- Repositioning Windows 11’s taskbar is a top priority fix for Microsoft
- An executive has also been candid about dark mode progress
- This new openness and transparency from Microsoft and the way more managers are interacting with users bodes well for the future of Windows 11
We seem to have moved into a very different space with Windows 11, as Microsoft executives are busy dealing with social media feedback about what needs to be fixed. And as more revelations about what’s going on behind the scenes come to light, I’m growing increasingly hopeful about the future of the operating system.
As Windows Central informs us, one of the big changes being made to Windows 11, namely the task of moving the taskbar, has been made a top priority at Microsoft according to internal sources.
This is about being able to move the taskbar away from the bottom of the screen – where it has been firmly rooted since the release of Windows 11 – and other customization elements, such as having a more compact bar (which is useful for smaller screens).
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These features work pretty much as they do in Windows 10 (unsurprisingly), although moving the taskbar will be implemented slightly differently (it won’t be directly draggable, you have a selection of options in Settings).
Windows Central informs us that repositioning the taskbar is a ‘priority 0’ task, which is the most urgent level, with resizing the taskbar a slightly smaller but still important ‘priority 1’ matter.
So we should be able to move the taskbar in Windows 11 soon, unless Microsoft runs into a lot of trouble to do this smoothly enough.
Elsewhere, Windows Central also reports that Marcus Ash, Microsoft’s head of Windows Design and Research, has provided an update on dark mode in Windows 11.
In case you weren’t aware, the introduction of dark mode has been a glacially slow process for Windows 11, taking what seems like forever to gradually creep across multiple areas of the interface. And still, there are several jarring sections that remain stubbornly white when they should be a dark, eye-friendly shade with the mode enabled.
In response to a query on X about getting dark mode into ‘Regedit’ (the Registry editor), Ash said: “We’re pushing to get our tools/techniques to the point where we can get dark theme into more areas across Windows. No timelines to commit to yet for Regedit. As we make progress in various legacy system panels/dialogs, we’ll continue to improve consistency.”
Even if it’s not a firm promise, it’s good to get an answer – and it’s an open and honest answer.
Analysis: precious hope for the future
It’s great to see more Microsoft executives now communicating with Windows 11 users in a refreshingly honest and mostly positive way. This comes on top of a lot of responses that have been given on X and other social media recently, from people like Pavan Davuluri (who heads Windows) to Scott Hanselman (a VP who has been the most active of all and is clearly an integral part of the ‘fix Windows 11 in 2026’ campaign).
The inability to move the taskbar to the sides or top of the Windows 11 desktop has long been a bug, so it’s great to see that this is one of the highest priorities for Microsoft. It may not be a feature that everyone needs, but those who do want it have been very vocal about its absence for years.
There is clearly a new drive within Microsoft to stay glued to social media and respond to common complaints about Windows 11 and take them on board for repair. Now, whether all the additional issues that have surfaced and been addressed this way — in addition to the many promised fixes posted in Microsoft’s initial lengthy blog post — will be resolved is another question.
But the way Microsoft executives are behaving now gives me hope that this is a completely new stance from the company as it realizes the serious threats to its desktop OS dominance – such as macOS being squeezed by the new and much-received MacBook Neo.
We’ll know soon enough how serious Microsoft is about curing everything that’s wrong with Windows 11 — which pretty much seems to be the end goal — as fixes have been promised on a monthly basis starting immediately. Therefore, we should see that the work of the process line comes through in tests quickly enough, with the exception of unfortunate complications as mentioned.
The other point that skeptics will no doubt pick up on is that if Microsoft is going to move quickly here, can it avoid screwing things up? Because in the past, even when Microsoft has moved slowly, features have somehow ended up breaking. This is one of the biggest potential obstacles of all, and Microsoft needs to invest enough resources to make sure it doesn’t go this way.
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