After so many years of Windows 10, many of us got used to the ribbon interface in Windows 10, but it’s been scaled back heavily in Windows 11. To bring back the ribbon and all its jump menus, you’ll have to dig into the registry editor. Again, either run “regedit” or search the start menu for “registry editor.”
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Make the widget board relevant
Microsoft is promising to make Windows widgets something you’ll want to use. However, unless you are deeply embedded in the Microsoft ecosystem, the content in this pop-up won’t be relevant to you at all. It’s a good idea to get in there and make some adjustments so you aren’t annoyed every time your cursor swings too close.
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Click the tiny “manage interests” option in the Widget settings to start making adjustments.
You can open the widget board by hovering your cursor over the weather icon in the taskbar. You can use the three-dot button on widgets to remove them, and if you want to add more, click the plus button in the top right. This is also where you’ll find a small, easily missed “Manage interests” link that can adjust the news stories that appear in the widget board. It opens a web page (in Edge, of course) that lets you register your interest or disinterest in various topics. Since you’re reading this, you might want to ensure technology is checked. If you’re explicitly not into something—celebrities, for example— you can block that from appearing.
Adjust taskbar location and size
When it revamped the taskbar for Windows 11, Microsoft dropped the option to change the size and location. This might not have been a popular feature in Windows 10, but it’s been in the OS since time immemorial. If you relied on taskbar adjustments for your workflow, there’s good news and bad news. Good: you can still alter these parameters. The bad news is it requires more registry editing, and changing the settings isn’t very convenient.
We’ll show you how to do that below, but it’s also worth pointing out that third-party tools Start11 and StartAllBack (both $5 programs) give enthusiasts loads of flexibility for changing Windows 11’s Start menu and taskbar behavior, including options you simply can’t get using native tools alone. Both are highly recommended and can fix most of what we hate about Windows 11’s interface.
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The end result of all your hard registry editing: Windows 11’s taskbar at the top of your screen.
If you don’t want to pay money to change your taskbar’s position, you’ll once again have to dive into the Registry Editor. This time, you need to navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects3. In this key, you’ll find a Settings binary file. Double click on it to edit, and locate the fifth value on the second line—it should read “03” before you edit anything. Changing this number to 01 and hitting Ok will move to taskbar to the top of the screen on your next restart. Meanwhile, replacing it with 00 will move it to the left, and 02 will put it on the right.
You have to open this key every time you want to move the bar, unfortunately. If you’re a left taskbar person, prepare for disappointment. While you can move the bar to that side, current builds of Windows 11 don’t render it correctly—you may not be able to see your icons. However, moving to the top works just fine.
The taskbar can be hard to see on high-resolution monitors for those with poor vision, or maybe you want it smaller to save space for content on a smaller display. There are no settings for that in Windows 11, but you can change this in the registry. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced in the Registry Editor. In this key, right-click and create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value called TaskbarSi. Double-click that value to edit, and change it to 0 (small), 1 (standard), or 2 (large). Click Ok, and restart to complete the process.