Position on Windows 11

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How to Move the Taskbar to the Top on Windows 11 With ExplorerPatcher

 

Most users who have upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 find the new version of Windows very polished and consistent to use. However, the taskbar is an area where users suffer from its limitations. To easily ungroup icons on the taskbar, you had to use a 3rd party app and before the Windows 11 2022 update you couldn’t drag and drop items to the taskbar. In fact, there is no built-in way to move the taskbar to the top. Nevertheless, we bring you a detailed tutorial on how to move the taskbar up or sideways in Windows 11. With a few simple tweaks, you can easily change the position of your Windows 11 taskbar. With that in mind, let’s jump into our guide.

If you want to move up the taskbar on the latest Windows 11 22H2 builds, you need a 3rd party app called ExplorerPatcher. I tested this feature on Windows 11 2022 Update (build 25151.1010) and it works fine. The registration method no longer works in the latest Windows 11 builds, but still works in the original stable builds (see below). Third-party solutions remain if Windows 11 22H2 update is installed. Additionally, you can extensively customize the Windows 11 taskbar with ExplorerPatcher. This is a great open source program available for free.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Go ahead and download the latest version of ExplorerPatcher from the link here.
  2. After that, run the program, and it will change the Taskbar appearance to a Windows 10 style. Wait for a few seconds to allow all the modifications. To further customize it, right-click on the Taskbar and select “Properties“.
  3. Under “Taskbar” settings, set the “Primary taskbar location on screen” to “Top”. Then, click “Restart File Explorer” at the bottom-left corner.
  4. It will move the Taskbar to the top in a few seconds.
  5. I will suggest moving to the “Start menu” section under ExplorerPatcher and changing the “Start menu style” to“Windows 10“. If you choose “Windows 11”, then the Start menu will not open. Besides that, change “Position on screen” to “At screen edge”. It will open a Windows 10-style Start menu in the left corner.

Note: You need to use the Windows 10 style Taskbar if you wish to move to it to the top. If you switch to Windows 11, the Start Menu stops working. And for some users, the Taskbar simply goes back to its default bottom location on restarting the Explorer.

  1. This is how the Taskbar looks after moving it to the top position with the Windows 10 style menu, left-aligned.
  2. In case you want to uninstall ExplorerPatcher and restore the default Windows 11 Taskbar, move to “About” and click on “Restore default settings”. Then, follow the on-screen instructions and click “Yes” on any prompts that appear.
  3. After that, open the Control Panel and uninstall the program. The screen will go blank for a few seconds, and then everything will appear automatically.

Move Taskbar Icons to the Left Side on Windows 11

Many Windows 11 users are not fans of centrally located taskbar icons and would like to return to a Windows 10-like taskbar. Fortunately, Windows 11 has a built-in option to change the left orientation of taskbar icons. You don’t have to mess with the registry to move the taskbar to the left in Windows 11. Here are the steps you need to follow:

  1. Right-click on the Taskbar and open “Taskbar settings“.
  2. After that, click on “Taskbar behaviors” to expand the menu.
  3. Next, in the “Taskbar alignment” drop-down menu, choose “Left”.
  4. That’s it. Now, the Taskbar icons will move to the left on your Windows 11 PC.

Move the Windows 11 Taskbar to the Top Using Registry

To move the Taskbar to the top on Windows 11, you will need to make some changes in the Registry file. Note: With the release of the Windows 11 22H2 update, this workaround is no longer supported on the latest build. You can only use this method on the old/stable builds. Here’s how the Registry method works:

  1. To begin with, press the Windows key and type “registry” in the search bar. Then, open “Registry Editor” from the search results.
  2. Next, copy the below path and paste it into the Registry Editor’s address bar, and hit Enter. This will directly take you to the desired entry.

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3

  1. Here, double-click on the “Settings” key in the right pane and look for the 00000008 row (usually, it’s the 2nd row).
  2. In the 5th column of this row, change the value0 3to 01 right below FE. Now, click on “OK”.
  3. Finally, use the “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” keyboard shortcut on Windows 11 to open the Task Manager. Then, under “Processes”, look for “Windows Explorer” and restart by right-clicking on it.
  4. Instantly, the Taskbar will move to the top on Windows 11. If it does not work, restart your Windows 11 PC to see it in action.
  5. For your reference, here are the Taskbar position values for each side. If you want to move the Windows 11 Taskbar to a particular side, use the corresponding value mentioned below.
  • Left Taskbar – 00
  • Top Taskbar – 01
  • Right Taskbar – 02
  • Bottom Taskbar – 03
  1. In case you want to restore the Taskbar to the bottom like usual, you simply need to change the same registry value to 03and restart Windows Explorer.