Guide To Customize Windows Taskbar Tricks & Tips
Windows Taskbar is a place that you always use every day every time you use the computer. The taskbar is a strip of lines that you usually find at the bottom of your screen that includes applications running in the foreground and background as well as the date and time information. Let’s find out what are the Windows Taskbar tips & tricks to maximize your productivity in this article.
1. Pin Apps on Taskbar
The most basic thing you should know is how to pin apps on the Taskbar so that they always appear on the Taskbar. That way, you don’t have to look for the application in the Start Menu.
It’s very easy to open Start and type the name of the application you want to pin to the Taskbar. After the search results appear, right-click on its icon and click “Pin to taskbar”. You can do this to the applications you use the most. Personally, applications such as browsers are required to be pinned.
2. Pin favorite files/webs/documents to Jump List apps on Taskbar
When you pin an application on the Taskbar, you can right-click on the application to see what files/webs/documents you have opened before which is commonly referred to as a Jump List. You can also pin it so that the file/web/document stays there.
If you follow the method as shown above, the file/web/document will be at the top and will not be lost. Do this for files that you consider very important and often accessed.
3. Moving the application icon position on the Windows Taskbar
Every time you pin, its position will be placed to the right of the last application icon. However, you can easily change its position by clicking and holding the icon and dragging it like the animation above.
4. Windows Taskbar basic settings
You can access the basic Taskbar settings by opening Start and typing “taskbar settings” and pressing enter. Once open, there are several settings that you can change.
a. Lock the windows taskbar
This option will make your Taskbar locked and cannot be resized. If you turn it off, you can widen the size of the Taskbar. Make sure this option is turned on so that there are no click errors in the future.
b. Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode
We all know that the Windows 10 operating system is very flexible because it can be used on various types of devices. The most common are desktop and laptop computers. However, many computers today have touch screens and even laptops can turn into tablets.
Windows automatically detects your device whether your computer can turn into a tablet or not. This “Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode” option makes the Taskbar hidden if you switch from tablet mode to desktop mode.
c. Automatically hide the windows taskbar in tablet mode
This option is the same as before, except that the Taskbar will be hidden if your computer goes into tablet mode.
This option makes the icon size on the Taskbar smaller. The size of the Taskbar will also shrink, so it is very suitable if your resolution or screen size is small so that other content looks wider.
This option can make all applications on the desktop temporarily hidden when you move your mouse cursor to the far right of your Taskbar. When your mouse cursor moves again, the display will return to its original state.
Also Read: How to Display Internet Speed in Windows 10, 8, 7
5. Changing the position of the Windows Taskbar
It turns out that you can change the position of the Taskbar! Usually, we see the taskbar at the bottom of your screen. However, you can change its position either on the left, right, or above. The trick is to open Start and type “taskbar location” and press enter. Then, please select the position. For example, I changed it to left.
I personally again want to try to change its position to be on the left. Because in my opinion the screen size tends to widen rather than lengthen, so if the Taskbar is on the left, it can maximize the content that can be seen on the screen.
6. Change the color of the Windows Taskbar
You can also change the color of the Taskbar. The trick is to press Windows key + I to open Settings and navigate to Personalization > Color. At first, you are asked to choose 2 color modes, namely Light which means white, and Dark which means black. If you don’t want that color, select the Custom option. Then in “Choose your default Windows mode”, select the “Dark” option.
Then, put a checkmark on “Start, taskbar, and action center” and please select the color you want.
7. Show/remove search box on Windows Taskbar
In my opinion, the search box on the Taskbar takes up a lot of space. Moreover, you can directly search for all applications and files on your computer with the Start button on your keyboard, so this search box is again useless.
To get rid of it, you can right-click on an empty space on the Taskbar and navigate to “ Search > Hidden” as shown above. If for some reason you want to show it, you can select the option “Show search icon” to show it as an icon or “Show search box” to show it as a search box as before.
8. Set System Tray Options
The term System Tray is usually used to show all the applications that are on the right side of the Windows Taskbar. Usually, the application runs in the background and is not active unless you click the application icon. There are several things you can do for this system tray.
Like other application icons on the left, you can also shift the icon in the system tray to your heart’s content by clicking, holding, and sliding left or right.
In addition, you can also set any icon that appears in the system tray. The trick is to open Start and type “select which icon” and press enter.
Then, click on the on/off button of the application you want to display on the Taskbar in the system tray. If you wish, you can display all of them by clicking the on/off button on “Always show all icons in the notification area”. This Windows Taskbar Tricks & Tips can save space on the Taskbar so you can use it for other things.
9. Bring up application labels on the Taskbar
Do you still remember Windows XP? The taskbar in Windows XP always shows the name of the application. In addition, if you open 2 documents in Microsoft Word, there are still 2 application icons, not combined like Windows 10.
To restore the Taskbar style like Windows XP, you can change the “Combine taskbar buttons” option to “When the taskbar is full” as shown above. Then you can see the application label visible on the taskbar as shown above.
10. Add favorite folder on Taskbar
You can also use the taskbar to hold folders that you can access directly. That way, you don’t have to open File Explorer to access the folder.
How to add a folder to the Taskbar is to right-click on an empty space on the Taskbar, point to “Toolbars > New toolbar…”. Then, please select the folder.
So, you can now access the folder as shown above. Personally, I use it to store screenshots from my computer, so I can click and slide it into the browser so that the image can be directly uploaded as an article on my site.
Done 10 Windows Taskbar Tricks & Tips
I hope that by reading this article, you can fully use the Taskbar so that it can increase your productivity at work. Then, do you have any other tips for changing the Taskbar in Windows? Let’s share your tips in the comment box!
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