Windows 11 quietly took a lot away from the taskbar. Have you noticed?
- You can’t move it to the left or right edge anymore.
- You can’t ungroup windows. Five Chrome windows collapse into one icon.
- Labels are gone, and multi-monitor got worse, not better.
I tried the registry hacks too. Then an update reverted them. 😃
So I built my own. tAHKskbar is a second taskbar that docks to the left or right edge of your screen.
It arrives configured and ready. There’s nothing to assemble and nothing to script.
Windows reserves the screen space for it, the same way it does for the stock taskbar.
Maximized windows resize around it and never hide underneath. Full-screen apps and games still go full-screen.
Want to see it first? Watch the video where I walk through my own taskbar and how I use it every day.
What Windows 11 Took Away, and What You Get Back
| Windows 11 Took Away | tAHKskbar Gives Back |
|---|---|
| Taskbar locked to the bottom edge | Dock it to the left or right edge, your choice per monitor |
| Window buttons always grouped | Never grouped. One icon per window, every time |
| No window labels | Labels on or off, at a width you choose |
| Fixed icon size | Set the icon size, font, and colors that suit your eyes |
| Clutter you can’t remove | Right-click any app and choose Hide this app from taskbar |
| A clock you can barely read | An optional clock in the format you want. Click it for the Start menu |
Extras the Windows Taskbar Never Had
tAHKskbar is built from stackable panels. Turn on the ones you want and leave the rest off.
Clipboard history right on the bar
Your recent copies sit in numbered slots. You pick how many, from 3 to 9.
Click a slot to put it back on the clipboard. Text, images, and copied files all work.
Pin a slot and it stays put while the others roll past. Perfect for the snippet you’re pasting forty times today.
Live CPU, RAM, and GPU meters
Three small bars fill and change color as the load climbs. Rest your mouse on them to see the exact percentages.
No GPU? The GPU bar detects that and stays out of the way. A Resource Hog Log records what spiked while you were busy.
A launcher you fill by dragging
Drop a file, folder, program, or shortcut onto the bar and it’s pinned. No dialogs, no config files.
Closed programs show in grey and still launch with one click. Running ones turn green.
A Run Tools menu for Windows’ hidden utilities
Right-click the bar for a grouped list of built-in tools: Task Manager, Event Viewer, Services, Task Scheduler, and many more.
It also launches the bundled AddToStartUp tool, which now has a Restart All button that closes and relaunches every enabled startup item in one click.
The system tray, still one click away
Hiding the Windows taskbar shouldn’t cost you your tray icons. The Tray button pops open the real Windows system tray.
Built for Multiple Monitors and Multiple PCs
I run this on all my machines: a desktop with three monitors and a laptop with one. That shaped a few decisions:
- Every PC keeps its own settings. Sync the folder over Dropbox and your desktop layout never overwrites your laptop’s.
- Multi-monitor done properly. Run one bar or several, each on the left or right edge of the monitor you pick.
- Mixed-DPI aware. A 4K screen next to a 1080p one is handled correctly.
- Gentle on your sync folder. Fast-changing runtime files go to local temp storage, not Dropbox.
- Back up your layout. Export it to a file and import it on another PC.
- Starts with Windows. One tray toggle and it’s there every morning.
tAHKskbar doesn’t touch your registry settings or the Explorer shell.
Want the stock taskbar gone? Hide it yourself in Windows Settings. Close tAHKskbar, unhide it, and you’re back where you started.
Ready-to-Run Exe Plus the Full Source
You get both in one purchase. Run the compiled .exe and nothing else needs installing.
Or open the complete AutoHotkey v2 source, read every line, and adapt it however you like.
If you write AutoHotkey yourself, the source is a working reference for some genuinely tricky problems:
- Registering a true AppBar with
SHAppBarMessageand handling its callbacks - Per-monitor DPI awareness and surviving
WM_DPICHANGED - Getting the right icon for UWP and Store apps through AppUserModelID
- Clipboard capture and restore that round-trips text, images, and file lists
- Off-thread helper scripts so a slow disk never freezes the bar
- Owner-drawn dark panels, custom context menus, and drag-and-drop targets
The
.exe runs on its own. AutoHotkey v2.0.2 or newer is only needed to run the source directly.Download tAHKskbar 1.1.1
You get version 1.1.1: the compiled exe, the complete source, the bundled AddToStartUp tool, and free updates.
$9.99
You look at the taskbar all day long. It may as well be one you actually like. 😊
Want to clean up what launches at login too? Autostart Manager shows every Windows startup entry in one window, with undo.
Questions, or an idea for the next version? Get in touch any time at the-Automator.com.
