[Tip] How to Move the Taskbar in Windows 11

If you want to move the Taskbar in Windows 11 and want to change the Taskbar position to Left, Right or Top, this article will help you.

The Taskbar in Windows 11 comes with lots of limitations and restrictions. One of these limitations is the inability to move the Taskbar and change its location. The Taskbar in Windows 11 is stuck or locked to bottom position and there is no option provided to unlock the Taskbar and move it to other screen areas to change its position such as left, right or top areas.

Many people use the Taskbar on left or right sides of their computer screens specially on widescreen monitors to save the vertical screen space. They were used to shift the Taskbar to left/right positions in previous Windows versions. When these users upgrade to Windows 11 and find that they can’t move the Taskbar, they find it very irritating.

Similarly many people put the Taskbar to top position similar to Mac and the inability to shift the Taskbar to other locations becomes quite annoying for them.

Although Windows 11 doesn’t allow users to move the Taskbar, there are ways or workarounds to put the Taskbar to other screen areas and in this article, we are going to share these methods.

There are 2 ways to move the Taskbar in Windows 11:

• Keep using the new redesigned Taskbar in Windows 11 and change its position to top only
• Restore Windows 10 style classic Taskbar in Windows 11 and move it to top/left/right positions

Actually we can force Windows 11 Taskbar to show on top by modifying Registry but this trick only works for top position. If we use this Registry tweak to move the Taskbar to left or right positions, it works but the Taskbar becomes broken. So the new modern Taskbar can be moved to top area only.

You can see in the above screenshot, the Taskbar has been moved to top position in Windows 11.

If you want to put the Taskbar to left, right or top positions, then you’ll need to restore classic Taskbar in Windows 11 which enables all classic functionality including changing the location of Taskbar to top/left/right.

Following image shows how the classic Taskbar in Windows 11 looks on all 4 locations i.e. default bottom, top, left and right:

Here are both methods in details:

1. Move the New Taskbar in Windows 11 to Top Position

If you decide to use new redesigned Taskbar in Windows 11 and want to change position of Taskbar to top area, following steps will help you:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit in RUN box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

3. In right-side pane, double-click on Settings binary and do as following:

Double-clicking on Settings binary will open a new window to change binary value. We need to change the 03 binary bit present at the 5th position in 2nd row.

Double-click on 03 which will select the number. Now type 01 on your keyboard which will replace 03 with 01 as shown in following screenshot:

Click on OK button to save the value.

4. Sign out or restart Windows Explorer using any method given in this article to take effects.

After restarting Explorer, you’ll see the Windows 11 Taskbar on Top position.

PS: To restore the Taskbar to bottom position again, change the 01 to 03 again using above mentioned steps.

NOTE:

If you don’t want to modify registry yourself, we have created a ready-made Registry script file for you to apply the required Registry tweak automatically.

Download following ZIP file, extract it using 7-Zip or other file archive utilities and run the extracted Reg file:

The script file will ask for confirmation, accept it. Restart your computer, sign out or restart Explorer using any method given in this article to take effects.

After restart, you’ll see the Taskbar at top position in your Windows 11 device.

The ZIP file also contains UNDO file to restore default settings i.e. restore the Taskbar to default bottom position again in Windows 11.

FUN TIP:

This tip is for experts and advanced users only! You can have fun by changing the above mentioned 03 bit with 00 or 02 to move the Taskbar to Left and Right positions respectively. It’ll change Taskbar position to left and right locations but the Taskbar will become not functional. You’ll not see Windows and other program icons on Taskbar. Only notification area icons (volume and network) will be visible. In fact the right-click will also stop working in Taskbar.

It happens because we are forcefully changing Taskbar position in Windows 11 using old Registry tweak but the new Taskbar is not designed for left or right positions. That’s why it stops working when the Registry tweak is applied.

2. Restore Classic Taskbar and Move it to Left, Right or Top in Windows 11

This is the best way to bring back the functionality to move the Taskbar to other screen areas in Windows 11.

You can restore Windows 10 style classic Taskbar in Windows 11 and it’ll bring back all missing options and features in Taskbar such as unlock option in right-click menu, etc.

Once you restore classic Taskbar, right-click on the Taskbar and you’ll see “Lock the Taskbar” option back in context menu. Uncheck the option and you’ll be able to move the Taskbar in Windows 11.

Just click and hold on the empty area on Taskbar and now you can drag-n-drop the Taskbar to any desired position such as top, left or right as shown in following animated image:

Following exclusive article will help you in restoring classic Taskbar in Windows 11 operating system:

How to Restore or Enable Classic Taskbar in Windows 11 (All Versions)

Also Check:

[Tip] How to Unlock and Resize the Taskbar in Windows 11

[Tip] Always Show All Icons in Windows 11 Taskbar Notification Area

[Tip] Move Start Button, Start Menu and Taskbar to Left in Windows 11

[Tip] How to Open Task Manager in Windows 11