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In Windows 10, it was easy to make it so the taskbar is "parked" on the left-hand side of the monitor. When Windows 11 first came out, I noticed this was no longer possible.

I figured it was just an oversight or low-priority feature, but now it's been over a year and this is still not possible? It seems strange. Most monitors are wide these days with screen real-estate to spare on the horizontal but not so much on the vertical. One would think that a task bar on the LHS or RHS would make sense.

Is there a way to do this?

Angelo
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2 Answers2

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Unfortunately it is not possible to have it work correctly on the left side (only the top is possile). If you want to try this broken taskbar (if you like risk, although there are no known consequences) do this:

1 - Press Win+R and enter "regedit" to open the registry. (The registry is a powerfull tool but could ruin your computer, so don't do anything if you are not sure).

2 - Navigate to this key by pasting it in the address line on top.

Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3

3 - Double click the "Settings" key within "StuckRects3".

4 - Locate the fifth value from the left on the second row from the top. Usually, this value is set to "03"

5 - Place the cursor to the right of "03" and type "00". Press "OK".

See the red box around the 03

6 - Press WIN+R and type "explorer". Press enter. (Or just open any explorer window).

7 - Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager, click more details, locate the windows explorer process and right click. Press "Restart".

8 - See the odd taskbar on the left side.

To change it back navigate to the above registry key by following steps 1 thru 3, and change the aforementioned value to "03". And restart the computer. Or repeat steps 6 and 7.

Check this link for more info

mzw
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It is not an oversight, I have two Windows 11 Production machines 22H2 and one Insider more advanced.

The program code for the task bar and like features is all different (also no right menu features on the task bar) and I have not seen a left side task bar even on the radar screen at this point.

Microsoft has adopted the Mac launcher approach.

So as far as we can see into the future, the task bar is on the bottom of the screen.

I have just had to adapt and put these design issues aside. So far that is working for me .

I also do not recommend registry changes as Windows 11 (more than prior operating systems may remove registry changes at larger feature updates. They did this to a certain extent with V22H2.