I've been tinkering Windows 11 since it's the very first leaked ISO, and like many others, I noticed the uncustomizable Taskbar. So I tried my own experiments to get some good things back to this newest Windows. I installed the latest build (22000.65) on my daily PC, that is actually "can't run Windows 11," because it's an old machine with AMD Phenom II X2 555 Processor. But I managed to do a clean install and most of the things run smoothly.
Now, for the taskbar, even if you changed "TaskbarGlomLevel" and "MMTaskbarGlomLevel" to 2, and changed "TaskbarSizeMove" to 1 in registry, the opened windows will always combine in Taskbar and the Taskbar itself can not be moved anywhere.
Now see this screenshot:

As we can see, I'm running Windows 11 Build 22000.65 with ungrouped Taskbar. This is my PC details:

How to do that? Here comes the most important thing:
- Copy "explorer.exe" from the previous build. Here I'm using one from Windows 10 Build 19041.964, can be seen here:

- Now restart the PC to DOS (Command Prompt)
- Get to the directory C:\Windows, and rename the original "explorer.exe" to something else for backup. I did something like this:
-- C:\Windows ren explorer.exe exploder.exe
- Copy the new "explorer.exe" to that directory. Here is what I did:
-- C:\Windows copy D:\Files\explorer.exe (D:\Files is where you put the copied "explorer.exe" from Windows 10)
- Restart the computer, and you now have the customizable Taskbar with uncombined icons and show text, also it's movable and sizable.
Finished? Not yet. I don't know will this one happens to others or not, but in my case, I don't have clock, network icon, and volume icon after replacing explorer.exe. To bring them back, you have to do this:
- Press Win + R (Run Command), and run this: shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}

It will bring the old systray icons dialog and you can choose which icon to show up at the bottom-right corner. Choose "Turn system icons on or off" to bring back volume, network, and clock icons.

Here is the final look of my desktop now:

WARNING: Don't delete the original "explorer.exe" in case something bad might happens. I tested this method to run on my PC for 24H and got no problem. Hopefully there will never be any problem.
Remember, keep this one for backup:

Now, for the taskbar, even if you changed "TaskbarGlomLevel" and "MMTaskbarGlomLevel" to 2, and changed "TaskbarSizeMove" to 1 in registry, the opened windows will always combine in Taskbar and the Taskbar itself can not be moved anywhere.
Now see this screenshot:

As we can see, I'm running Windows 11 Build 22000.65 with ungrouped Taskbar. This is my PC details:

How to do that? Here comes the most important thing:
- Copy "explorer.exe" from the previous build. Here I'm using one from Windows 10 Build 19041.964, can be seen here:

- Now restart the PC to DOS (Command Prompt)
- Get to the directory C:\Windows, and rename the original "explorer.exe" to something else for backup. I did something like this:
-- C:\Windows ren explorer.exe exploder.exe
- Copy the new "explorer.exe" to that directory. Here is what I did:
-- C:\Windows copy D:\Files\explorer.exe (D:\Files is where you put the copied "explorer.exe" from Windows 10)
- Restart the computer, and you now have the customizable Taskbar with uncombined icons and show text, also it's movable and sizable.
Finished? Not yet. I don't know will this one happens to others or not, but in my case, I don't have clock, network icon, and volume icon after replacing explorer.exe. To bring them back, you have to do this:
- Press Win + R (Run Command), and run this: shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}

It will bring the old systray icons dialog and you can choose which icon to show up at the bottom-right corner. Choose "Turn system icons on or off" to bring back volume, network, and clock icons.

Here is the final look of my desktop now:

WARNING: Don't delete the original "explorer.exe" in case something bad might happens. I tested this method to run on my PC for 24H and got no problem. Hopefully there will never be any problem.
Remember, keep this one for backup:

- Windows Build/Version
- 22000.65
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 11
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Unbranded
- CPU
- AMD Phenom(tm) II X2 555 Processor 3.20 GHz
- Motherboard
- Asus M4A785T-M
- Memory
- Kingston 16GB DDR3
- Graphics Card(s)
- NVidia GeForce GTX 650
- Sound Card
- VIA HD Audio
- Monitor(s) Displays
- 2x LG 20" Display
- Screen Resolution
- 1600 x 900 60MHz
- Hard Drives
- WD Blue 1TB HDD
ADATA 500GB SSD
Midas Force 500GB SSD
- PSU
- Enermax 500W
- Case
- Unbranded
- Cooling
- Unbranded
- Keyboard
- Logitech Wired K120
- Mouse
- Logitech Wired B100
- Internet Speed
- 20MB Download 1,5MB Upload
- Browser
- Firefox
- Antivirus
- McAffee, Malwarebytes, Windows Defender
- Other Info
- Are you sneaking?