Solved Taskbar buttons and labels not combining or hiding after Windows update

Newbie here (though not new to PCs or Windows). I don't know if my system info will show up in a signature or sidebar, so: I have an ASUS VivoBook running Windows 11 Home 64-bit version 22H2. After an update reboot this morning, no matter how I set the option in Taskbar Behaviors (like in on "Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels: Always), the system will not combine the taskbar buttons nor hide the labels... VERY irritating! This happened a few weeks ago and, after I uninstalled the latest updates, the taskbar started behaving properly - even after Windows updated again... until this morning. Since the taskbar settings in Settings aren't having any effect, I'm at a loss as to what to do. Any suggestions? I am comfortable editing the registry (checked and those settings are what they should be) and other "tweaky" stuff.

Thanks in advance,
Rob

Second Chance said:

other "tweaky" stuff

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Not seeing any issue on any of my 2 Pro and 2 Home machines but with that little phrase and based on other posts lately, are you running a third-party software such as StartAllBack, Classic Start, etc.? Customizations can cause issues with Win10 and Win11 but because I have to see what my clients see I do very little such things so in turn I see very few problems.

Berton said:

Not seeing any issue on any of my 2 Pro and 2 Home machines but with that little phrase and based on other posts lately, are you running a third-party software such as StartAllBack, Classic Start, etc.? Customizations can cause issues with Win10 and Win11 but because I have to see what my clients see I do very little such things so in turn I see very few problems.

Click to expand...

No - I had run an app in the past to try to make Explorer look like previous versions of Windows, but uninstalled that quite a while ago. This morning I've gone through and deleted orphaned folders and used CCclean to clean the registry, too.

Rob

I ran into the same thing. It was self-inflicted. At some point prior I had applied a registry setting to disable taskbar grouping (that didn't work at the time) and forgot to clear it out. Once I removed the registry value, all was well. Im on mobile, but as soon as I get a chance, I'll get that setting to you.

LesFerch said:

I ran into the same thing. It was self-inflicted. At some point prior I had applied a registry setting to disable taskbar grouping (that didn't work at the time) and forgot to clear it out. Once I removed the registry value, all was well. Im on mobile, but as soon as I get a chance, I'll get that setting to you.

Click to expand...

Thanks - I'll be waiting on the edge of my seat!

Rob

See Option 6 in this tutorial:


Specifically, apply this reg file:

LesFerch said:

See Option 6 in this tutorial:

Always or Never Combine Taskbar buttons and Hide Labels in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to always, when the taskbar is full, or never combine taskbar buttons and hide labels for your account, specific users, or all users in Windows 11. The taskbar in Windows 11 shows the Start menu, Search, Task View, Widgets, Chat, File Explorer, Microsoft Edge...

www.elevenforum.com

Specifically, apply this reg file:

https://www.elevenforum.com/attachments/default_user-choice_combine_taskbar_buttons-reg.68998/

Click to expand...

That seems to have worked - thanks so much! (I'll try to save it incase this same thing happens with future updates.)

Rob