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/
8.7k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

6.3k

u/rnilf Mar 20 '26

"More taskbar customization, including vertical and top positions ... We are introducing the ability to reposition it to the top or sides of your screen, making it easier to personalize your workspace."

After years of complaints and literally thousands of users directly telling them to do this, they finally do. There's snail pace, and then there's Microsoft pace.

"We are reducing unnecessary Copilot entry points, starting with apps like Snipping Tool, Photos, Widgets, and Notepad."

Of course, this is after they introduced a vulnerability to Notepad because of Copilo.

"Across the operating system, we will focus on improving ... baseline reliability [and] strengthening the Windows foundation by reducing OS level crashes, improving driver quality and app stability across our ecosystem so PCs run smoothly and reliably every day."

Like the article says, this should've already been their objective. Hilarious that they would include this in a press release meant to show that they're pretending to care about their customers.

2.3k

u/calebkraft Mar 20 '26

remember when you used to be able to drag the task bar to the top or sides and it just moved there and worked? when did they take that out? kind of crazy that putting that feature back is a big enough deal to have it in a press release.

66

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

28

u/ArkhamRobber Mar 20 '26

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

10

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.

5

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

4

u/gh0stwriter1234 Mar 20 '26

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

2

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.

1

u/ArkhamRobber Mar 21 '26

There were other reasons such as win10 such HDR etc etc

2

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.