Is your taskbar locked, and you are unable to resize it? Learn two easy ways to unlock the taskbar in Windows 10 quickly.
On Windows 10, the taskbar is highly customizable. For example, you can add widgets, move or resize the taskbar, and adjust the size of the quick access area on the right. However, the taskbar is locked by default, so if you want to move or resize it, you’ll need to unlock it first in the settings. Thankfully, it is pretty easy to do.
In this quick and easy guide, I’ll show you two methods to unlock the taskbar in Windows 10. One using the Settings app and the other using the Registry Editor. You can follow the method of your choice. Let’s get started.
Steps to Unlock the Taskbar Using Settings
- Open the Settings app by pressing “Windows key + I”.
- Go to the “Personalization” > “Taskbar” page.
- Turn OFF the “Lock the Taskbar” option.
- With that, the Taskbar is unlocked.
- You can now close the Settings app.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
First, we need to open Taskbar settings. To do that, right-click on the taskbar and select “Taskbar Settings“. Alternatively, press the “Windows key + I” shortcut to open the Settings app, click the “Personalization” option, and then go to the “Taskbar” tab on the left sidebar.
On the right panel, turn OFF the “Lock the taskbar” toggle. Turning off the option unlocks the Taskbar. That is all. It is that simple.
Once the taskbar is unlocked, you can resize it by dragging its edges. Click, hold, and drag to adjust the size of taskbar sections. To resize the taskbar itself, place the mouse pointer on the top edge of the taskbar and drag it up or down.
Unlock the Taskbar Using the Registry Editor
If the “Lock the taskbar” option is greyed out, you can use the Registry Editor to fix it and unlock the taskbar. Here is how.
- Press “Windows key + R” to open the Run dialog.
- Type “regedit” and click “OK“.
- Go to the following folder in the Registry Editor.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced - Double-click the “TaskbarSizeMove” value.
- Replace “0” with “1” in the Value Data field.
- Click “OK“.
- Close the Registry Editor and restart your system.
- With that, you’ve unlocked the taskbar in Windows 10.
Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)
Since we want to make changes to the Registry Editor, we need to open it. To do that, press “Windows key + R” to open the Run dialog, type “regedit“, and click “OK“. Alternatively, you can also search for “Registry Editor” in the Start menu and click “Open”.
Once it opens, go to the following folder in the Registry Editor. To make things easier, copy the path, paste it in the Registry Editor’s address bar, and press “Enter“.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
After that, double-click the “TaskbarSizeMove” value on the right panel. Next, set its Value Data to “1” and click “OK” to save the change.
Finally, close the Registry Editor and restart the system. After restarting, the Taskbar is unlocked, and you can resize it however you want. To lock it again, follow the same steps but set the Value Data to “0” in the last step.
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If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to assist.
