Does anyone know, why MS decided to rewrite the taskbar in Win11?

Anixx · Oct 10, 2023

In the rewriting they seemingly lost a lot of functionality, including taskbar labels, placement of taskbar at sides, resize of taskbar, etc.

Some people said that maybe the aim of MS was exactly to remove the functionality, to convert the taskbar into a dock, etc. But now it seems that MS slowly restores the previously lost functionality, such as taskbar labels.

It should be noted that re-writing the taskbar or writing it from scratch is not at all a difficult task, there are many third-party taskbar replacements, such as SCTT or Retrobar and various other kinds of docks. Moreover, taskbar had been already several times re-written in Windows since Windows 95, without much loss of functionality.

Thus come the questions:
1. Why it was necessary to rewrite the taskbar?
2. Why this rewriting is accompanied with severe loss of functionality, unlike previous times, that still, after years is not fully mitigated yet?
3. Why it was considered worth it to lose a lot of functionality and alienate users (many of whom desided either to stay on Windows 10 or to use the old taskbar via Explorer Patcher) for this kind of re-write?

antspants · Oct 10, 2023

To what end the answer? It still is until it isn’t if ever.

TairikuOkami · Oct 10, 2023

The problem is actually the latter, the taskbar has not been rewritten yet. Since Windows 10, MS made everything as UWP (store) app: Start, Settings, Search, etc, but taskbar is still part of explorer and since taskbar = desktop, it has to be stable. MS constantly deals with desktop/explorer crashes in windows updates, even explorer shell is part of it, thus they designed the new menu to separate it, so they just made it as simple as possible for now. It is still a work in progress. Maybe in Windows 12, we will get a new taskbar as UWP app.

Anixx · Oct 10, 2023

TairikuOkami said:
The problem is actually the latter, the taskbar has not been rewritten yet. Since Windows 10, MS made everything as UWP (store) app: Start, Settings, Search, etc, but taskbar is still part of explorer and since taskbar = desktop, it has to be stable. MS constantly deals with desktop/explorer crashes in windows updates, even explorer shell is part of it, thus they designed the new menu to separate it, so they just made it as simple as possible for now. It is still a work in progress. Maybe in Windows 12, we will get a new taskbar as UWP app.

Simple? You say, the whole removal of functionality is to combat crashes? It is ridiculous, the new taskbar is much more buggy and less stable.

flashh4 · Oct 10, 2023

Because they can ...............................

MilesAhead · Oct 10, 2023

flashh4 said:
Because they can ...............................

Heh heh heh. The thing that drove me crazy was no drag to taskbar. A third party enhancer fixed that. I still miss Vista Frosted Glass(tm) but what can I do?

antspants · Oct 10, 2023

We live, we love, we learn, we adapt.

Flashorn · Oct 10, 2023

antspants said:
We live, we love, we learn, we adapt.

Let me fix that for you
We live, we love, we learn, we fight.

There, much better.

Winuser · Oct 10, 2023

TairikuOkami said:
The problem is actually the latter, the taskbar has not been rewritten yet.

MS have made changes to the Taskbar in the Canary Builds. Because of the changes I can't use StartAllBack.

antspants · Oct 10, 2023

Winuser said:
MS have made changes to the Taskbar in the Canary Builds. Because of the changes I can't use StartAllBack.

I would assume that StartAllBack will eventually adapt?

antspants · Oct 10, 2023

Flashorn said:
Let me fix that for you
We live, we love, we learn, we fight.

There, much better.

Well…. Not sure. I save my fights for 3rd world issues, not first world privilege. If the biggest problem we have is a taskbar playing stubborn, we aren’t looking at the right problems. So we adapt. Also, users, software companies or script writers have to adapt to Microsoft, not the other way around

Rollback_Jockey · Oct 10, 2023

Anixx said:
In the rewriting they seemingly lost a lot of functionality, including taskbar labels, placement of taskbar at sides, resize of taskbar, etc.

Some people said that maybe the aim of MS was exactly to remove the functionality, to convert the taskbar into a dock, etc. But now it seems that MS slowly restores the previously lost functionality, such as taskbar labels.

It should be noted that re-writing the taskbar or writing it from scratch is not at all a difficult task, there are many third-party taskbar replacements, such as SCTT or Retrobar and various other kinds of docks. Moreover, taskbar had been already several times re-written in Windows since Windows 95, without much loss of functionality.

Thus come the questions:
1. Why it was necessary to rewrite the taskbar?
2. Why this rewriting is accompanied with severe loss of functionality, unlike previous times, that still, after years is not fully mitigated yet?
3. Why it was considered worth it to lose a lot of functionality and alienate users (many of whom desided either to stay on Windows 10 or to use the old taskbar via Explorer Patcher) for this kind of re-write?

Because they wanted to, it's their software so their choice.

Flashorn · Oct 10, 2023

antspants said:
I would assume that StartAllBack will eventually adapt?

Did everyone using it get the latest update ?
3.6.13

Flashorn · Oct 10, 2023

Rollback_Jockey said:
Because they wanted to, it's their software so their choice.

Yeah, but don't forget who that software is for.

Flashorn · Oct 10, 2023

antspants said:
If the biggest problem we have is a taskbar playing stubborn,

it's not.

antspants · Oct 10, 2023

Flashorn said:
Yeah, but don't forget who that software is for.

It’s a tough one. Do we assume Microsoft counts the votes and makes changes or do we assume that Microsoft sometimes employs idiots?

Flashorn · Oct 10, 2023

antspants said:
It’s a tough one. Do we assume Microsoft counts the votes and makes changes or do we assume that Microsoft sometimes employs idiots?

I wouldn't call them idiots. Sheeps maybe.

antspants · Oct 10, 2023

Flashorn said:
I wouldn't call them idiots. Sheeps maybe.

“sometimes” I am referring to the heads of departments that approve changes.

But changes to windows, not unlike any product, attracts complaints and bad reviews as apposed to positive and good reviews. This is the way of things. People who are content with things generally don’t respond for the sake of review. So there is really no way to gauge if what Microsoft does is taken positive, after all, this forum is generally directed at people that need help with change or help with understanding. Not a place for people to come and rave about how great the changes are… so as I said, I cannot gauge.

Anixx · Oct 10, 2023

They of course can do whatever they want but what's the rationale for this rewrite with disasterous user experience and functionality impact? Do they do things without aim and purpose?

antspants · Oct 10, 2023

Anixx said:
They of course can do whatever they want but what's the rationale for this rewrite with disasterous user experience and functionality impact? Do they do things without aim and purpose?

I think from reading this thread, the general conception is that it’s anyones guess.