Microsoft seems to be a newcomer to its Windows 11 operating system. Its updates of all kinds are constant, and this time it’s the taskbar’s display. The idea isn’t bad on paper: it adjusts the size of the taskbar icons. And although it’s in beta, it hasn’t convinced me at all.
For those more familiar with macOS, it may remind you a lot of how Apple’s system dock behaves. And, as we’ve said, while on paper it seems like a good idea, the truth is (even though I like small icons in and of themselves), they seemed excessively small to me. With this, I want to get to a point that constantly plagues me: the larger your screen, the smaller the icons themselves will appear due to their relationship with the system resolution. And in 4K, you’ll simply see grains of rice on the screen.
The new taskbar icon scaling feature
Microsoft has already released a new option in the Windows 11 Beta Channel, the channel intended for operating system testing, that will allow us to adjust the size of the taskbar icons. This will be done based on the number of programs we have open. There are three configurations available for this option:
- Permanent: Icons will remain small at all times.
- Never: In this case, the icons will retain their original size, as they have been in the vast majority of Windows 11 versions to date. And no matter how many apps we have open, they’ll stay the same.
- Progressive scaling: With this setting, icons will only shrink when they run out of space due to overcrowding.
The purpose of this new feature is to improve taskbar space management. And it must be said that on computers with small screens (very small, in my opinion), it works. But if your screen is large, from my point of view, it’s best to keep it disabled, because the icons look extremely small.
How to activate the scaling feature
If you want to try this feature, keep in mind that you must be enrolled in the Windows Insider Program and have the latest beta version of Windows 11 installed. Or, you can wait for the update to be released. In either case, once you have access to the settings because you meet these requirements, you must right-click anywhere on the taskbar and click “Taskbar settings.”
Next, click on “Taskbar Behaviors.” You’ll see a series of options that you can toggle until you reach the bottom. In this case, you’ll find the option “Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels.” If you want to activate it, choose “When taskbar is full.”
Just keep in mind that it won’t look too similar to the macOS dock. In this case, the icons will remain the same size until the taskbar fills up, and then they’ll suddenly become tiny.
