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In Windows 11 there seem to be no (standard/user-friendly) way to set the option of always showing all the tray icons (Taskbar corner overflow, as it is now called in Settings). It only allows you to toggle them one by one:

enter image description here

Obviously, that is far from ideal.

Is there another way to make all the tray icons to be always visible, so none are hidden, as it was possible to do in Windows 10 and older versions? Perhaps, there is a Registry key that controls this, or a "hidden" shell command to open the "old" settings dialog?

retif
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4 Answers4

67

Here is a workaround :

  • Click the Start or Search icon in the Taskbar
  • Type cmd, right-click on Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator
  • Copy and paste the following: explorer shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}
  • Press Enter
  • Select "Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar"
  • Click OK

If the checkbox "Always show all icons ..." is greyed out, I'm not totally sure what fixed it yet but it appears that changing the EnableAutoTray value in the Regedit helped.

To do so, open Regedit, go here:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

Then set EnableAutoTray to 1

It seems this needs to be done on every boot so you could create a shortcut on your Desktop using right-click, New, Shortcut and use the command above.

Update : at first, I did not like the idea of selecting each app individually using Personalization -> Taskbar -> "Taskbar corner overflow", but in the end, it's not that bad. Whenever there is a new application installed that goes in the overflow, you can use the Personalization setting to add it. It's bit annoying but it works.

Update 2022 : please see comment from Grx70 below, as he wrote : you can drag and drop the icons that are overflowing by selecting them from the popup and moving them onto the tray bar

JP Tétreault
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17

My Checkbox for show all was unusable, here's what got it for me on a Windows 10 Home > 11 Home upgrade machine.

Open Regedit, go here:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

Look for EnableAutoTray and set the value from 0 to 1

Then run this cmd:

explorer shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}

The check box for showing all items should be interactable.

user1648897
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2

I used a registry diff tool and found out this registry value:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\NotifyIconSettings\<uint64>\IsPromoted

The value is absent until set in Control Panel. Manually changing it has the expected effect, but good luck with the list of opaque uint64 numbers… We can automate this, though! I created the script below under GPLv3. It is on my GitHub with a bit more documentation.

import itertools
import winreg

def main():
    access1 = winreg.KEY_READ
    access2 = winreg.KEY_SET_VALUE | winreg.KEY_QUERY_VALUE
    key_path = r"Control Panel\NotifyIconSettings"
    super_key = winreg.OpenKey(winreg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER, key_path, access=access1)
    for index in itertools.count():
        try:
            name = winreg.EnumKey(super_key, index)
        except OSError:
            break  # no more keys
        subkey = winreg.OpenKey(super_key, name, access=access2)
        examine(name, subkey)
        winreg.CloseKey(subkey)
    winreg.CloseKey(super_key)
    # noinspection PyUnboundLocalVariable
    print(f"Done for {index} keys")


def examine(name, subkey):
    try:
        value, type_ = winreg.QueryValueEx(subkey, "IsPromoted")
        if value == 1 and type_ == winreg.REG_DWORD:
            return  # already correct
    except FileNotFoundError:
        pass  # new
    winreg.SetValueEx(subkey, "IsPromoted", 0, winreg.REG_DWORD, 1)
    try:
        value, _ = winreg.QueryValueEx(subkey, "ExecutablePath")
    except FileNotFoundError:
        value = "unknown path"
    print(f"Set IsPromoted=1 for {name} ({value})")


if name == "main":
    main()
Liz
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1

It's possible with this new Windhawk mod: Always show all taskbar tray icons.

  • Download Windhawk from windhawk.net.
  • Once installed, go to "Mods" in the upper right menu.
  • Find and install the "Always show all taskbar tray icons" mod.

Demo

Reference: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1f4a3ho/always_show_all_taskbar_tray_icons_with_windhawk/

Paul
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