The taskbar trick Microsoft won't tell you

Plus more new taskbar tricks  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Thanks for reading this special early preview edition of Windows Intelligence, brought to you in partnership with [Thurrott.com](=). This design is merely a placeholder for what's to come. Stay tuned! ​ Brought to you by: [Average Joe logo](=)​ Welcome to another week of Windows! By now, most Windows 11 PCs should probably have the new feature update. I say "probably" because it's difficult to say exactly. Microsoft's modern update system makes it hard to say exactly what's on your PC. Your Windows 11 PC may have installed the update, but it may not have the features enabled yet. It all depends. Anyway, if you don't have it on your Windows 11 PC, you will soon. This week I'd like to finally answer the request I've gotten the most: Moving the taskbar. Microsoft doesn't want you to do it on Windows 11, but you can do it anyway. (And it's easy on Windows 10.) Plus, I've got a collection of other awesome taskbar tips and tricks. Scroll down to this week's Things to Try section to learn more. Chris Today's read: ⌚ 3 Things to Know: 2 minutes ⌚ 3 Things to Try: 2 minutes ⌚ Top Thurrott Thoughts: 30 seconds ⌚ Just for Fun: 30 seconds [] ❱❱ 3 Things to Know This Week 1. Windows 12 may be on the way, according to Intel ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: Microsoft hasn't uttered the words "Windows 12" yet, but an Intel executive is strongly hinting that a big new version of Windows may be on the way next year. 🔎 KNOW MORE: Intel's CFO David Zinsner sat down at a Citi analyst conference last month, and he said "We actually think ’24 is going to be a pretty good year for client, in particular, because of the Windows refresh." That Windows refresh sounds a lot like Windows 12. - We've seen reports that Windows is on a three-year development cycle, which means that we would expect the next version of Windows a year from now. (But hey, maybe it won't be called Windows 12.) - Intel's upcoming Meteor Lake hardware includes a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to run AI tasks locally, not in the cloud. That forthcoming version of Windows may do a lot more AI tasks on your PC rather than depending on Microsoft's cloud servers. - Whether or not it's called Windows 12, it looks like a big update with a lot of AI features will arrive next year, and Intel is expecting it to help sell new PC hardware. 📌 READ MORE: Read this [report of the Intel executive's comments](=) or [learn more about Meteor Lake](. --------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Windows 10 has only two years of life left ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: Are you still using Windows 10? The good news is that Windows 10 still has two years of security updates left. The bad news is that Windows 10 only has two years of security updates left. 🔎 KNOW MORE: Windows 10 will hit "end of support" on October 14, 2025 — just over two years from now. After that date, Microsoft will stop issuing security updates for Windows 10 PCs. They'll be running a "dead" operating system like Windows XP or Windows Vista. - Your PC will still work after the end-of-support date, but it will become increasingly vulnerable to attack over time as exploits are discovered and not patched. - Windows 11 has some "official" system requirements that mean many Windows 10 PCs can't upgrade to it. Unofficially, there are ways for these PCs to upgrade. For many existing PCs, installing an "unsupported" Windows 11 upgrade in two years seems like the best bet. - Your Windows 10 PC still has two years of life left in it, so there's no rush. But the end is on the horizon. (And hey, you can always try running Google's ChromeOS Flex or desktop Linux after that date, too.) 📌 READ MORE: Take a look at [a trick that will let you upgrade]() many Windows 10 PCs to Windows 11 when the time comes. (No rush! You've got two years.) --------------------------------------------------------------- 3. AI is expensive, and Microsoft is losing money ➜ THE SHORT VERSION: Microsoft and other companies have hurried to launch AI features, and many companies are taking a financial loss on them. We may see a bit of a "slowdown" of AI launches as companies turn toward profitability. 🔎 KNOW MORE: All this AI stuff uses a ton of electricity and processing power. Microsoft is offering a lot of it for free — or just not charging enough money to make a profit yet. - Microsoft charges $10 per month for GitHub Copilot and is reportedly losing an average of $20 per user per month. No wonder Microsoft is charging businesses $30 per user per month for Microsoft 365 Copilot. - Microsoft also recently added advertisements to Bing Chat, so you'll see them in Windows 11's Copilot feature as well. Since Copilot and Bing Chat are free on Windows, Microsoft has to pay for it somehow. - The push for future PCs with NPUs (neural processing units) will help offload many of these AI tasks to happen on a PC, reducing what Microsoft and other companies are paying to run AI models in data centers — that's the idea, anyway. 📌 READ MORE: Read about Microsoft [taking a loss on GitHub Copilot](). #top SPONSORED MESSAGE Question: How do you achieve FIRE🔥? [Man in front of fire smiling calmly](​ Sounds like something straight out of Pokémon, we know, but hang on: It actually stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. In other words, you build your nest egg now so you can retire while you’re still relatively young (and then you can play Pokémon). The key to FIRE? Making whatever money you've got saved start working for you. Get this: An investment in the The Invesco QQQ Trust ETF between 2011 and 2021 would've grown by 560% by now — a nearly 6x return! Meanwhile, regular ol' savings accounts earn you less than 1% interest. Tsk tsk. ➜ Put yourself on the FIRE track by signing up for [The Average Joe](, a free 4x-weekly newsletter that simplifies the stock market for everyday investors — normal folks who don't speak the language of financial gobbledygook. The 5-minute, jargon-free newsletter covers only the stock market news you need to know to really make your money count. ​[Try out the free newsletter (with one click!) now]( and join 200,000+ everyday, average-joe investors getting FIRE’d up in all the right ways. [​​GET THE AVERAGE JOE FOR FREE ➜]( [] ❱❱ 3 Things to Try This Week 1. Move your taskbar (even on Windows 11) So many people have asked me if there’s a way to move their taskbar on Windows 11. That feature is part of Windows 10, and it’s been a standard feature on Windows for a long time. On Windows 11, though, this feature is gone and Microsoft says it has no plans to bring it back. The good news is that, if you want your taskbar on another edge of your desktop, there’s a third-party tool that will let you move your taskbar. If you want to move your taskbar on Windows 10, you’re in luck: You can do it in just a few clicks without any third-party tools. ⌚ This will take 30 seconds on Windows 11 or 5 seconds on Windows 10. 