After years of waiting, you will finally be able to move your taskbar on Windows 11. But you still have to wait just a bit longer.
The latest Windows 11 Insider Preview builds include the option to move the taskbar to the top or either side of the screen. Assuming all goes well with testing, that change should ship with the September Patch Tuesday update. But Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Channel can start moving their taskbar right now.
The same update also brings the option to make the taskbar smaller on Windows 11, which maximizes screen space on smaller devices.
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These changes should sound familiar to anyone who follows the development of Windows 11. They’re among the several improvements that are on the way to Windows 11 this fall.
Other improvements include a more customizable Start menu, improved Windows Search, and a faster File Explorer.
The full change log for the latest Insider builds breaks down everything that’s new.
Build 26100.9267/26200.9267
- [Taskbar] This update gives you more ways to customize the taskbar to match how you work and make better use of screen space.
- New! You can now choose whether the taskbar appears at the bottom, top, left, or right side of your screen. In these other positions, tooltips, flyouts, and animations still come from the taskbar, and most customization settings, such as never combining taskbar icons, work with all locations. The search box and smaller taskbar are currently supported only for top and bottom positions. To change the position of the taskbar, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar position.
- New! A smaller taskbar option is now available to help maximize screen space on smaller devices. This experience reduces the size of taskbar icons and the taskbar height while maintaining access to key features such as Start, Search, and the system tray. To change your taskbar size, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar size. When set to Small, both the icons and the taskbar height become smaller.
- New! The Taskbar behaviors section of the Taskbar settings page is now expanded by default for improved discoverability.
- This update improves reliability when loading the system tray area of the taskbar on non-touch PCs.
- [Start menu] This update makes the Start menu more personal with several customizations.
- New! You can choose between a small or large Start menu, in addition to the Automatic (default) option that’s available today. To customize this setting, go to Settings > Personalization > Start > Start menu size.
- New! The Recommended section is renamed Recent in the Start menu and on the Start settings page (Settings > Personalization > Start).
- New! You can now hide your name and profile picture in Start by going to Settings > Personalization > Start > Hide your name and profile picture on Start.
- New! The Start menu settings page is now redesigned with section-level toggles to independently show or hide Pinned, Recent, and All.
- [Windows Search] This update includes improvements that make Windows Search more dependable, easier to scan, and clearer before you select a result.
- New! Search home is simplified to reduce visual clutter and make it easier to get back to recent searches quickly.
- New! Search does a better job of showing where a result comes from, such as an app, setting, file, web result, or Microsoft Store suggestion. It’s easier to tell what you’re looking at and where you’ll go before you select a result.
- New! A new setting in Settings > Privacy & security > Search lets you choose whether web and Microsoft Store suggestions appear alongside local results.
- New! Windows now automatically indexes your most used folders so that files in those folders appear in subsequent search results. You can control the setting in Settings > Privacy & security > Search > Automatically find additional relevant locations.
- [File Explorer]
- New! File Explorer Home now launches faster and is more responsive.
- New! The Recommended section on Home now supports touch scrolling, making it easier to browse files in the carousel.
- [General design] New! This update introduces updated progress indicators across Windows, providing a more consistent and modern experience during startup, sign-in, restart, shutdown, and update installation.
- [Windows Share] New! This update adds the ability for users signed in with a work or school account to discover and install relevant apps directly from the share window. To manage this experience, go to Settings > System > Share and select Show suggested apps in share surfaces.
- [Administrator protection] New! Administrator protection aims to protect free-floating admin rights for administrators. It enables users to perform administrative tasks using just-in-time privileges. Administrator protection isn’t classified as a formal security boundary. It hardens security against elevation-of-privilege attacks by introducing profile separation. This feature is turned off by default and can be enabled using OMA-URI in Microsoft Intune or through Group Policy. This feature was previously disclosed in October 2025 (KB5067036) and is now beginning to roll out.
- [Multiple desktops] Switching between virtual desktops is now smoother and more responsive.
- [Display and graphics]
- This update improves reliability when navigating to and interacting with Settings > System > Display.
- This update improves the persistence of your previous brightness setting after energy saver turns off.
- [Task Manager] This update improves reliability when displaying app history information in Task Manager.
- [Windows Setup]
- This update streamlines the experience for selecting a secondary keyboard during Windows setup, making it easier to skip when it isn’t needed.
- This update improves the Get Started app with new App install, Site pinning, and Theme pages to help you personalize your device and discover new features.
- [Windows Update] This update improves restart behavior so PCs that were manually put to sleep return to sleep after completing an update, even when automatic sleep is set to Never.
- [Network]
- This update improves resiliency and recovery from potential VPN-related background issues that can cause processes to stop responding.
- This update improves the output of the netsh wlan show wlanreport command for Japanese users.
- [Input]
- This update improves the reliability of typing with the Japanese IME by reducing potential hangs.
- This update improves the persistence of voice typing settings for automatic punctuation and the launcher.
- [Cryptography] The post-quantum cryptography algorithm ML-KEM can now be used as a standalone algorithm for TLS key exchange, in addition to the hybrid groups added previously.
- [Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC)] Starting in August 2026, Windows 11, versions 24H2 and 25H2 no longer include the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) utility. WMIC is already removed by default in new installations of Windows 11, versions 24H2 and 25H2, and is no longer available as a Feature on Demand (FoD). This change affects only the WMIC utility. Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) remains supported. To learn more, see Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line (WMIC) removal from Windows.
Almost everything new in these builds is rolling out gradually. The normal rollout only includes “Additional quality improvements,” according to the change log.
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