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Tasmdevil's avatar
Tasmdevil
Copper Contributor
Jan 31, 2025

to big title bar in Office 365 update 2408

Hi all,

since a couple of days I have to work with the ugly, annoying, awful, ... user interface in Office 365. The title bar size became horrible large. Compared with an explorer window from Win 10 it is nearly the double height. 

As an Office Poweruser (I'm working with the office products (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook) unluckily the whole day) I'm looking for smallen the title bar again. There was a registry hack, but on my machine this isn't working anymore. 

Because of the ribbon interface and a lot of not needed functions this is how my Quick Access Toolbars (QAT) are looking like:

Now somebody could tell my, "OK, switch the QAT to the top, so that the title bar get more sense!

  1. Problem is, that the monochrome icons are absolutly boring AND especially for Word I can't differ between my macros, which I set with different colours.
  2. The title bar is smaller because of the standard buttons and the search field, so that not all my most loved commands have space here
  3. Dragging the window can not be done with the title bar, as it was since the beginning of time. I need to find some space somewhere.

Does someone have an idea to reduce the size of the title bar as it was before? Or does someone have an idea to colorize the icons, when they are inside the title bar?

If I consider that the taskbar is also increasing in size, especially in WIN 11 where this isn't adjustable, both sides (top + bottom) in sum are steeling to many space. 

Cheers!
Kay

  • philippbeck's avatar
    philippbeck
    Copper Contributor

    Looking for a working solution with 2408 as well. Combined with the new Win11 taskbar, their new design eats A LOT of screenspace - without any value!

  • How about this:

     

    1. Disable the New Experience

      • Click on the megaphone icon next to the window controls in the top-right corner of the screen.
      • Scroll to the bottom of the "Coming Soon" section and look for a checkbox named "Try the new experience."
      • Toggle it off and restart all Office apps.

    2. Registry Hack

        • Open the Registry Editor (regedit).
        • Navigate to `HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office

    \[Office Version]\Common\ExperimentConfigs\ExternalFeatureOverrides

    • Add or modify the following keys:
    "Microsoft.Office.UXPlatform.FluentSVRefresh"="false"
    "Microsoft.Office.UXPlatform.FluentSVRibbonOptionsMenu"="false"
    "Microsoft.Office.UXPlatform.RibbonTouchOptimization"="false"
    
    • Restart your computer and Office apps

    3. For Coloring the Icons


    There isn't a built-in way to colorize the icons in the title bar. However, you can try changing the Office theme to "White" which might display some color in the Quick Access Toolbar icons:

    Open any Office application.

    Go to File > Account > Office Theme and select "White".

    • Tasmdevil's avatar
      Tasmdevil
      Copper Contributor

      Hi, thanks for replying. But: Nope! That was the solution for the older version of Office, but not for Office 365 update 2408. 

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