How To Add Apps To Taskbar In Windows 11

If you've updated your computer from Windows x to Windows 11, you may notice that your taskbar isn't quite every bit configurable — and perhaps non quite every bit useful — every bit it was before. For example, the old, familiar First carte du jour with its configurable Live Tiles is now gone. The search box is no longer within the taskbar simply is accessed by first clicking on the Start menu — an actress pace. (Although the fact that Cortana is no longer automatically function of that search box tin be considered, by many at least, as a plus.)

Another affair: the taskbar is now permanently affixed to the bottom of the screen — so if yous were more comfortable having information technology on summit of the screen, or on either side, y'all're out of luck.

As you might imagine, Windows users are already posting fixes for at to the lowest degree some of these issues — every bit long every bit you're comfortable tweaking your Windows Registry. For example, there's one that purportedly lets yous move the taskbar to the top of the screen, and another that lets you modify the size of the taskbar.

Information technology's possible that Microsoft volition bring back some of these abilities in future updates of the new OS. For at present, permit'due south concentrate on how you lot can adjust the current Windows xi taskbar.

Pin an app to the taskbar

Pinning an app to the taskbar at the bottom tin can be a footling — well, weird. At that place are several ways to handle it:

If an app is running, its icon volition appear in the taskbar with a line underneath to betoken that it is active. If you want its icon to remain in the taskbar fifty-fifty later on y'all've closed it, then right-click on the icon and select "Pin to taskbar."

Right click on an active icon and select — *Right-click on an active icon and select "Pin to taskbar"*

If an app isn't running, just its icon is on your desktop, y'all can pin it to the Taskbar as well. Right-click on the desktop icon and click on "Bear witness more options." A longer carte will open up up; nearly two-thirds downwards, y'all'll see "Pin to taskbar."
You tin can also click on the First icon, select the "All apps" button, and so right-click on the app yous want. If you lot don't see "Pivot to taskbar" in the card that pops upwardly, then select "More than" and you'll see "Pin to taskbar."

You can also pin an app to your tasks from the — *You can also pin an app to your taskbar from the "All apps" bill of fare.*

Remove an app from the taskbar

Most apps are unproblematic to remove: just right-click on the icon and select "Unpin from taskbar."

A few of the icons take a little more effort to remove. The Commencement menu icon is, as might exist expected, unremovable. Merely there are four other icons that can't be removed but can be hidden. The easiest manner to do that is:

Correct click on the taskbar.
Select "Taskbar settings." (You lot tin too go at that place past going to "Settings" > "Personalization" > "Taskbar.")
Toggle off any of the iv icons — "Search," "Job view," "Widgets," or "Conversation" — that you want to hide.

You can hide four of the standard taskbar icons. — *You can hide 4 of the standard taskbar icons.*

Move your icons to the left

Those of us who having been using Windows 10 (or 7 or earlier iterations) are used to accessing the Kickoff menu from the lower left-hand corner of the screen. If your musculus memory keeps your hand globe-trotting to that corner, you can movement the center app icons so they are to your left instead:

Right-click on the taskbar and click on "Taskbar settings."
Select "Taskbar behaviors."
Look for "Taskbar alignment" and click on the button on the right where it says "Center." Select "Left" instead.
Close the settings window, and you'll see that the app icons in the taskbar have moved to the left, with the Start menu icon in the corner.

You can move the icons from the center to the left of the taskbar. — *You tin move the icons from the center to the left of the taskbar.*

Incidentally, the "Taskbar behaviors" department of the settings lets you practice more than move your icons to the left. It besides lets you automatically hide the taskbar (something that'southward been a taskbar behavior for a very long time); prove a badge on taskbar apps to let yous know if, say, y'all have any unread messages; handle how the taskbar works on multiple displays; and show a make clean desktop by clicking on the far right corner of the taskbar.

*Taskbar behaviors include hiding the taskbar and showing unread messages.*

Taskbar corner icons and overflow

While the taskbar corner icons and the overflow window aren't new, I never actually knew what they were called before. To tell you the truth, when I first saw the phrase "Taskbar corner overflow," I pictured a agglomeration of app icons flowing out of the display similar Niagara Falls. Turns out the corner icons are the icons in the right corner of the taskbar — the ones that testify the fourth dimension and date, your battery status, your book level, and your Wi-Fi status, among other things. The overflow is the little popular-upward menu that appears when you select the arrow to the left of those corner icons.

For the nigh office, the icons in the overflow window are meant to notify yous when there is something that needs to be done — messages that have arrived or an update that is needed. This is also handy for apps, like Discord, that tend to run in the background; you can shut them downwardly easily from the overflow by right-clicking on the icon and looking for the "quit" pick.

While virtually of the corner icons that come up with Windows are permanent, some — specifically, the Pen card, the Touch keyboard, and the Virtual touchpad — can be hidden. They tin can be plant on the same taskbar settings menu that let us motion the icons to the left; just click on "Taskbar corner overflow" and toggle off the ones you don't desire to see.