Windows 11 has brought about a lot of changes, from functionality to appearances. One of the things that’s come with a new look is the taskbar. But the new taskbar changes aren’t just cosmetic—it’s been coded from scratch, ditching the old code in lieu of a fresh start.
Because of this, it’s still prone to unseen bugs. So if you’ve run into issues with the Windows 11 taskbar not working, don’t worry. We’ll cover some ways to fix it.
Reset Taskbar Behavior Settings
If you’ve changed the behavior of the taskbar, then one thing you can try is to reset the taskbar behavior settings to their default state. To do so, you’ll need to open up the Settings app.
Start by launching the Task Manager with the Ctrl + Shift + Esc keys. Then go to the detailed view by clicking on the arrow next to More details at the bottom of the window.
Once open, click on File, then Run new task.
In the Create new task window, type in ms-settings: and press Enter.
In the Settings app, go to the Personalization tab and click on Taskbar.
Now, scroll down to the Taskbar behaviors tab and click on it. Set the Taskbar alignment to Center, and make sure Automatically hide the taskbar is unchecked.
Enable Taskbar on All Screens
If you’re running Windows 11 on a PC with a multi-monitor setup, you may need to manually set the taskbar to show up on all of your displays. To do this, you’ll need to open the taskbar settings by pulling up the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc).
Next, in the Task Manager, go to File, then Run new task. Type in ms-settings: in the Create new task screen, and press Enter.
Then go to the Personalization tab in Settings, find the Taskbar option, and click on it.
In the Taskbar settings page, click on Taskbar behaviors and check the box next to Show my taskbar on all displays.
Restart Windows Explorer
Sometimes Windows Explorer bugs out, and can cause the taskbar to stop working. One thing to try to possibly fix the taskbar is to restart Windows Explorer.
To do so, first open up the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and set it to the detailed view.
On the detailed view, scroll down until you find Windows Explorer. Now right-click on Windows Explorer and click on Restart. This will restart Windows Explorer, which should reload the taskbar.
Restart Taskbar Services
If restarting Windows Explorer doesn’t fix the issue, then you may need to restart the associated services that correspond to the taskbar.
First, open up the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and set it to the detailed view. Then navigate to the Details tab at the top. Scroll through the processes to find the following processes:
- ShellExperienceHost.exe
- SearchIndexer.exe
- SearchHost.exe
- RuntimeBroker.exe
For each one, you’ll need to highlight it and click the End Task button.
After you’ve ended all of the above tasks, restart your computer, and you should see your taskbar working as normal.
Repair Windows System Files
If everything you’ve tried so far hasn’t worked, then you may be dealing with some corrupted Windows files. Fortunately, this is a pretty easy fix if that’s the case.
Start by opening the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc). Then go to File, and Run new task.
In the Create new task window, type in cmd and check the box next to Create this task with administrative privileges to launch the command prompt.
In the command prompt, copy and paste each of the following commands, one by one, and press Enter after each one. You’ll need to wait for each of the scans to finish before entering the next command.
- sfc /scannow
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
- Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
The SFC scan will check the integrity of the file system, while the DISM commands will perform more in-depth checks of your operating system’s files and replace any corrupt or faulty files with files hosted on Microsoft’s servers. Once these scans are all finished, restart your computer.
Update Windows
Another thing that can help kick-start your taskbar into working order is to update Windows. To do so, go to the Settings app by opening Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), going to File, Run new task, and then typing in ms-settings: in the Create new task window.
Go to the Windows Update tab, and at the top, click on the Check for updates button. If there are any updates, Windows will tell you and prompt you to download and install them. After that’s finished, click the Restart now button to restart your computer and finish installing the updates.
Re-register the Taskbar
If all else fails, you can try to re-register the taskbar with PowerShell. To do this, open the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc). Go to File, then Run new task. In the Create new task window, check the box to run as administrator, type in powershell, and then press Enter.
In PowerShell, run the following command by copying and pasting it, and then press Enter:
- Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
Once this finishes, restart Windows Explorer and you should have the taskbar working again. If not, then restart your computer to allow the changes to take effect.