💻 You can do this on both Windows 10 and Windows 11, although Windows 11 needs a third-party application. [The taskbar on the left side of a Windows 11 desktop.] 📌 Check out [my brand-new guide]() for the latest taskbar-moving tips. --------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Turn on taskbar button labels With the latest update, taskbar button labels have returned to Windows 11. (They've been available as an option on Windows 10 the whole time, naturally.) This option gives each open application window its own button on your taskbar with a visible window title. It's how the taskbar behaved back in the Windows XP days, and a lot of people swear by it. Whether you've been living without this feature on Windows 11 and waiting for its return or you're just wondering what all the fuss is about, you can turn it on in just a few clicks. ⌚ It will take you 5 seconds to turn this feature on. 💻 This works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. ➜ On Windows 11, right-click an empty spot on the taskbar and select "Taskbar Settings." Expand the "Taskbar Behaviors" section in the Settings window that appears, and change the "Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels" setting to "Never." [Labels on a Windows 11 taskbar.] (If you don't see this option, your PC doesn't have the most recent feature update yet. You can head to Settings > Windows Update and enable "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" to try to get the update.) 🔟 On Windows 10, right-click an empty spot on the taskbar and select "Taskbar Settings." Scroll down, click the "Combine taskbar buttons" box, and select "Never." [Taskbar labels on Windows 10.] --------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Quickly control application volume levels Windows 11 just got another great taskbar feature. This one isn't the return of something that Windows 10 offered; it's brand new in Windows. You need a third-party app to do it on Windows 10. You can now quickly control the volume level of the different applications on your PC in a menu you access from Windows 11's taskbar in one click. There's a great third-party application that can do this on Windows 10, too. ⌚ This will take 5 seconds on Windows 11 or 15 seconds on Windows 10. 💻 This works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. (But you'll need a third-party application on Windows 10.) ➜ On Windows 11, click the speaker icon in the system tray area and then click the icon to the right of the volume bar. (Or, you can press Windows+Ctrl+V.) Scroll down and use the volume mixer settings to quickly adjust each individual program's volume. [The Volume Mixer pop-up on Windows 11.] (If you don't see this feature, your Windows 11 PC doesn't have the most recent feature update yet. You can head to Settings > Windows Update and enable "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" to try to get the update.) 🔟 On Windows 10, you can install [EarTrumpet]() to get this feature. You'll get a system tray icon you can click to quickly adjust program volumes. (EarTrumpet works on Windows 11, too. Feel free to install it if you prefer its interface.) (Note: If you've installed the ExplorerPatcher tool and are using the Windows 10-style taskbar, you won't have this feature on Windows 11. You'll need EarTrumpet.) ​ [] ❱❱ Top Thurrott Thoughts Some standout links and expert analysis from our friends at Thurrott, who have been covering Windows since 1994: - ​[You Can No Longer Use Windows 7/8 Keys to Activate Windows 11]() - The loophole is now fully closed. - ​[Microsoft Listens to Feedback, Won’t Make Changes to OneDrive Photo Storage]() - Good news if you use OneDrive photo albums! Microsoft cancelled some user-hostile changes. - ​[Google Makes Passkeys the Default Login Option for Personal Accounts](=) - The industry is slowly moving away from passwords. - ​[Following My Own OneDrive Advice (Premium)]()​ - Paul Thurrott tames the OneDrive folder-syncing chaos. - ​[HP Spectre Foldable PC First Impressions]( - I love checking out cutting-edge PCs like this, and it was very cool to see this one at CES earlier this year. (Still, I'm not spending $5000 on this thing.) - ​[Microsoft’s First In-House AI Chip Could Be Revealed Next Month]( - Microsoft wants to cut the costs of running AI models on its servers. ​ [] ❱❱ And Just for Fun... This week, Neowin published a look back at Microsoft's Windows Home Server. Launched back in 2007, this is a product from another age. The idea was that your files would be on a server running in your own home — not on a cloud server operated by a large corporation. Microsoft even released a children's book to promote Windows Home Server. It was named "Mommy, Why Is There a Server in the House?" (yes, seriously!) [A page from Microsoft's "Mommy, Why Is There a Server in the House?" children's book.] The book is pretty silly — it's nice to see Microsoft not taking itself too seriously. You can [read it on Archive.org](. For more on Windows Home Server, check out [Neowin's retrospective](=). ​ One weekend, please That's it for another week of Windows Intelligence. I hope you learned some awesome taskbar tricks and found something useful. Have a great weekend! Thanks for reading Windows Intelligence and being a part of our early preview phase! We'd love to hear what you think so far. ​[Submit your feedback here]() — or just reply to this email. We'll read every single comment, and your thoughts will absolutely help shape and guide what this newsletter becomes. You received this email because your address was signed up for the Windows Intelligence early preview. If you didn't mean to sign up or no longer wish to be subscribed, you can [unsubscribe or update your preferences here](=).