Windows 11 will finally allow users to move the taskbar to the side of the screen and Insiders can now test the feature. The latest Insider build of Windows 11 brings that change, introduces the option to use a smaller taskbar, and includes several other improvements.
When our senior editor Zac Bowden first covered Microsoft’s initiative to improve Windows 11The first feature he mentioned was a movable taskbar. It’s a highly requested feature and bringing it back to Windows will probably earn Microsoft some goodwill.
View the full changelog ↴
Windows 11 build 26300.8493
Taskbar
- Alternative taskbar position
- You can now change the position of the taskbar on your screen. In Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Behaviors, you can select which side of the screen you want to place the taskbar on: bottom, top, left, or right. In these other positions, tooltips, side menus, and animations will still come from the taskbar, and most customization settings, such as small taskbar and never combining taskbar icons, will work with all locations.
- Support for touch gestures, search box, and Ask Copilot in alternate locations is in progress. Auto-hide taskbar and touch-optimized taskbar are not supported yet.
- Smaller taskbar
- Introducing a smaller taskbar for users who want to maximize screen real estate, especially on smaller devices. While the default taskbar remains unchanged, this setting provides a more compact experience with smaller icons and a reduced taskbar height, giving you more space for your apps. Core elements like Start, Search, and the system tray are scaled appropriately to stay aligned and consistent.
- To change the size of the taskbar, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Behaviors > Show smaller taskbar buttons. When set to Always, both the icons and the height of the taskbar become smaller.
- We’re also working on improving taskbar settings to make resizing easier; These improvements are currently in progress.
- As we continue to make widgets less distracting, we’ve made a small but significant visual update to the taskbar badges. For those who have taskbar badges turned on, the badge color will now match the Windows accent color instead of always appearing red, reducing the sense of urgency that something needs your immediate attention.
- We’re also testing muting the user experience based on their level of engagement. For example, a user who interacts with widgets a lot likely has their settings set to a state that works best for them, compared to a user who barely interacts with them and would benefit from having the experience muted with taskbar badges turned off, as it would for new users who experience it as silent by default.
- Please share your feedback to let us know how these changes work for you or if you encounter any issues with your quieter experience with Widgets.
Windows Search Box
- We’re starting to make changes to make the Windows Search box more relevant, starting with making it easier to find files and apps:
- Files and apps appear more reliably before web suggestions when their content matches better
Voice access and voice typing
- Fluent Dictation is now available in Spanish and French for Windows Insiders! It makes voice-based dictation smoother and smarter by automatically correcting grammar, punctuation, and filler words as you speak, reducing the need for manual editing. This experience is powered by on-device small language models (SLM) to ensure fast and private processing. You can try fluent dictation from Windows Voice Access or Voice Typing (Win +H).
window design
- We’re introducing consistent robust spinner (donut) controls in key Windows scenarios, including startup, login, reboot, shutdown, and refresh. This update replaces legacy visual elements to provide a more cohesive and modern experience, aligned with Windows design standards. Users will now see unified spinner behavior with corresponding status text (e.g., “Restarting,” “Working on updates,” “Welcome”) across these flows, improving perceived reliability and visual consistency.
File Explorer
- Fixed an issue in the previous version where Properties were not invoked correctly for the Recycle Bin and some other scenarios.
Run
- Fixed an issue where the updated Run dialog would not navigate its history if you pressed the up/down arrow keys on first startup.
Other
- This flight contains the first of a set of optimizations to improve login performance that we expect to roll out to the Windows Insider Program over the coming months. Please note that this is part of an ongoing effort: we plan to implement additional login optimizations in WIP, measure the actual impact, and use that data to drive the next round of improvements.
- Improved reliability when switching between multiple desktops.
- This update improves the reliability of Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) notifications to help prevent the service from becoming unresponsive.
- Improved reliability when running the dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth command.
- Improved the reliability of the PC remaining idle if it had been idle before an update.
The Experimental Channel was formed when Microsoft reviewed the Windows Insider program. Those who are in the Dev Channel are gradually moving to the Experimental Channel.
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