On Windows 11, the default taskbar position is at the bottom of your screen. For whatever reason, Microsoft removed the option to change the taskbar position. However, what if you want to move the taskbar bar to the top of the screen? Though few move the taskbar from its default position (bottom), it is still a pretty useful option, especially for power users who like to customize the operating system’s look and feel. For example, I’ve seen many who moved the taskbar to the top of the screen just because they didn’t like the bottom position.
While Microsoft removed the option, you can still change the taskbar position to the top of the screen with a simple trick. In this tutorial, I will show you how to move the taskbar to the top on Windows 11 in quick and easy steps. Let’s get started.
Before You Begin
- You need administrator rights to move the taskbar to the top of the screen.
- You are required to install a free and open-source software called Windhawk to change the taskbar position.
Steps To Move the Taskbar to the Top of the Screen
- Get Windhawk from the official website.
- Double-click the installer file and install Windhawk.
- After installing, search and open Windhawk from the Start menu.
- Click the “Explore” option on the main window.
- Enter “Taskbar on top” in the search bar.
- Click the “Details” button under “Taskbar on top for Windows 11“.
- Click the “Install” button.
- Press the “Accept Risk and Install“.
- With that, the taskbar is moved to the top of the screen on Windows 11.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
First, go to the official website and click the “Download” button to download Windhawk software.
Once downloaded, find and double-click the installer file. In the installer window, select the “Standard installation” option and click the “Install” button. After that, follow the installation wizard to complete the installation process.
After installing the software, press the Start button, search for “Windhawk“, and click the “Open” option. This action opens the Windhawk application.
In the application window, click the “Explorer” option at the top.
This screen shows all the available mods. Here, enter “Taskbar on top” in the search bar and press Enter. From the search result, click the “Details” button under the “Taskbar on top for Windows 11” mod.
Here, click the “Install” button.
At this point, Windhawk shows a warning message. Click the “Accept Risk and Install” button. This action triggers Windhawk to download and install the mod.
Once the mod is installed, the taskbar is instantly moved to the top of the screen.
If you want to move the taskbar to the bottom in the future, open the Windhawk application, click the “Details” option under the “Taskbar on top for Windows 11“, go to the “Settings” tab, and select “Bottom” from the “Taskbar location” dropdown menu. Click the “Save settings” and you are done.
Wrapping Up — Changing the Taskbar Position to the Top on Windows 11
As you can see, thanks to Windhawk and its community of modders, moving the taskbar to the top on Windows 11 is just as easy as the previous Windows versions (Windows 7, the best one). Keep in mind that if you uninstall Windhawk, the taskbar will be moved to its default location (bottom) automatically.
If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to help. Also, to further customize, you can also move the start button on the taskbar to the left side and hide the taskbar to keep your desktop clean and minimal.
Update: Previously, I’ve shown the registry trick to change the taskbar location. However, with the recent update, that’s no longer possible. So, the tutorial is updated to include new instructions (using Windhawk) to change the taskbar location to the top.
