Solved How do I get rid of the text next to the icons in the taskbar?

I just updated to Windows 11. In previous versions of Windows my taskbar icons never had text, and that is what I prefer. But I can't find where to eliminate it.

Note: I am running Open Shell 4.4.169 and perhaps that it is interfering with things?

Hmm, odd as using Open Shell here and there is no text or labels on the taskbar, in fact there are complaints that its missing in Win11, from what I can remember.

If Open Shell is intended to "restore" settings available in previous versions of Windows (i.e. that are no longer available in Win 11), the "old" process used to be ...
- right-click on a blank area of the Taskbar
- 2 entries to look for : Show title (the name of that Taskbar group of icons) and Show labels (the name beside each icon).

This option is available in ExplorerPatcher (I use this) which I assume Open Shell is similar to.

I have both Open Shell and ExplorerPatcher installed. After I installed Windows 11, I just kept installing things until everything that was important to me was fixed. I am disappointed that Microsoft thought it was a good idea to give users less choice in terms of the GUI.

At any rate, the problem with the text is fixed. I also was able to fix the medium size icons on the taskbar (I wanted them smaller but nothing was working). I right clicked on the taskbar and saw "Properties" listed on the popup menu. I had only previously noticed and clicked on "Taskbar settings" in that menu, and that merely brought me to the W11 settings. Under Properties I selected "combine taskbar icons on primary taskbar" and that solved the text issue. There was also the option to select small icons.

Thanks for everyone's assistance!

LGM11 said:

Under Properties I selected "combine taskbar icons on primary taskbar" and that solved the text issue.

Click to expand...

That's interesting, because one of the most common uses for ExplorerPatcher is to UNcombine taskbar icons, because Win 11 unchangeable default option is to combine.

Not sure that I'd be running both Open Shell and ExplorerPatcher ... different settings for the same/similar options might fight with each other (hence your initial problem?)

@idgat It is not a problem running both EP and OS I have been doing it on 3 computers for a long time with no issues.
The main purpose for EP is to bring back Win 10 functionality which for most people was taskbar to the left and change the notification area.
It is very customisable and has never caused any conflicts for my 3 machines

idgat said:

Not sure that I'd be running both Open Shell and ExplorerPatcher ... different settings for the same/similar options might fight with each other (hence your initial problem?)

Click to expand...

I did think of that but figured I'd just watch out for any glitches. So far, though, everything has been running very smoothly with both. I have been using Classic Shell and Open shell for years. But they don't add back the quick launch area to the taskbar that W11 took away. That's why I installed ExplorerPatcher.

Right now, with just those 2 additions, I have a system that is pretty much identical to how things were before W11. All except the annoying center position of the date and time on the welcome screen. Does anyone know how to put that back into the lower left corner? It's not a biggie like the menu and taskbar issues were, but it would be nice if I can change that. Why did Microsoft go about changing that?

This topic wasn't really resolved and others too may be using Explorer Patch to mitigate W11: None of the above worked for me, but I found a solution: Unlock the Taskbar > For each toolbar (as they were once known) on the Taskbar two vertical lines become visible (these are what you grab to move toolbars around) > Right-click the two lines (exactly: and not the toolbar itself) > The old W10 menu appears with the familiar desired options of 'Show text' and 'Show title'.

In addition to what's been said above about the OP question about icons without text, the native W11 taskbar offers a right-click Taskbar Settings option (without EP or OpenShell):