Along with new icons and a new Start menu, a new taskbar will arrive with Windows 11 when it launches in the fall of 2021. Here's a first look at how it compares and contrasts with the taskbar in Windows 10.
The start menu and application icons are centered
In the most obvious change to the taskbar from Windows 95, Windows 11 places the Home button and app icons in the center of the taskbar by default. You can still align them left if you want, but the core layout may look better on touchscreen devices when used as tablets.
RELATED: How to move taskbar icons to the left in Windows 11
There is a quick setting button
Instead of the Activity Center (called by notifications button in Windows 10), Windows 11 includes a Quick Settings menu that resembles the Control Center for macOS. With this menu, can quickly change the system volume, screen brightness, communication alternatives and more. In order to show up, you can click on the volume and Wi-Fi status icons on the taskbar next to the date and time. Or you can press Ctrl + A on your keyboard.
RELATED: 5 ways the Windows taskbar 11 is worse than Windows 10
Icons only: can no longer use tags
Windows 10 hid taskbar button labels by default (that show the name of the title of each window written), but you can still turn them back on using the “Merge taskbar tags” in Settings. In Windows 11, application windows are always “Combine” on the taskbar in a single app icon, and you can't see any written tag describing its content on the taskbar without hovering over the app icon to get a thumbnail preview or list. .
RELATED: How to view classic window labels on the Windows taskbar 10
It's glued to the bottom of the screen.
In Windows 10, it was easy to drag the taskbar to any edge of the screen or even to the top. In Windows 11, the taskbar is always at the bottom edge of the screen and you cannot move it. This could change in a future version, But for now, Microsoft included it in a deprecated feature list.
RELATED: Windows 11 will not allow you to move the taskbar (but i should)
It is always the same size
In Windows 10, you can drag the upper part of the taskbar to make it larger or smaller, as long as it is not blocked. In Windows 11, you can't resize the taskbar at all. Tagless and with wide resolutions these days, that's not a big problem. But if you absolutely fill the taskbar with applications, they start stacking on top of each other in a special section on the right side of the taskbar. It seems that dealing with that scenario has not yet been resolved in the Windows Preview version 11.
RELATED: How to change the height or width of the taskbar in Windows 10
Taskbar icons hide notification badges
In Windows 11, taskbar icons may have little notification badges, but this feature is disabled by default in Windows Preview 11. you can enable it by turning on “Show badges (unread message counter) in taskbar applications” in Settings> Personalization> Taskbar> Taskbar behaviors. Once it's enabled, you will see the number of unread messages or notifications listed in a red circle just above the app icon.
RELATED: How to Hide Annoying Red Number Badges on iPhone App Icons
The button “Show desktop” now it's a tiny line
In Windows 10, you can quickly display the desktop by clicking a tiny button, almost invisible on the far right of the taskbar (or you can press Windows + d, which also works in Windows 11.).
In Windows 11, you now need to click on a small strip of a line in an equivalent location to display the desktop. The line will only appear if you hold the mouse cursor over it. In Windows 12, this “button” will become a single pixel in size? Stay tuned!
RELATED: How to quickly display your desktop in Windows 10
The “Notification area” is hidden in a “Overflow area”
In older versions of Windows, applications could create special status icons in a notification area (often called “system tray”) on the far right of the taskbar next to the clock. In Windows Preview 11, all of these icons are permanently hidden behind a small carat arrow located just to the left of the Quick Settings button. In Settings, Microsoft calls this the “overflow area”. Nowadays there is no way to show them on the taskbar.
RELATED: Did you know? Windows never had a “system tray”
Other miscellaneous changes to the taskbar
Aside from the previously listed changes, there is even more according to Microsoft and our tests.
- There is no search box on the taskbar.
- There is no Cortana button on the taskbar.
- No news and interests button. This has been replaced by a widget button.
- There is no option “Persons” on the task bar.
- Clicking on the date and time, a list of your notifications is displayed, as well as a calendar.
- When Focus Assist is enabled, you will see a crescent moon icon next to the clock.
- Applications can no longer customize taskbar areas (even though this did not happen often in Windows 10).
They are quite a few changes if you think about it, which shows that Windows 11 it is a substantial new version of Windows and not just a cosmetic fix of Windows 10. Even some of the taskbar restrictions seem to be aimed at improving usability., maybe in touch or tablet mode. Only time will tell how the taskbar will change before the full launch of Windows 11 this autumn.
RELATED: Windows 11: What's new in Microsoft's new operating system
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