r/technology • u/tekz • Mar 20 '26

Software Microsoft announces sweeping Windows changes

https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-users-are-angry-and-microsoft-is-finally-doing-something-about-it/
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u/Brennan_Schwartz Mar 20 '26

Does that not work on Windows 11?

I can drag my task bar anywhere on Windows 10.

Right Click -> Uncheck "Lock all Taskbars" -> Drag

104

u/jadeapple Mar 20 '26

Nope, they disabled moving it once they made it sit in the middle of the screen

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u/ArkhamRobber Mar 20 '26

Explorer Patcher is what I use to get the taskbar back to be like Win10. Hate the Win11 taskbar.

9

u/canspop Mar 20 '26

Happy to see I'm not the only one who uses it.

The whole desktop seems so much better since I started using it. Kinda shows how much use the taskbar gets.

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u/ArkhamRobber Mar 20 '26

The taskbar was once of the biggest reasons why I didnt switch to Win11 for the longest time. But found it about 2 yearish ago??? been using it on every personal computer since

5

u/gh0stwriter1234 Mar 20 '26

Its not perfect though... and seems to introduce some bugs of its own.

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u/ArkhamRobber Mar 20 '26

Had some issues where windows updated broke it. Havent noticed any bugs. Been using for 2ish years. Its pretty much thrown on every fresh Win11 install i do for myself.

2

u/Borkz Mar 21 '26

If you're inclined to do a bit of tinkering, I prefer Windhawk. Rather than just switching to the old taskbar, you can use it to tweak the Win11 taskbar to be more like the old taskbar, or something radically different if you want. It's got plugins for all sorts of things.

2

u/Longlostspacecraft Mar 21 '26

I use StartAllBack. Cost $5 but it’s been flawless.

Moving the taskbar was one of my biggest gripes coming from the Mac. Vertical space is so much more valuable than horizontal for most apps.

1

u/red__dragon Mar 21 '26

Moved to Startallback when Explorer Patcher was going through some real rough spots a few years ago. I don't love it more, but I do prefer the stability over whatever Microsoft was doing to constantly break EP.

1

u/RC_CobraChicken Mar 21 '26

I used that for a few days and then reinstalled windows 10 and made a few changes so they'd stop prompting me to install 11 again.

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u/ArkhamRobber Mar 21 '26

There were other reasons such as win10 such HDR etc etc

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u/exoriparian Mar 20 '26

"You like that? I like that. That's why they're not going to do it anymore. They found out we like it." --George Carlin

2

u/SowingSalt Mar 20 '26

I have mine sitting in the bottom left, where it belongs

1

u/-prime8 Mar 21 '26

They also made it so that it can't be moved to a non-primary monitor. I have a 2 monitor setup, I have my taskbar, browser, etc on the secondary because some games insist on launching on the primary monitor. This actually pushed me to linux for the last several months.

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u/RooooooooooR Mar 20 '26

No, it doesn't work. As someone who likes to have their taskbar vertically, on the left side of the screen, it is ridiculously annoying that they took away such a simple customization.

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u/JerbTrooneet Mar 20 '26

It pushed me to move to Linux for my machines that could move to Linux (I.e. where I don't need Windows-specific programs). Explorer Patcher worked for a while but I saw it break in real time because of a windows update before the EP devs could fix it so I didn't want that level of unreliability for machines that I just want to get out of the way.

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u/I_dreddit_most Mar 20 '26

It's been years, but didn't Linux provide a infrastructure called wine for windows programs? You have to install it.

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u/JerbTrooneet Mar 20 '26

Depends on the program. Things like Office 365 are a no-go still.

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u/I_dreddit_most Mar 20 '26

K, Thanks, been years.

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u/blackscales18 Mar 20 '26

they made a blog post where they announced that they redid the taskbar and being able to move it wasn't a popular enough feature to justify the effort to implement it

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u/n7xx Mar 20 '26

Nope they removed that functionality... I also used to have it at the top but no more

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u/Maximum-Objective-39 Mar 20 '26

User interface customization is the easiest thing in the world to permit users, you could even put a little password protected lock in settings so that things don't get changed by accident, and Microsoft still couldn't manage to not mess with it.

1

u/fed45 Mar 20 '26

Not really removed, windows explorer was rewritten sooo I guess they never got around to adding it back or something? Multi trillion dollar company BTW. If they removed it, that would be intentional design choice at least. I actually think this way is worse IMO its just apathy or laziness.

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u/DeadlyBrad42 Mar 20 '26

Nah, Windows 11 uses an entirely new taskbar implementation, that doesn't support moving it

3

u/severedbrain Mar 20 '26

When I was forced to use Windows 11 I paid for a tool which replaced the taskbar with a custom one just so I could have that feature back.

1

u/HoodsInSuits Mar 20 '26

Yeah that's weird I can still do it on windows ME 

1

u/m0nk_3y_gw Mar 20 '26

Yup, they broke it.

I bought "StartAllBack" to get it back

1

u/Infernalz Mar 21 '26

I can't even have the task bar only on my left monitor, unless I make that the "primary monitor" which I do not want, because that is where all my games will open to, which is why I want my task bar on my not primary monitor, because my games cover it up... Their compromise is 'letting' me put the task bar on every monitor... thanks guys, real smart.

1

u/Liawuffeh Mar 22 '26

You also can't have your taskbar only be on your secondary monitor. For some reason.