Forum Discussion
Windows 11 taskbar labels
I was eager to install the official Windows 11 release today, however upon reading first I noticed that ungrouping taskbar icons / showing labels is not available anymore in Windows 11.
Why the heck would you remove such a useful feature? This is the only thing preventing me from installing Windows 11. Will this feature come back?
Might as well stick with Windows 10 until it sees its return (if ever). Solving this with third party tools is a no go.
It looks like the perfect way - but it doesn't work here. I set the value to 2 and after restart and then checking it was set to 2 - but still no labels. Do you have any ideas? aBuntobox
131 Replies
Agreed. Please vote on this issue in Microsoft's "Feedback Hub" app. Search for "Never combine" and then upvote/comment there since that is their official channel for feedback on features, suggestions and bugs.
https://aka.ms/AAdv4yd
chunk_split Thanks for the link, unfortunately feedback hub reports "your account doesn't have access to this feedback"
- Been there, done that. Hope they hear us. Buntobox's reg hack doesn't work for me either, unfortunately
The only thing I have done aside from alter that registry key is select small taskbar icons, reduced the size of my taskbar and opened a QuickLauch toolbar. Here's a screenshot of it:
Could you please tell how you "reduce size of taskbar"?
- It's easily restored:
Go to Start Menu, click Run, then type regedit and hit enter. The required key is located in:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Locate the key TaskbarGlomLevel and change its value to 0, 1 or 2 depending on what you need it to do.
To always combine, hide labels (default): TaskbarGlomLevel = 0
Combine when taskbar is full/Show labels: TaskbarGlomLevel = 1
Never combine/Show labels: TaskbarGlomLevel = 2
I have my Windows 11 system set to 2 and the taskbar shows labels on open apps and files as it always did on Windows 10 and before.Buntobox I have tried that but it isn't working...
- it did not work for me. I have restarted windows as well.
wow, that worked, but you have to install this first before you update the number: https://www.startallback.com/ I tried it and look what happened:
a huge thank you to the person who started that app. Would love for that to be basic on all new Windows 11's
- Whoever made Windows 11 have NEVER had to do accounting work, where you need to have 10 spreadsheets open, they all look the same, and you rely on the name of the file (taskbar labels) to know which file you need. This removal of the taskbar labels has made my month-end closing tasks take 5 times longer. How do I reinstall Windows 10?
- Same for me, I like to see the taskbar labels too and also use small icons. Also combine when taskbar is full was a great feature.
- I agree. I installed Windows 11 because I'm always eager to have the new OS. I uninstalled it almost immediately. Problem is, I can't work out how to provide feedback for it, now that I removed it.
- I agree, I found out how much I miss the taskbar labels (instead of combining open windows) when I upgraded to Windows 11. 🙂
- Combine taskbar Windows 11 , i need :((((((
