How to Use TaskbarX to Customize Your Windows Taskbar

Trick it out in any way you see fit

If you’re tired of the standard Windows 10 or Windows 11 taskbar, you can use an open-source tool developed by Chris Andriessen called TaskbarX that allows for the customization of the Windows Taskbar.

TaskbarX provides the old-school Windows dock where your app icons are in the center position or placed at whatever position you configure. It also lets you customize taskbar animations, taskbar icon positions, and startup delay. You can use it with the standard bottom taskbar or even with the vertical taskbar configuration. It also allows for unlimited taskbars.

This guide will walk you through downloading and configuring TaskbarX for your Windows system. Ifyour taskbar isn’t working at all, you should troubleshoot that issue first before moving on with this guide.

Download TaskbarX for Windows

You candownload TaskbarX at Chris Andriessen’s website. You will see a prominent link to the Microsoft Store version of the app. However, you’ll need to pay for the Microsoft Store installation.

If you prefer to use the free version, scroll down the page and select the Portable Zip file instead.

Once the Configurator launches, you’re ready to set up and configure TaskbarX for your system.

How to Configure TaskbarX

The TaskbarX Configurator tool has 7 sections in the left navigation pane that lets you customize various features of TaskbarX.

The one that you’re likely going to want to customize first is the look and feel of the taskbar.

Note: After making any changes in the TaskbarX Configurator, selectApplyto see those changes take effect.

SelectStylefrom the left menu to see these options.

You can also set theSwitch back to Defaulton maximized windowto make sure your taskbar uses the standard Windows format whenever you’ve maximized an application window on that display.

SelectAnimationto see different animation options for the taskbar.

There’s a long list of different animation effects you can apply whenever you move the taskbar or when your system is running on battery power. You can also customize the animation speed in milliseconds.

SelectPositionfrom the left menu to see taskbar icon position options.

These include:

Select theStartupoption in the left menu to configure how TaskbarX launches when your computer starts.

The Delay setting will pause the app’s launch the number of seconds you define. This is useful if your computer is slow to boot up.

If you selectCreate, it’ll create a newstartup task schedulefor the app. If you selectRemove, it’ll remove the startup task from Task Scheduler.

SelectExtrato access all of the extra configurable features for TaskbarX.

All of these options are self-explanatory and cover customizing the following taskbar features:

TheMechanicssettings are not typically changed – they relate to the OS UI and are disabled by default.

If you’re having display problems while using TaskbarX, you may need to customize the configuration files of TaskbarX and tweak refresh rates here – but that’s beyond the scope of this article. If you need to do this, see the documentation section of Chris Andriessen’s website for more details.

How to Replace the Start Icon In TaskbarX

One of the most popular and useful features of TaskbarX is the ability to change the icon for your Start menu from the standard Windows icon to something else.

Note: You’ll need to change a few Windows settings to remove the search and Start icons from the taskbar.

Make the following settings updates:

You may need to select eitherOnly Center Primary TaskbarorOnly Center Secondary Taskbarto get your new Start icon to rest along the far left side of the taskbar. You may also be able to tweak the Taskbar Offset positions in the Position window to fix positioning further.

In our testing, we were able to get the primary display to show our new Start menu icon at the far left of the taskbar.

However, the secondary display still had all icons centered, but the original Windows Start icon was still hidden, so this is only really a minor annoyance.

You could also attempt tohide the Windows taskbar first, before running TaskbarX. But that approach is untested and we can’t promise that it actually works.

Note: When you right-click the taskbar and select Taskbar Settings, these still refer to Windows taskbar settings, not TaskbarX settings.

Should You Use TaskbarX?

The taskbar functionality that’s tweaked by TaskbarX isn’t anything significant. However, if you do miss the centered docking feature of previous versions of Windows and you’d really like to have your own Start menu icon, TaskbarX does the trick.

It is also pretty cool to be able to change the appearance of the taskbarso it’s completely transparent, giving you the sense that you have at least a little bit of extra desktop space to see things.

Ryan has been writing how-to and other technology-based articles online since 2007. He has a BSc degree in Electrical Engineering and he’s worked 13 years in automation engineering, 5 years in IT, and now is an Apps Engineer.Read Ryan’s Full Bio

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