How-To Geek
Move the Taskbar to Different Locations In Windows
Most of you are probably used to the Taskbar always being at the bottom of the screen and have never thought about moving it. Here we show you how to move it to any of the four corners of the desktop in XP, Vista, and Windows 7.
Move the Taskbar
Right-click an empty area on the Taskbar and uncheck Lock the taskbar.
Now that it’s unlocked, hold down the left mouse button and drag it to any of the four sides of your desktop. Here we take a look at it on the right side in Windows 7.
Here is a look at what it looks like at the top of the Desktop. Wherever you reposition it, you’ll probably want to move some of your Desktop icons around accordingly.
On the left side…with it on this side it made sense to move shortcuts to the right side of the desktop.
On the right side in Vista…
Finally a look at it on top in Windows XP.
This actually can be handy if you have a widescreen monitor and are reading documents in full screen. If you’ve always had it on the bottom, it definitely takes some getting used to having it in other spots. However, you might want to experiment and potentially find a new location for the Taskbar full time.
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Comments (8)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 01/28/10
I’ve been a long convert to the left-side taskbar. Even better, use Ultramon and dual monitors to have taskbars on both sides. Even before widescreen, screens were wider than they were tall, I think it is a much better use of “real estate.”
I’ve found running it at the top of the screen helps w/ productivity and muscle memory. You go to the top of your windows for everything else, why not the task bar?
It also helps with remote desktops that are too big for for the window dimension.
The only downside to having it at the top of the screen is that some palette windows tend to climb up and behind the task bar.
I recommend something like AltDrag or similar to quickly grab a window to put it back in it’s place.
About a year ago, I moved my taskbar to the right, and haven’t looked back. It’s a must, simply because of the extra vertical real-estate it frees up on your widescreen (do the other kind still exist?). With Windows 7 generously tall taskbar, leaving it at the bottom is just silly.
On the left side in Vista…
That look like the right to me.
:)
Good call Anonymous… like they used to tell me in the Navy… “Your other left stupid!”
makes sense with the extra real estate…one minor annoyance, tho, any way to invert the taskbar; for example, i’ve moved it to the left side of my screen; any way, though, to move the start button to the bottom of the screen, and the date/time to the top of my screen?
Why vertical taskbars can’t have the Start menu the bottom-left (or right). You should be able to vertically invert the whole task bar on Windows 7…any help?
i like it because i can get complete information.