How To Get Classic Taskbar In Windows 10

[Suanne Forte]

Onceyou launch it, the taskbar will automatically revert back to the Windows 10 styling, even after you reboot your machine. It's important to note here that Microsoft might disable this app with the Windows 11 24H2 update that will come out near the end of the 2024. But we're sure that the developer community will find a workaround for this. Until then, you can choose not to update to 24H2, and if you're running Windows 11 23H2, you won't be forced to update either, and the build will be supported until November 2025, enough time for the taskbar situation to sort itself out.

The app, by default, makes some changes to the Windows 11 taskbar, start menu, and File Explorer. This includes things like the system tray icons, flyout menus, and taskbar buttons. By default, you'll find that the app will show you a Windows 10 start icon tucked in the left-hand corner of the screen. Next to it will be a Search button, and Task View button to show all open apps and windows together (this can be disabled). Next, you'll find the apps section, again like it used to be in Windows 10. You'll see full names of the apps, and windows, underlined to show open apps. Hover over to see a preview, and contextual buttons.

On the other side of the taskbar, you'll find the amazing weather widget from Windows 10 (yes, it's back!), and then you'll find your system tray icons, a gear icon to open Control Center, your clock, notifications button, and then a dedicated Show Desktop button that you can quickly click to reveal the desktop.

The interesting part here, is of course that even the flyout menus are from Windows 10. So when you click the Control Center button, you'll see the Windows 10 styling for the quick settings and toggles. The same goes for the clock. It will show you the big calendar view, with your upcoming appointments (in Windows 11, this is merged with notifications).

The default setup is itself quite good. But the best part about using ExplorerPatcher is that you can mix and match to your heart's content. Every single element of the taskbar and the start menu here is customizable.

Now, let's customize the taskbar itself. From Taskbar > Primary taskbar location on screen, you can dock the taskbar to the top of the screen. From the Taskbar section, you can also choose to hide the search button or the Task View button. You can also shift the entire taskbar to be centered (while still behaving like a Windows 10 taskbar). You can also revert back to Windows 11 style taskbar icons if you like.

You can customize the flyouts for each individual system tray menu. Go to System Tray, and then you can choose what shows up when you click Network, Clock, or other options. You can choose to see the Windows 8 style menu, or the Windows 11 start flyout.

If you want to disable the taskbar, or go back to the Windows 11 taskbar, simply uninstall the app, and reboot your PC. You can do this by keeping the app around as well. Go to Properties > About > Restore Default Settings to bring back the Windows 11 style taskbar.

The Taskbar on Windows 11 famously launched as a simplified variant of its former self. Over many years, the Windows taskbar became significantly complex, with support for toolbars, shortcuts, system buttons, and third-party extensions. So with Windows 11, Microsoft wanted to reset everything back to basics by rebuilding the experience from the ground up.

That's why the Windows 11 Taskbar has been a point of contention for many power users because, functionally, it's a significant regression over previous versions of Windows. It's much nicer to look at, with cute animations and a consistent design that matches the rest of Windows 11, but it's missing out on many classic functionalities.

Rebuilding something as complex as the Taskbar can take time, which is why you're just now starting to see some of that classic Taskbar functionality return. Last year, Microsoft added back the ability to launch Task Manager from the Taskbar right-click menu and recently added the ability to display seconds in the system tray too.

The latest Windows 11 February 2023 Update just launched with a rebuilt System Tray overflow menu, which also hadn't been touched since 2009. It's now built with modern code, using the same design language as the rest of Windows 11, and can now hide the overflow menu completely even when icons are present in there.

Additionally, references to two other classic Taskbar features have been spotted hidden in the latest Windows 11 preview builds, which reveal the ability to ungroup app icons and show app labels on the Taskbar may be making a return, two functions that have been part of Windows since the Windows 7 "Superbar" launched in 2009.

