Forum Discussion
Yet another taskbar issue
I have an issue with my taskbar. I have two monitors, but I show the taskbar only on one of them. I also, tend to indeed have a LARGE number of apps open, and I also have some pinned (which when not running, still show their icon - but without their labels - that's the standard behavior of the pinned apps anyway)...
So I had noticed that after a certain amount of apps open, my icons became tiny. I searched the settings and found this setting named: "Show smaller taskbar icons" which I set to never, and indeed that reverted the icons size...
But then this happened to my taskbar:
So three dots appeared on the right-ish side of the taskbar, which when clicked shows the overflown icons. BUT, there is also a separating line appearing which isn't aligned properly (close to the "Show hidden icons" - the ^) thus leaving a lot of space lost...
Then, I played a bit more with the relevant settings and noticed that the setting "Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels" set to "When taskbar is full" hides this three dots icons and again makes the taskbar take the whole width until the system try area, but then it combines apps with many windows open (Firefox is that on my case - which I use a lot)...
Isn't there a setting that will not make my icons smaller, or combine one app's windows into one, or showing that three dots icon making "half" of my taskbar lost? Windows 10 handled so much better this situation...
4 Replies
It looks like you’ve run into one of those frustrating quirks of the Windows 11 taskbar. The behavior you’re seeing with the three dots overflow menu and the misaligned divider is unfortunately by design — Microsoft simplified the taskbar quite a bit compared to Windows 10, but in doing so removed a lot of flexibility.
At the moment, there isn’t a native setting that gives you the exact mix you’re looking for (no tiny icons, no forced combining of windows, and no wasted space from the overflow). You basically have to pick between:
Overflow enabled → keeps labels/icons visible, but introduces the three-dot menu and divider.
Combine when full → eliminates the overflow, but merges multiple windows from the same app.
If you want more fine-tuned control, third-party tools are really the only way forward right now. Many people use ExplorerPatcher or StartAllBack to restore the more customizable Windows 10-style taskbar. They let you turn off combining, resize icons, and avoid the overflow without wasting space.
So short answer: Windows 11 can’t do this natively (yet), but with the right utility you can get the exact taskbar behavior you’re used to from Windows 10.
entra la configuración de Windows 11 dice en sistema - Pantalla ahí dice en la opción Escala y diseño en la cuarta opción varias pantallas, ahí le mando la captura de la imagen.
How do you do that? Isn't the taskbar "locked"? I mean, there is not change in the cursor when you hover your mouse over the edge of the taskbar, between it and the normal desktop area... And, unlike in W10, there is no option to unlock the taskbar so that you can adjust its size (height). Can you give me a screenshot of what you mean?
Hi,
I also keep lot of apps open all the time and my taskbar icons gets full.
To avoid your situation, I just pull up taskbar to make it two line taskbar. That way no overflow happens and you get to see double of current apps in taskbar.
