Get Small Taskbar icons back in Windows 11

Question

Get Small Taskbar icons back in Windows 11

Dom 941

I am very particular about my desktop and workspace. I have a small Surface Go running Windows 11. Screen real-estate is an issue. Up until a couple days ago, my TaskBar icons were fine. I got them to be the same size as the icons in the notification area by adding the DWORD TaskBarSi to the registry and setting it to "0".

But now, the taskbar icons a huge and I can only see 6 or 7 at the bottom of the screen. I've searched through this forum and google and the consensus seems to be that a Windows update destroyed this. The registry solution no longer works. I've seen posts that the ONLY way to resolve this is to roll back the update.

Can someone supply exactly which update needs to be rolled back and provide instructions on how to do so. Thanks.

Benjamin Peraltilla 20 Reputation points

2023-03-17T13:18:55.96+00:00

Now the changes are decided by the developers by their own decision. It seems that they no longer care about the needs of the users
Jatinder Singh 10 Reputation points

2023-03-17T20:35:32.9033333+00:00

Of all the improvements to be done in Win 11, this is what the developers decided to focus on??

Geez!
what's wrong with giving the option to reduce the icon sizes?

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Benjamin Peraltilla 20 Reputation points

2023-03-17T13:18:55.96+00:00

Now the changes are decided by the developers by their own decision. It seems that they no longer care about the needs of the users
Jatinder Singh 10 Reputation points

2023-03-17T20:35:32.9033333+00:00

Of all the improvements to be done in Win 11, this is what the developers decided to focus on??

Geez!
what's wrong with giving the option to reduce the icon sizes?

Answer 1

Butch 75

Hi Dom, I had the same problem after updating to KB5022913. I uninstalled it and I got my small icons back again. That was the March update to windows 11. It seems that the February update, or KB5022845 still kept the small icons, everything changed on the March update. I hope this helps you. I'm like you I hate the large icons. I turned off the Windows update feature in Group Policy menu, and won't do any more updates until we get the ability to select small icons again. You might try going to the feedback hub and adding you thoughts about getting the developers to put the small icons option back on the taskbar settings menu. There are already several comments on the hub to date and adding more, I hope, would catch the eyes of the developers. Here's a copy of the build I'm running that works for me: Edition Windows 11 Pro Version 22H2 Installed on ‎1/‎6/‎2023 OS build 22621.1265 Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22638.1000.0 Regards, Butch

Butch 75 Reputation points

2023-06-29T20:45:09.98+00:00

Dom,

Don' know if you're still checking this site for information, but I found something that works for me and I thought I'd share my solution. It's not a patch or a workaround it's a program that I've been using for years, at least since the demise of Windows 7. It's a product from a company called Stardock, it's now called Start11, don't remember what it was called when I purchased it. Anyway I got it because I didn't like the windows 10, or now the Windows 11 Start menu or that crazy looking square start button. The program let me pick from several different start menus, and a lot of different options for those start menus. It even lets you add your own start button (Found an old Windows 95 rectangular start button with the windows flag one it for my use).

Anyway, I inadvertently updated one of my 2 desktops with a Windows 11 update and was unable to roll it back to get my small icons again. I knew that the Start11 app had some taskbar options that I really never paid any attention to, was just interested in changing my start menus at that time. So I started experimenting with a few of them. I found one option that would add a rectangular textbox to the right side of the icons in the taskbar with the name of the app that was open. When I activated it my icons shrunk to "nearly" the small size they used to be, I guess to make room for the textbox, and in my case they all shifted left, don't like center taskbar option. Then I found another option to turn those textbox messages off, and return to the small dot under the open app. When I did that, I thought the icons would return to their large size, but they didn't, they stayed at that smaller size. Updated my other desktop, it already had Start11 on it, and changed the taskbar settings on it and it did the same thing. I'm back to "nearly" same small icons I used to have.

Worked for me, don't know if it will for you or anyone else, but would really like to hear from anyone if it does.

Regards Everyone,

Butch

Answer 2

Hello there,

Have you created any system restore points? If so you can check the update history and restore the device before the update and see if that helps.

You might check the quality and other updates section.

On the “View update history” page, you’ll be able to see several lists of installed Windows 11 updates sorted by category.

Quality Updates: These are regular major updates to the Windows 11 operating system itself.

Driver Updates: These are updates to drivers that let you use devices with your system.

Definition Updates: These are updates to Microsoft Defender anti-malware that add new information about emerging threats so they can be detected by Windows.

Other Updates: These are miscellaneous updates that don’t fit in the other three categories.

Hope this resolves your Query !!

--If the reply is helpful, please Upvote and Accept it as an answer–

Dom 941 Reputation points

2023-03-28T13:21:32.4766667+00:00

Does anyone know which update changed the icons (KB#)

Answer 3

Limitless Technology 44,766

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Get Small Taskbar icons back in Windows 11

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