Being able to ungroup icons and show Taskbar labels will make it easier for some to find running apps on the Taskbar and essentially restores how the Taskbar used to work in Windows Vista and prior days. That said, I imagine most users are more familiar with the current functionality, as that's been the default since Windows 7.

Now, not every classic Taskbar feature will make a return. With rebuilding the experience from the ground up, Microsoft took this opportunity to revise the vision for what the Taskbar should and shouldn't be, so features like support for toolbars or the ability to move the Taskbar to the top of the display likely won't be returning.

So that's why the Windows 11 Taskbar is the way it is, because Microsoft wanted to rebuild it as a more modern experience. They're slowly adding back core functionality, but not everything will make the cut. The Taskbar in the latest version of Windows 11 is very good already, so it's only going to get better from here.

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter and Threads"}), " -0-10/js/authorBio.js"); } else console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); Zac BowdenSocial Links NavigationSenior EditorZac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter and Threads

You can restore the classic Start menu in Windows 11, which will be similar to the good old Windows 10's Start with the app list. Windows 11 introduced an updated centered taskbar and a brand-new Start menu. It no longer allows users to pin Live Tiles, and the list of apps is now hidden behind the dedicated "All apps" button.

Not all users like those changes. If you have just updated Windows 10 to Windows 11 and are not impressed by all the new changes to the taskbar, here is how to restore the old classic Start menu in Windows 11. Do note that this won't restore Live Tiles for you. This feature is gone forever.

Unlike the centered taskbar, which is easy to disable, Microsoft, for now, does not offer a simple way to restore the classic Start menu in Windows 11. To revert this quite a controversial change, you need to use a third-party tool.

This post will show you how to restore the classic Start menu in Windows 11. There are a few methods, but some of them are exclusive to specific releases of the operating system. You can quickly find what Windows version and build number you have installed in the "About Windows" dialog. Open it by pressing Win + R and typing winver in the Run box.

You can also use ExplorerPatcher for fine-grain tuning of the Start menu. For example, you can make it open to the All Apps list by default instead of the default page. Additionally, there is an option to hide the Recommended section.

Everything above is about modern Start menus. But how about even more classic Start menu? Say something like the Start menu from Windows 7 or even from Windows XP. Well, there is also a solution for that.

The last step is mandatory, because Open-Shell retains the centered taskbar and the original Start menu by default as of the moment of this writing. That means you can use both the classic Windows 7-style Start menu and the new one. So, if you want to make your system look like Windows 10 as much as possible, you better disable the centered taskbar.

Note: This method is only suitable for the original "gold" release of Windows 11. The registry tweaks mentioned below aren't applicable to the newer versions. For them, use the steps from the previous chapter.

You are done. By the way, in the archive, you will find two files. The one mentioned above enables the old classic Windows 10-like taskbar, and another one, Restore default taskbar in Windows 11.reg, restores the default Windows 11 taskbar.

If you followed the steps for Windows 11 21H2, original release, do the following. First, you need to uninstall the Open-Shell app to undo the menu modification. After that, you have to disable the Windows 10 taskbar on Windows 11, and finally, you have to restore the Ribbon.

Finally, if you downloaded the ready-to-use Registry files, you can restore it with one click and get back the default Start menu. Just double-click the Restore default taskbar in Windows 11.reg file to disable the Windows 10-like menu with tiles, and confirm the UAC prompt.

Thank you so much! I had no issues with Win + X, but both my Clipboard History and Snipping Tool features were broken. Changing the value of the UndockingDisabled string to 0 fixed this. Not having the Snipping Tool was really bothering me.

Classic Taskbar is much more broken in Windows 11 build 22581 (And possibly earlier but not on build 22000). Taskbar is 100% transparent, taskbar previews do not work and opening a file explorer window crashes explorer.exe

Hi all, great solutions as always from you, Winaero is the best. Unfortunately I keep the taskbar at the top and the control center stays at the bottom and is also cut off. If there is a solution, well otherwise thanks anyway, a request if I can is it possible to have Winareo in Italian? or create an external file of the texts that I can translate?

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