THE WINDOWS TASKBAR is an essential part of any PC’s desktop. It’s where you pin shortcuts to apps, access the Start menu, and monitor your system via a range of icons in the Notification area (or system tray, as it used to be called). With the release of Windows 11, Microsoft has rewritten the Taskbar’s underlying code, so if you’re unhappy with changes it has made, there’s not a lot you can do about it with the help of third-party tools.
Or is there? In this tutorial, we’ll examine two different approaches. The first is to tweak the Taskbar as it is, plus look at how you can bring back the ‘classic’ Taskbar (which still lurks under Windows 11’s hood for now) to provide you with additional options to customize it to your needs.
The second is to take a more radical approach. This favors ditching the Taskbar in favor of a macOS-style dock. The dock can be placed anywhere on your desktop, arranged horizontally or vertically, and packed with additional functionality in the form of system shortcuts and other widgets. Whether you want a better Taskbar or a new dock, this tutorial is for you. –NICK PEERS
1 SIMPLE TWEAKS
Let’s begin by addressing some of the most annoying aspects of the Windows Taskbar. Right-click the Taskbar and choose
