If you recently purchased a Windows 11 PC or upgraded an existing machine to Windows 11, you’ve probably noticed that the Taskbar is thicker than it was in previous Windows versions.
And if you went looking for one, you probably noticed that there’s no setting in either the Control Panel or the Setting app to change the Taskbar’s thickness.
Personally, I like having my Taskbar as thin as possible to ensure that I have as much of the usable part of the screen in view as possible.
If you’d prefer a thinner Taskbar as well, I have some good news for you…
There’s a relatively simple Registry hack that will allow you to choose from three different Taskbar sizes.
If you’d like to make your PC’s Taskbar a little thinner, I’ll be happier to provide step-by-step instructions for making that change.
But first, I must ask you to read, understand and agree to my semi-standard disclaimer:
Important: Making even minor edits to the Windows Registry can cause issues with your PC’s Windows installation if you make even the slightest mistake. The severity of possible issues you could encounter can range all the way from rare and minor random glitches to a machine that won’t even boot up into Windows.
Therefore if you choose to follow the steps below and it results in your favorite lake going completely dry, your GPS directing you to drive west across a snow-covered mountain pass when you intended to head east towards a sunny beach, or your computer gets all glitchy or even refuses to boot into Windows, you agree that it wasn’t the fault of Rick, your humble tech blogger.
In other words, you agree that if you decide to follow the steps below you’ll be doing so at your own risk.
Whew, that was a mouthful!
If you read, understood and agree to everything I said above, feel free to follow the steps below to reduce the thickness of your Windows 11 PC’s Taskbar.
First, open the Registry Editor tool and make a backup copy of the Registry just in case something goes wrong. Here’s how:
1 – Click on the Start button, then type regedit and press the Enter key.
2 – Answer Yes to the “User Account Control” confirmation dialog.
3 – Click File>Export.
4 – Give the Registry backup file you’re about to create a name, then click Save.
Next, you’re ready to make the required change to the Registry. Follow these steps:
1 – In the left-hand pane, click the arrows until you have finished navigating to this Registry key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
2 – While still in the left-hand pane, right-click on the word Advanced and select New>DWORD (32-bit) Value.
3 – In the right-hand pane you should now see a field for a new entry. Type (or copy and paste) the following into that field, then press the Enter key:
TaskbarSi
4 – Double-click on the new TaskbarSi entry and change its “Value data” field to either 0, 1, or 2.
Note: Selecting 0 will give you the thinnest Taskbar possible. Selecting 2 will give you the thickest.
I recommend that you start with the number 1 (for the thinnest possible Taskbar) to see if that’s the best size for you.
5 – Click OK.
6 – Close the Registry Editor by selecting File>Exit from the top menu.
7 – Restart your PC.
That’s all there is to it. After the machine finishes booting back up into Windows you should see that the Taskbar is a bit thinner that it was before.
If you find that it’s too thin for your taste simply go back into the Registry Editor and change the setting in step number 4 to the next highest number (which should be 1 if you followed my recommendation).
Once you’ve settled on the thickness you like best, you’re done!