Taskbar settings
Last updated
FarrAndDroid Tech Support
Last updated
These are my Taskbar items settings.
The Search box is entirely unecessary unless you are using a touchscreen, in which case it is a quicker way to search for the app or file that you want to open. If you do want it shown, I recommend that you use "Search icon only", because the wide search box is an advertising channel for Microsoft to attract your attention, using interesting little pictures and animations. Reclaim your attention by removing as many distracting things as possible.
Task view is a useful overview screen, showing all your open windows and all your virtual desktops. This is especially useful if you're using a touchscreen instead of a keyboard. I use 🪟+Tab instead of the button because I use keyboard shortcuts all the time. However, I keep the button because hovering over it allows you to see your other desktops and quickly switch to them.
Widgets are perhaps the worst new feature in Windows 11. Microsoft are pushing the Widgets feature aggressively though, even backporting it to Windows 10. They even pop up when you just pass the mouse over the button 🙄 And there's a keyboard shortcut to open it,
🪟+Ctrl+Shift+Backspace. I personally hate the Widgets panel as it seems to be designed to fill our minds with news and celebrities and other inane distractions that serve nothing except stealing my attention from whatever I was doing — or could be doing.
I just discovered that you can disable Widgets by going into the Widgets settings screen and disabling the feed option. The Widgets panel is now so gone that I can't even open it again to take a screenshot for you 😂😌
These are my Taskbar behaviours settings.
Always align taskbar to the left. This gives you infinite distance to reach the Start button (you don't have to aim for it) and it is in a 100%-predictable location.
Hide the taskbar — up to you. I like to keep it visible, to see what's open and click it immediately.
Badges — up to you.
Flashing — up to you. Useful when an app needs to notify you of something.
Show on all displays — I usually have this activated.
Show taskbar apps on all displays. I think this means all your taskbar apps, inlcluding pinned and open apps. The other setting is to show only the apps which are on the same display.
Share — I don't even know what this means cos there's never any option to "Share".
Show desktop with lower-right corner — this is a useful feature, although I rarely use it.
Combine buttons & hide labels. For me, I hate this, but it is useful when a lot of windows are open. Set it to When taskbar is full. Showing individual buttons for each window of an application is useful if you are someone who has a lot of windows open at once! Combining them into one button can be quite a headache.
Combine on other taskbars — up to you. Same situation as #9.
