How to Move the Windows 11 Taskbar to the Top or Side

Where Is the Taskbar Position Setting?

Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors, then open the "Taskbar position" dropdown and choose Bottom, Top, Left, or Right. There's no right-click option on the taskbar itself for this — it's tucked inside Settings, which trips a lot of people up since Windows 10 handled this via a simple drag-and-drop.

The setting sits inside Taskbar behaviors, alongside icon alignment and taskbar size controls.

1. Right-click an empty area of the taskbar and choose Taskbar settings (or open Settings directly).
2. Go to Personalization > Taskbar.
3. Expand Taskbar behaviors.
4. Open the Taskbar position dropdown and pick from the four previews.

The change applies instantly — no restart needed. Icons, the system tray, and the Start button all reposition themselves as soon as you make the selection.

What's Different at Each Position

That's the main trade-off to know before you commit to a side position: the search box collapses down to a magnifying-glass icon, and the smaller taskbar-size option currently isn't available. Independent testing from Windows Latest confirmed that tooltips, flyouts, and animations correctly relocate to follow the taskbar in every position, and existing customizations — like keeping taskbar icons uncombined — continue to work regardless of where you put it. That consistency is worth calling out because it's exactly the kind of detail that broke in third-party taskbar-repositioning tools in the past — a moved taskbar that looks right but whose right-click menus or hover previews still popped up as if it were still on the bottom.

The Option Isn't Showing Up — Now What?

If you've installed KB5124008 and Taskbar behaviors still only shows the old bottom-only layout, this is a rollout timing issue, not a broken update. Microsoft ships new Windows 11 features through Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR): the code for the feature installs with the update, but Microsoft switches it on for different PCs gradually rather than for everyone at once, so it can catch problems in a smaller group first.

Taskbar Size vs. Taskbar Position — Two Different Settings

These live next to each other in Settings and are easy to confuse. Taskbar position (covered above) changes which edge of the screen the bar sits on. Taskbar size, a separate dropdown right below it, controls how tall the bar is and how big its icons are — set it to Small and both shrink together, a genuine improvement over the old "smaller icons only" toggle Windows 11 shipped with previously. As noted above, Small taskbar size is currently limited to the Top and Bottom positions.

Is Moving the Taskbar Worth It?

This comes down to habit and screen shape more than any objective "better" position. A few patterns worth knowing before you decide:

If you're not sure, try Top for a day before committing to a side position — it changes less about how search and the system tray behave, so it's the easiest one to reverse if it doesn't suit you. And because switching back only takes the same three clicks through Settings, there's genuinely no risk in experimenting with all four positions over a week before settling on one for good.

How People Moved the Taskbar Before This Update

If you searched for this before September 2026, you probably ran into registry hacks or third-party utilities like TaskbarX and StartAllBack that faked a repositioned taskbar by essentially drawing a replacement bar over the real one. Those tools generally worked, but they came with real downsides: they had to be reapplied after major Windows updates, they occasionally conflicted with Windows' own taskbar animations, and running unofficial software with deep shell-level hooks always carries some risk if the tool isn't actively maintained.

With taskbar position now built directly into Settings, there's no longer a good reason to reach for a third-party tool just to move the bar to the top or a side. If you were previously running one of these utilities, it's worth uninstalling it before switching to the native setting — running both at once can cause the taskbar to flicker or reset unpredictably, since two separate pieces of software are both trying to control the same UI element.

Some Older Apps May Not Adjust Cleanly

Most modern Windows apps and UWP/WinUI apps reflow correctly around a repositioned taskbar, since they query the system for available screen space rather than assuming the taskbar sits at the bottom. Older Win32 desktop applications that were built years ago sometimes hardcode assumptions about screen layout, though, and a small number of legacy apps may render slightly oddly — a toolbar that overlaps the taskbar, for instance — when it's moved to the top or a side. This is uncommon and usually cosmetic rather than functional, but if you rely heavily on one particular older application, it's worth a quick visual check after switching before you commit to the new position for daily use.

Frequently Asked Questions