Taskbar Customization

Tailor the Windows taskbar to your workflow. Winhance provides options to declutter, realign, and add functional improvements to your primary navigation bar.

Key Features

Taskbar Alignment: Easily switch between Center (Windows 11 default) and Left (Classic Windows) alignment.
Transparency & Blur: Make your taskbar fully transparent or apply a sophisticated blur effect.
'End Task' Integration: Enable the ability to right-click any app on the taskbar to immediately terminate it (Windows 11 only).
Clean Taskbar: A powerful command that unpins all default items from your taskbar. When executed, you can also choose to apply recommended taskbar settings, which automatically hides the task view button, disables widgets, and aligns the taskbar to the left.

⚠️ Setting Persistence

Settings found in the Customizations view are not persistent. Winhance applies these changes once, but it does not use background tasks to re-apply them if they are changed later by Windows or by you manually.

Layout

Clean Taskbar taskbar-clean

Removes all pinned items from the Taskbar. This action requires confirmation and will restart Explorer to apply changes.

Type: Action button

Taskbar Icons

Search in taskbar taskbar-search-box-11 Windows 11 Only

Choose how the Windows search appears on your taskbar: hidden, icon only, icon with label, or full search box.

Options: Hide, Search icon only, Search icon and label, Search box

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search`
Value	`SearchboxTaskbarMode`
Type	DWORD
Hide	0
Search icon only	1
Search icon and label	2
Search box	3
Default	3 (Search box)

Search in taskbar taskbar-search-box-10 Windows 10 Only

Choose how the Windows search appears on your taskbar: hidden, icon only, or full search box.

Options: Hide, Search icon only, Search box

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search`
Value	`SearchboxTaskbarMode`
Type	DWORD
Hide	0
Search icon only	1
Search box	2
Default	2 (Search box)

Remove 'Meet Now' button from system tray taskbar-meet-now Windows 10 Only

Controls Meet Now button visibility in the system tray.

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer`
Value	`HideSCAMeetNow`
Type	DWORD
Enabled (Hidden)	1
Disabled (Shown)	Key deleted
Default	Key absent (shown)

Note: This setting is also applied to HKCU\...\Policies\Explorer and HKLM\...\Policies\Explorer for full coverage.

Show Task View button taskbar-task-view

Show the Task View button for managing virtual desktops and viewing all open windows at once.

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced`
Value	`ShowTaskViewButton`
Type	DWORD
Enabled (Shown)	1
Disabled (Hidden)	0
Default	1 (Absence = Enabled)

Copilot Preview Button taskbar-copilot Windows 11 Only

Show or hide the Copilot Preview button on the taskbar.

Note: Only available on Windows 11 builds 22621-26099 (22H2/23H2).

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced`
Value	`ShowCopilotButton`
Type	DWORD
Enabled (Shown)	1
Disabled (Hidden)	0
Default	1 (Absence = Enabled)

Show Widgets taskbar-widgets Windows 11 Only

Show the Widgets button that displays personalized news, weather, calendar, and other information.

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Dsh`
Value	`AllowNewsAndInterests`
Type	DWORD
Enabled (Shown)	1
Disabled (Hidden)	0
Default	Key absent (Absence = Enabled)

Note: This setting is also applied to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Dsh for machine-wide policy.

Show News and Interests taskbar-news-and-interests Windows 10 Only

Show the News and Interests widget that displays headlines, weather, stocks, and other personalized content.

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds`
Value	`EnableFeeds`
Type	DWORD
Enabled (Shown)	1
Disabled (Hidden)	0
Default	Key absent (Absence = Enabled)

Note: This setting is also applied to HKLM\...\Windows Feeds for machine-wide policy.

Taskbar Behavior

Taskbar alignment taskbar-alignment Windows 11 Only

Align taskbar icons to the left (classic Windows style) or center (Windows 11 default).

Options: Left, Center

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced`
Value	`TaskbarAl`
Type	DWORD
Left	0
Center	1
Default	1 (Center)

Enable 'End Task' in Taskbar taskbar-end-task Windows 11 Only

Adds an 'End Task' option when right-clicking applications on the taskbar for quick termination.

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\TaskbarDeveloperSettings`
Value	`TaskbarEndTask`
Type	DWORD
Enabled	1
Disabled	0
Default	0

System Tray

Always show all system tray icons taskbar-system-tray-icons Windows 10 Only

Show all system tray icons directly on the taskbar instead of hiding them in the overflow menu (up arrow).

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer`
Value	`EnableAutoTray`
Type	DWORD
Enabled (Show all)	0
Disabled (Auto-hide)	1
Default	1

Taskbar Appearance

Make taskbar transparent taskbar-transparent Windows 10 Only

Controls the transparency of the taskbar.

Note: Requires "Transparency effects" to be enabled in Windows Theme settings.

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced`
Value	`TaskbarAcrylicOpacity`
Type	DWORD
Enabled (Transparent)	0
Disabled (Opaque)	1
Default	Key absent

Make taskbar small taskbar-small Windows 10 Only

Reduce the height of the taskbar by using smaller icons, giving you more screen space.

Registry Details

Path	`HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced`
Value	`TaskbarSmallIcons`
Type	DWORD
Enabled (Small)	1
Disabled (Normal)	0
Default	0