How to Move Windows 11 Start Menu to the Left

Move the Start button to the left

Right click in an empty area on the taskbar. When you right-click on either side of a group of icons on the taskbar, a single-select menu appears.

Click Taskbar settings . This menu option will appear right above the location you just right-clicked. After clicking that, a number of different options for customizing the taskbar will appear.

Click Taskbar behaviors . This is the last option.

Choose Left from the "Taskbar alignment" menu. This option is in the drop-down menu in the upper-right corner of the "Taskbar behaviors" section. The Start menu icon and all other pinned icons will automatically move to the left of the taskbar.

Customize the taskbar on Windows 11

Pin the app to the taskbar. While you can't customize the Windows 11 taskbar and Start menu configuration to be exactly the same on Windows 10, there are plenty of other customization settings available. One of those customizations is to pin your favorite app icons to the taskbar. Here's how to do it:

Open the app that you want to pin to the taskbar by clicking its icon in the Start menu.

When the application is open, the program icon is displayed in the taskbar.

Right-click the application icon in the taskbar and select Pin to taskbar.

To remove an icon from the taskbar, right-click it and select Unpin from taskbar.

The number of apps that you can pin to the taskbar is unlimited.

Right click in an empty area on the taskbar. When you right-click on any empty area in the taskbar, the option "Taskbar settings" will appear.

Click Taskbar settings . This option displays just above the mouse pointer.

Enable/disable taskbar icons. By default, Windows 11 displays the Search, Task View, Widgets, and Microsoft Teams Chat icons on the taskbar. To remove one of these options from the taskbar, simply click the corresponding switch to switch it back to the Off (gray) position.

Select the icons displayed in the corner of the taskbar. Previously, the area in the corner of the taskbar that showed the clock, date, and notifications was known as the "system tray". You can decide which icons will always show in this area, and which will automatically hide.

Click the Taskbar corner icons menu.

If there is an icon that you want to display transparently in the corner of the taskbar, return the corresponding switch to the On position.

To hide an item from the corner of the taskbar, turn the corresponding switch to the Off position.

Click the Taskbar corner overflow menu.

Choose which icons will always show in the corner of the taskbar, and which icons will show in the additional menu. To open the additional menu, simply click the up arrow located to the left of the clock on the taskbar.

Click the Taskbar behaviors menu at the bottom of the window. This is where you can control how the taskbar works.

Choose whether you want the taskbar to automatically hide. If you don't want the taskbar and Start menu to always appear at the bottom of the screen, check the "Automatically hide the taskbar" box to automatically hide the taskbar from the desktop.

You can still bring the taskbar into view by hovering your mouse to the bottom of the screen.

Show unread message counters (badges) on the icon. If you'd like to see a small badge showing the number of unread messages or notifications in your app, check the "Show badges" box.

Kareem Winters

Update 17 March 2022