If you were looking forward to an update that lets you move the taskbar in Windows 11, then we have some bad news for you. According to Microsoft, the long-requested feature won’t be coming to the operating system anytime soon, if at all.
Per Neowin’s report (via Bleeping Computer), in a recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) Windows Insider webcast session, someone asked when Microsoft would return the ability to move the taskbar. Microsoft’s Head of Product, Tali Roth, said the company currently has no plans to bring the feature back.
Roth stated that moving the taskbar would be challenging. “When you think about having the taskbar on the right or the left, all of a sudden the reflow and the work that all of the apps have to do to be able to understand the environment is just huge,” said Roth.
The Microsoft executive also said that, according to the company’s data, only a small percentage of users actually move the taskbar. Because of that, Microsoft will instead prioritize other issues users have with Windows 11. Roth finished by saying: “It is one of those things that we are still continuing to look at, and we will keep looking to feedback, but at the moment we do not have a plan or a set date for when we would, or if we would, actually build the side taskbar.”
The Windows 11 taskbar has been a point of contention since the operating system’s launch. Users couldn’t perform functions available on Windows 10, such as the ability to drag and drop files into the taskbar to open files in specific apps. Being able to place the taskbar wherever you wanted was also possible either. While we’ll soon be able to drag and drop files to the taskbar, we won’t be able to move said taskbar.
I’ve used Windows since the late '90s and have never felt the need to move the taskbar. Being able to access it by dragging the mouse arrow to the bottom of the screen has always felt intuitive. With that said, I think it would be wise for Microsoft to allow people to move the taskbar – even if those folks constitute a small portion of the user base. Hopefully, the company will one day reverse its stance and reintroduce a moveable taskbar.
