Edit the Registry Yourself
To move your Windows 11 taskbar to the top of the screen, you can either change your Windows Registry manually or download our one-click hack in the section below. First, we’ll show you how to do it yourself.
To manually make the taskbar appear at the top of the screen, first open Registry Editor. To do so, click the Start button, type “regedit”, then select “Registry Editor” in the results.
When Registry Editor opens, navigate to this key using the sidebar, or paste it in the address line near the top of the window:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3
Once you’ve navigated to the “StuckRects3” key, double click the “Settings” key within it.
When the “Edit Binary Value” window opens, you’ll see a table of values. This is a somewhat tricky part. Locate the second row of values from the top, then count to the fifth value from the left. By default, this value is set to “03.” Place the cursor just to the right of the “03” (click with the mouse then press the right arrow key if necessary), press Backspace once, then type 01 .
To recap, you’ve replaced the “03” value (which means taskbar on the bottom) with “01” (which means taskbar on the top). When you’re done, click “OK.”
Close Registry Editor, then either restart your PC, sign out and sign back in, or restart Windows Explorer.
To restart Explorer, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open Task Manager, click “More Details” to view the full interface if necessary, and select the “Processes” tab. Locate “Windows Explorer” in the list, right-click it, and select “Restart.”
Afterward, the taskbar will be at the top of the screen. If your taskbar icons are centered and you click Start, you’ll notice that the Start menu will appear on the left side of the screen, not in the center.
If you’d like to make your Start button location match the location of the Start menu at the top of the screen, open Settings (press Windows+i) and navigate to Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Behaviors and set “Taskbar Alignment” to “Left.”
If you change your mind and want to go back to having your taskbar at the bottom of the screen, edit the “Settings” key shown in the step above, changing the “01” value with “03.” Or you can use the “win11_taskbar_bottom.reg” file in the section below.
You might be thinking: Is it possible to move the Windows 11 taskbar to the left or right side of the screen? Yes, by changing the “Settings” key value to “00” (for left) or “02” (for right). Unfortunately, the taskbar becomes unusable (as of October 2021) because the taskbar icons don’t show up properly.
Download Our One-Click Registry Hack
If you’d rather not risk editing your Registry by hand, you can download our one-click registry hack files. Within the ZIP linked below, you’ll find two files that will position your Windows 11 taskbar on the top or bottom of the screen (after you reboot).
Download the Windows 11 Taskbar Location Hack Files
After you download the file, unzip it to any location, and you’ll have two files:
- win11_taskbar_top.reg: This moves the taskbar to the top of the screen.
- win11_taskbar_bottom.reg: This moves the taskbar to the bottom of the screen.
Typically, you shouldn’t trust registry files that you find on the internet, but we have prepared and tested these ourselves. You can verify their contents by using Notepad if you wish. (Right-click a REG file, select “Show More Options,” then choose “Edit.”)
To use the REG files, double click the one you want to use, and you’ll see a warning about adding information to the Registry. Click “Yes.”
After that, click “OK” in the confirmation pop-up. Next, restart your PC, log out and log back in, or restart Explorer. When you sign in again, your taskbar will be either on the top or bottom of the screen, depending on which REG file you used.
While right now we’re forced to use Registry hacks to change the taskbar location, we’re hoping that Microsoft will eventually make the option official in the Settings app. Until then, happy tasking!
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