The Windows taskbar it is an important part of the desktop since we find on it the icons of the launched apps, the pinned icons for quick access, the Start button, the clock, the system apps and the icons of the programs in the background.On any version of Windows, the taskbar is always positioned at the bottom, with little change over time; luckily we can move the bar up or to the side (depending on your version of Windows), using both built-in tools and external programs.
In the following guide we will show you how move the Windows 11 and Windows 10 taskbarusing it at the top (Mac style) or placing it on one of the sides of the screen (Ubuntu style if placed on the left of the screen).
READ ALSO -> How to customize the look and theme of Windows 11
1) Move the taskbar to Windows 11
Microsoft has blocked the taskbar on Windows 11, which officially can only be placed at the bottom with no easy options to move it up (Mac-style) or anywhere else. To solve this problem and give a truly personal touch to Windows 11 we can move the bar up using a special command from the Registry Editor or using a third-party program.
The manual method involves editing the registry, with the risk of damaging the system; before proceeding then we advise you to create a restore point and to make a system registry backup.
After protecting ourselves with a backup, we open the Start menu, type regeditwe confirm the opening of theRegistry editor and take us to the following path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3
Open this path we double click on the item Settingswe select the binary number below FE (basic it should be 03), press the button DEL o DELETE on the keyboard and type 01 in its place; to understand we can see the image below to avoid mistakes.
After applying this change, click on OK to confirm, we close the registry editor, press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC to open immediately Activity managementwe press on More details (if we are using the old version of Windows 11, otherwise skip this step) and, in the tab Processesright click on the process Explorer and press on Restart for the changes to take effect.
Now the Windows 11 bar will appear at the top, with a style very similar to that seen on Macs; unfortunately this is an unofficial change to the system and we can immediately notice its limitations when we open the Start menu or the other system menus: in fact, the Windows menus will continue to show at the bottom.
To return to the classic bottom bar we restore 03 under the track FE on the file Settings of the editor and restart Explorer and Activity management. Unfortunately this change does not allow you to get working sidebars: we can therefore use this trick only to put the bar on top without using external programs.
Move the taskbar with ExplorerPatcher
Also on Windows 11 we can move the taskbar using ExplorerPatchera small advanced editing tool capable of restore windowa 10 taskbar to windows 11with the possibility of moving it wherever we want (up or on one of the two sides of the screen).
To proceed, download the file ep_setup.exe from the site indicated above and run the file from the folder Download to start applying the patch immediately; to move the application bar right click on it, press up Propertywe open the menu Taskbar and we select Windows 10 next to the entry Taskbar Style.
We press down on Restart File Explorer to restore the old bar and then move its position by changing the entry Primary taskbar location on screenchoosing between Left (to the left), Right (right) e Top (up).
To make the bar really perfect let’s go to the menu Start menuwe choose Windows 10 next to the entry Start menu type and we choose At Screen edge next to the entry Position on screen.
On the same subject we can read our guide on how to change the Start menu in Windows 11 and restore that of Windows 10 or 7.
2) Move the taskbar to Windows 10
On Windows 10 we don’t have to install or change anything from the registry, since this version of Windows is much easier to customize according to our needs (we don’t have to create any backup beforehand).
To change the position of the taskbar on Windows 10 right click on the bar itself, press on Taskbar settingswe identify the voice Position of the taskbar on the screen and choose where to place it, choosing one of the items in the drop-down menu (Down, Up, To the right o To the left).
Immediately the bar will be positioned in the chosen part of the screen, facilitating use on large screens or replicating the operation of the application bar seen on the Mac (if placed at the top of the screen).
Conclusions
The main advantage you get with the side taskbar and it is related to the net gain of screen real estate; if you use a 16:9 monitor, you gain vertical space for the windows by sacrificing part of the right or left edge for the taskbar, which in any case is practically superfluous for almost every open program.
For example, just open sites like Google, Facebook, How2do.org or others to notice that hardly anyone uses horizontal space, but they are all vertical scrolling (therefore they gain a lot of display space with the sidebar).
Positioning the toolbar sideways, vertically, is also convenient for those who use two monitors together and for those with touchscreen computers. The only inconvenient thing about keeping the application bar vertical is if you use a lot to tile two windows to see them together on the screen, you will have less space.
If we have used a bottom application bar all our life, we will have to get used to the new position again, also because the Start menu remains at the top right or left. Certainly, those coming from Linux systems will find this configuration much more familiar.
To learn more, we can read our guide on how customize the Windows taskbar in 10 ways.