It only took about five years, but Microsoft has finally relented. Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel can now move the Windows 11 taskbar to the top, bottom, left, or right of the screen, restoring a feature that Windows users had for decades before Windows 11 launched in October 2021 and locked the taskbar to the bottom with no official override. Alongside the repositionable taskbar, Microsoft is also rolling out the option to make it smaller, to never combine open windows, and to set icon alignment independently per taskbar position.
The rollout is currently limited to the Experimental branch of the Windows Insider program, which means general public availability is still a few months out. Microsoft has said it will iron out known bugs, including some alignment issues when the taskbar is moved to the left side, before pushing to the stable channel. Per-monitor taskbar positioning and drag-and-drop repositioning are also being evaluated for future updates, but are not in the current build. Touch gesture support and a search box for non-bottom positions are also flagged as coming in later waves.
The Start menu is getting attention alongside the taskbar. Microsoft’s Windows blog confirmed that section-level toggles are coming, meaning users will be able to disable the Pinned apps section, the Recommended feed, or the full All Apps list independently. The Recommended feed, which has doubled as an ad surface for third-party apps, is also being renamed to “Recent” in an apparent acknowledgment that surfacing WhatsApp and Opera ads to users who open the Start menu was not a great call. Size settings and improved file relevancy in the Recent section are also planned.
Satya Nadella publicly said earlier this year that Microsoft wants to “win back” Windows fans by focusing on fundamentals, and these changes are the most visible manifestation of that commitment so far. For users who installed third-party taskbar replacements like StartAllBack on day one of Windows 11 and never looked back, these updates may or may not be compelling enough to ditch paid software, depending on how complete the final implementation turns out to be.
It remains frustrating that restoring features that existed in Windows 7 took half a decade of user complaints to accomplish. If you want to test it today, the Windows Insider Experimental channel is the path in. For everyone else, expect these changes to hit stable Windows 11 builds later this year.