Windows 11 brings a few changes to the table and a few new ways of doing things, including how to hide the taskbar. For clarity, and for those who may not be familiar with Windows terminology, the taskbar is the bottom bar UI — by default. It can also be moved to the sides for those who prefer that. But, summarily, it houses pinned apps, the Start menu, the clock, and a few other useful features. Such as the notification pane.
In addition to being able to change where the taskbar shows up, however, the ability to hide it is arguably more useful. Not least of all because it gives you more screen real estate for windows, apps, and other UI. And that functionality has remained in Windows 11 but Microsoft has changed how that works ever so slightly.
So even those who may be somewhat familiar with the under-workings of Windows may not have the easiest time changing the setting in the new version. Fortunately, that’s exactly what this guide is here to address specifically. Namely, how to hide the taskbar in the new Windows 11.
So if that’s what you’re looking to do, read on.
Here’s how you can hide the Taskbar on Windows 11
Now, as noted above, the process for hiding or showing the taskbar in Windows 11 has changed from how that’s accomplished in Windows 10. But just because it’s a bit more hidden doesn’t mean it’s difficult to do now. In fact, it’s fairly straightforward.
- Right-click — long-press on touch screens — on any empty space in the taskbar. In our sample photos, we’ve selected an empty space to the right of the pinned icons
- Tap or click on the “Taskbar settings” option that appears nearby, which shows a gear-shaped icon
- Windows 11 will load up the Windows Setting UI, directly to the “Personalization” page associated with the “Taskbar”
- We can ignore the toggles at the top of the new window for Search, Task View, Widgets, and Chat as well as the “Taskbar corner icons” settings. Scroll down the page, past “Taskbar corner overflow” and select the “Taskbar behaviors” menu
- A new menu will expand, with several options that may also be of interest if you’re looking for how to hide the taskbar in Windows 11. For instance, you can change the taskbar alignment at the top. Windows sets that to the center, as shown in our example images. But you can also align your pins and start menu to the left or right. You can additionally choose to show your taskbar on connected external displays, change whether that includes all pinned apps, change the behavior associated with clicking on the far corner of the taskbar, and show ‘unread’ badges or hide them
- To hide the Windows 11 taskbar automatically, you’ll need to select the fill box for that option
- After hiding the taskbar, the change should be immediate. More precisely, the taskbar should already be hidden as soon as the option is selected to do so. It’s worth noting though, that at least in some cases, the initial settings change when exiting out of the personalization UI can cause some issues. And, while not shown in the images below, we actually saw an issue ourselves. Wherein the entire background changed to a strange green tone instead of our wallpaper. And it isn’t immediately clear why since we were, at the time, using the stock wallpaper for this machine. So if you encounter issues in this step, there does seem to be a fix. Manually changing the wallpaper in the Windows 11 personalization menu can potentially fix the issue
- Now that the taskbar has been set to hide automatically, it will do so whenever an app or window is open. When no windows are open, it will still show the taskbar as normal.
- To show the taskbar with a window open, simply move your mouse to the bottom of the screen. As shown in our example images below
- To hide the taskbar again, simply move your mouse away from the taskbar and it will disappear again
- In order to revert the change is straightforward, as with many how-to guides. Simply follow steps one through six. This time around, however, you’ll be un-filling the box next to the “Automatically hide the taskbar” option in the final step, rather than filling it
2021-11-12 15:05:57