Windows 11: Move the Taskbar (Yes, Really) and 4 More Productivity Wins

Windows 11 hasn't been short of small, useful tweaks lately — and the headline grabber is the one users have been asking about for years: the taskbar is becoming relocatable again. Microsoft is rolling this out broadly in the Windows 11 26H2 update landing later this year. If you can't wait, it's already available in preview today via Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8493 (Experimental Channel).

While the taskbar move is the headline, there are four other recent productivity features that genuinely shave time off your team's day. We use all five at Aspire and they make a real difference. Here they are.

1. Move the taskbar (top, left, right — your call)

When Windows 11 launched in 2021, Microsoft removed the ability to move the taskbar — it was locked to the bottom of the screen, much to users' frustration. After years of feedback, the option is coming back. It's one of the highest-voted feature requests in the Windows Feedback Hub, and it's finally on the way.

Availability:

• General release: rolling out to everyone with the Windows 11 26H2 update later this year.
• Preview today: available now to testers on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8493 (Experimental Channel).

How to use it (once you're on a build that has it):

1. Open Settings → Personalisation → Taskbar (or right-click any empty space on the taskbar → Taskbar settings).
2. Select Taskbar behaviours.
3. Choose your desired position under Taskbar position on screen — Top, Bottom, Left or Right.

While you're in there, the same update brings back finer control over icon alignment and adds a new smaller taskbar mode — handy if you're tight on vertical space.

Why it matters: small as it sounds, where the taskbar sits affects how much screen real estate you have for documents and emails. People with ultra-wide or vertical monitors get the biggest win — moving the taskbar to the side can recover meaningful working space.

Heads-up: if you're on a stable production Windows 11 build today, you won't see the option yet — it's currently only in the Insider Experimental Channel, landing for everyone with 26H2 later in 2026.

2. File Explorer tabs — stop drowning in windows

File Explorer finally has tabs (added in the 22H2 release and refined since). If you've ever had four File Explorer windows open trying to copy between folders, this is for you.

How to use them:

• Open File Explorer (Win + E) and press Ctrl + T to open a new tab — just like a browser.
• Ctrl + W closes a tab. Ctrl + Tab cycles between them.
• You can drag files between tabs to copy or move them. Hold Shift to move instead of copy.

Why it matters: one File Explorer window with five tabs replaces five File Explorer windows cluttering your taskbar. Massive declutter for anyone who moves files around a lot.

3. Focus Sessions — silence the noise

Built into the Clock app, Focus Sessions let you set a dedicated chunk of time where Windows suppresses non-essential notifications, badges and taskbar flashes. Optional Spotify and Microsoft To Do integration round it off if you want background music and a task list.

How to start one:

• Open Settings → System → Focus — set duration and what you want silenced.
• Or click the bell icon in the bottom-right and pick a Focus duration from there.
• Win + Alt + K toggles Do Not Disturb if you just want a quick pause.

Why it matters: even one undisturbed 25-minute block per morning typically yields more real work than the surrounding two hours of pinged interruptions. Lots of evidence from focus-work research backs this up.

4. Phone Link — your mobile, on your PC

Phone Link (formerly "Your Phone") connects your Android or iPhone to your Windows machine. Texts, recent photos, phone calls and — on some Android handsets — full app mirroring, all on your PC screen.

How to set it up:

• On Windows, open Phone Link (it's already installed).
• On your phone, install Link to Windows from the App Store / Play Store.
• Sign in with the same Microsoft account on both. Done.

Why it matters: replying to text messages from your keyboard is genuinely faster than from a phone. Photos taken on your phone appear instantly on your PC for dropping into emails and documents. For hybrid workers, it cuts the constant "where's my phone" dance.

5. Clipboard History — copy more than one thing at a time

By default, Windows only remembers the most recent thing you copied. Turn on Clipboard History and it remembers the last 25, with the option to pin items so they're always available.

How to enable:

• Press Win + V. If it's the first time, Windows will prompt you to turn the feature on.
• Anything you copy from now on appears in the Win + V history panel. Click an item to paste, or click the pin icon to keep it permanently.
• Optional: enable sync via a Microsoft account so your clipboard follows you between machines.

Why it matters: stop the copy-then-immediately-need-the-thing-before-it dance. Pin your email signature, your VAT number, common addresses — and they're a Win+V away.

One more thing: rolling these out across your team

Tips are useful for individuals. But if your business runs 30, 50 or 200 Windows machines, knowing they're all on the right version — patched, secure, and benefitting from the new features — is the harder problem. That's exactly the kind of thing we take off your plate as part of our managed IT service. We watch your Windows estate, schedule the updates and make sure your team isn't quietly running last year's build.

If keeping your team's Windows up-to-date is more hassle than it should be, book a no-pitch chat with Darren and we'll talk it through.

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