How to Alter the Size of Your Windows Desktop Taskbar

Last Updated: January 31, 2023 Tested

The Windows taskbar can be made larger and smaller without any real technical knowledge! Perhaps you wish to make it bigger or smaller, stop it from hiding or vice versa and even put it at the top or sides of the screen. This guide will show you how to do all these things.

Steps

1
Unlock the taskbar. To alter the size of your Windows desktop taskbar, make sure that the taskbar is not locked. To see whether or not it is locked, right-click any empty space on the taskbar, and check there is no checkmark next to 'Lock the taskbar'. If there is, click 'Lock the taskbar' once to unlock it.
2
Place the mouse cursor on the line at the top of the taskbar. The pointer will turn into a two-headed arrow.

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3
Click and drag the taskbar's edge up. This will increase the size of the taskbar. Alternatively, drag the taskbar's edge down to make is smaller.
4
Reposition the taskbar. You can reposition the taskbar to the right, left, or top of the screen. Simply click and drag the taskbar to the top, left, or right side of the screen.
- This can be useful when the taskbar is blocking something at the bottom of the screen. You can temporarily move the taskbar out of the way.
5
Turn off Auto-hide. Your computer may sometimes automatically hide the taskbar from view. If this is an annoyance to you, use the following steps to turn off auto-hide:
- Right-click any empty space in the taskbar.
- Click Taskbar settings (Properties on Windows 7 & 8) at the bottom of the pop-up menu.^{[1]
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- Click the toggle switch next to "Automatically hide the taskbar in desktop mode."
- Click the toggle switch next to "Automatically hide the taskbar in tablet mode."
6
Make the taskbar icons small. If you want to make the icons in the taskbar small, use the following steps:
- Right-click any empty space in the taskbar.
- Click Taskbar settings (Properties on Windows 7 & 8) at the bottom of the pop-up menu.^{[2]
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- Click the toggle switch next to "Use small taskbar buttons."
7
Click
in the lower-right corner (Windows 8 & 10 only). It's the icon that resembles a bracket pointing up. This displays all the hidden mini-icons in a pop-up box. You can adjust which icons you want to be in the taskbar or in the hidden icons box by clicking and dragging icons from the taskbar to the hidden icons box, and vice-versa. This allows you to move some icons off of the taskbar, creating more space in the taskbar.
8
Lock the taskbar again. At this stage, you may lock the taskbar again if you wish. To do so, right-click any empty space on the taskbar and click Lock the taskbar.

Community Q&A

Question

How do I make the taskbar taller?

Community Answer

Go right to the edge of the taskbar with your mouse. Your mouse should change icons to a double-sided arrow. Now, just click and drag the taskbar to as tall as you want.
Question

How do I make the taskbar shorter?

Community Answer

Place your mouse just over the top edge of the taskbar and the cursor will turn into a two-sided arrow. Click and drag the bar down. If your taskbar is already at the default (smallest) size, right click on it, click settings, and toggle the setting called "Use smaller taskbar buttons". This will reduce the size of your taskbar icons, reducing the size of the taskbar along with them.
Question

How do I make the taskbar icons larger?

Community Answer

Taskbar and start menu properties > Taskbar > Unclick the "Use small icon".