Move Windows 11’s Taskbar to the Top of the Screen

 

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, and 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.”

Note: Your change will not take effect unless you restart Explorer. Unlike with changing many Windows settings, simply restarting your PC or signing out and signing back in will likely not work.

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.