A guide to customizing the taskbar in Windows 10

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Several obvious and not so obvious steps to help customize your taskbar.

The Windows taskbar changed from version to version, but its purpose remained the same: launching programs and switching between them. This panel is used all the time, so it would be nice to customize it to suit your needs.

Choosing a place for the taskbar

Since the first versions of Windows, it has become customary that the taskbar in the system is located at the bottom. Apparently, then they could not predict the appearance of widescreen monitors. Now, on huge screens, the wide taskbar takes up unnecessary space. Therefore, it is better to place it vertically.

If your taskbar is unpinned, you can drag it to the desired corner of the screen. Or simply position the taskbar by right-clicking on it and choosing Options.

Place the icons in the center

Centering the icons will give the taskbar a Dock-like feel. This is useful if you are used to working with Mac. Plus, it's just beautiful.

To move icons to the center:

• Unpin the taskbar. To do this, right-click on it and uncheck "Dock the taskbar". Then again click on the taskbar and in the menu item "Panels" select "Links". Drag the icons towards the center.
• Right-click the Links menu and uncheck the boxes next to Show Captions and Show Title.

To return the icons to their usual position, simply remove "Links" from the taskbar.

Disable the taskbar on additional monitors

If you are using multiple monitors, you can disable the taskbar on all but the main one. Go to the display settings and disable the option "Show taskbar on all monitors".

Setting up specific tray icons

You can easily customize the icons displayed in the tray without additional software. Just drag them to the arrow icon behind which extra icons are hidden to hide them. You can also go to Options and choose which icons to display.

Hide the taskbar

If Windows 10 is installed on a laptop with a small screen, it is worth setting up autohide taskbar so that it does not take up extra space.

Go to the settings and enable the "Automatically hide the taskbar" option. Now it will hide until you move the cursor to the edge of the screen.

Setting up lists

Lists in Windows 10 are the menus that appear when you right-click an icon on the taskbar. They show recently opened documents, places and some frequently used actions.

You can add files to the lists by simply dragging and dropping the folder to the Explorer icon or the document to the Microsoft Word icon. Or you can pin the icons already in the list by clicking on the pin icon next to them.

You can increase the number of items displayed in the lists through the Windows Registry Editor. Search for regedit, open the registry editor and go to

HKEY_CURRENT_USERSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced

You can find the DWORD parameter here

JumpListItems_Maximum

… If there is no such parameter, create it.

Then change the parameter by entering the desired number and checking the box "Decimal". Restart the system. Now the lists will display as many files as you want.

Add folders to the taskbar

It is easy to pin icons to the taskbar with a simple drag and drop. What about folders? They are usually pinned to the Explorer drop-down list. However, you can add separate icons for specific folders.

Create a shortcut to the desired folder and enter

explorer

and a space before the folder address. You can change the icon if you like. Then just drag the shortcut to the taskbar.

This way you can keep frequently used folders on the taskbar and not search for them in drop-down lists.

Managing applications from the taskbar

Many applications, such as media players, support taskbar control. Just pin the application icon to the panel, hover over it, then you can switch files in the playlist or pause playback when the player window is minimized.

We remove unnecessary

Do you really need all these buttons? You can show all windows by simply pressing Win + Tab. And the search can be started by opening "Start" and typing a search query on the keyboard.

Right-click on the taskbar and uncheck Show All Windows and Show Search in the context menu.

Resizing the panel and icons

Once you unpin the taskbar, you can resize it by simply dragging and dropping. Then you can fasten it again. This is useful if you really want to place a lot of icons.

You can also enable the "Use small icons" option in the taskbar settings. Then it will take up even less space.

We return the usual view

If you feel that all of these innovations from Microsoft are not for you, you can return the taskbar to its classic look with the Classic Shell. It is a free and open source application that can customize the look of your File Explorer, taskbar, and start menu.

Download Classic Shell →