How to get Windows 11 Taskbar in Windows 10? If not in terms of functionality, Windows 11 was a significant improvement over its predecessor, Windows 10. The most noticeable modification is the taskbar. Windows 11 has a much different taskbar than Windows 10, which looks cleaner and more appealing to the eye – however, some may find it lacking! Don’t worry if you don’t have the PC requirements to update to Windows 11.
How to get Windows 11 Taskbar in Windows 10
In this article, we’ll show you how to personalise your Windows 10 taskbar to look like it’s from Windows 11. The pinned programme icons in Windows 11‘s taskbar are centred rather than aligned to the side, therefore that is what we are going to focus on as well. The new Start Menu and taskbar are now centrally positioned rather than aligned to the left, which is a significant shift from the traditional Windows UI.
List of 3 Methods to get Windows 11 Taskbar in Windows 10
There are three methods for making your current taskbar look like an improved one:
- By creating two new folders
- By modifying the default taskbar
- Using a Third-party App
Method #1: By Creating two new folders
While the first method is the quickest, you can make your Windows 10 Taskbar look more like Windows 11’s. This method takes a little longer, but it works better and is a one-time measure. Here’s what you should do.
Create two folders in your File Explorer. You can call them whatever you wish (for our purposes, we’ll call them A1 and A2). Now, right-click your Taskbar, navigate to Toolbars, and select New Toolbar. Repeat the process twice more, this time selecting the newly created directories.
Once you see both of these folders next to the system tray, simply slide one of them to the left-hand side. This would centre all of the icons, making it much easier to align them using the same Divider lines we used in the prior procedure.
Another step toward making the Taskbar more opaque and similar to the one in Windows 11 is to delete the titles of these new folders. To do so, right-click on the folders and uncheck the ‘Show text’ and ‘Show title’ options.
The resulting Taskbar will look like this. As you can see, the outcome is nearly identical. The only change, which may not be obvious to everyone, is that there is no further text on the Taskbar. By locking the taskbar, you may make the divider lines disappear.
Method #2: By modifying the default taskbar
The first step is to unlock the taskbar in Windows 10. It is locked by default. You can unlock it by right-clicking on the Taskbar and selecting ‘Lock the Taskbar.’ By default, there will be a checkmark next to it, which will be deleted once you do so. Next, right-click the taskbar once more, hover your cursor over Toolbars, and select Links.
Links will appear on the far right side, adjacent to the System Tray icons. To shift the Links option to the left, next to the search bar, use the two vertical lines known as the Divider. As you drag Links from right to left, you’ll notice that all of the programme icons have moved to the far right. Drag the divider towards Links to align the pinned Taskbar icons so that they are in the centre.
You can customise the Taskbar to look like the one shown above. By locking the taskbar, you can prevent these customised elements from being modified.
Method #3: Using a Third-party App
There are various third-party tools available that allow you to add a centrally oriented taskbar to your Windows 10 PC in the style of Windows 11. Our recommendation is TaskBarX, an open-source tool that can centre taskbar icons and give Windows 10 a faux Windows 11 look.
- To use TaskBarX, first, download it (for free) from GitHub. It’s accessible as a portable ZIP, so you won’t have to install it on your computer. To unzip the file, you will need an archiver programme such as WinRAR, WinZip, or 7ZIP. Double-click “TaskBarX Configurator.exe” to open it with the unarchiver programme.
Note: TaskBarX is also available as a premium app with automatic updates on the Microsoft Store ($1.49). In terms of functionality, the two versions are otherwise similar.
- Leave all of the TaskbarX setup options at their defaults and click “Apply.” The taskbar icons will be automatically centred. You can also change the colour, transparency, and other aspects of the taskbar.
Note: Based on your Windows settings, you may need to click “Allow” or “Run” several times to enable the software.
- That’s all! You have successfully altered the position of your Windows 10 taskbar icons from the usual left to the centre-aligned icons found in Windows 11.
- If you wish the taskbar to restore to its original look, click “Switch back to Default on Maximized Window.” To terminate the programme, go to the bottom of the software window and click the “Stop TaskBarX” button. To uninstall TaskbarX, go to the left sidebar and click the “Uninstall” button. Then restart to restore the original Windows 10 taskbar.
