How to turn off labels in the taskbar but not combine buttons

There used be regedit trick to have that and it worked on windows 10, but IT DOES NOT WORK in windows 11.
Microsoft why you making our life harder ?? :D

( ONLY ON OLD WINDOWSes, not in 11 )
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

String: MinWidth

Value: 56 normal icons

Value: 38-40 small icons

Hello Ted,

I appreciate you bringing up this subtle yet important change in Windows 11’s taskbar behavior and I understand how frustrating it can be when your usual customization options disappear or shift. Unfortunately the built-in options in the latest Windows 11 updates don’t support hiding labels while keeping buttons ungrouped they only allow you to combine buttons and hide labels, never combine (which shows labels) or combine only when the taskbar is full.

What this means is that if you choose the “Never” option under Settings select Personalization select Taskbar select Taskbar behaviors select Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels, labels stay visible and if you choose “Always,” the buttons combine and labels hide.

However many users want exactly what you're asking for separate icons without labels and there’s an effective workaround available. By setting the native option to Always (combine and hide labels) and then using the Windhawk “Disable Grouping” tweak you can simulate having separate taskbar icons without labels. Essentially Windows thinks it’s combining them so labels hide but Windhawk keeps them visually ungrouped

I hope this answer is helpful if you have further questions feel free to reply back

Regards,

Marcelo