The Windows taskbar has lived at the bottom of the screen since it was introduced. If you want to, you can change its location, letting you pin it to the top or side of your display. This can help you get the most from your available screen space in certain use cases.
To change where the taskbar is displayed, open the Windows 10 Settings app and navigate to the “Personalisation” category. Click the “Taskbar” page.
Scroll down the page to “Taskbar location on screen.” This dropdown menu lets you select any of the four corners of your display to move the taskbar to. You’ll see the taskbar relocate itself to the new position as soon as you click one of the options.
All the taskbar’s functionality is available whichever side of the screen you snap it to. Having said that, positioning the taskbar to the left or right of your display can make it harder to use toolbars or the status tray. It also tends to lead to wasted horizontal space as the taskbar takes on the same width as the clock at the bottom.
You’ll also notice other differences while using the taskbar on a different side of the screen. Flyouts like the Start menu and Cortana will launch aligned with their respective buttons, leaving them floating on the display. As much of the Windows shell is designed with the assumption the taskbar’s at the bottom, you may find the effect jarring at first.
Relocating the taskbar to the top of the display could make it easier to glance at the clock and your system tray. It also positions the taskbar directly above your tabs in a web browser, which might help you quickly switch between apps.
Meanwhile, moving the taskbar to the sides of your display frees up vertical pixels at the expense of horizontal ones, which might be useful if you’ve got an ultrawide monitor with relatively constrained height. Generally, most people won’t find any benefit in moving the taskbar. The option of doing so adds some flexibility to what’s arguably Windows’ most important shell UI component.
The Taskbar settings page also lets you control when labels for taskbar icons should be displayed, the rules around combining taskbar icons and whether to automatically hide the taskbar in desktop or tablet mode. If you’ve got a multi-monitor setup, you can configure separate options for your other displays under “Multiple displays.”
