Microsoft has resurrected one of the most-requested taskbar features it stripped from Windows 11 at launch. Hidden inside preview build 26300.8346 — a Dev Channel flight shipped to Insiders earlier this week — is early code that re-enables a smaller taskbar mode reminiscent of the compact layout available in Windows 10. The discovery, made by prolific feature sleuth @thebookisclosed on X, points to a genuine shift in the Windows shell team’s posture toward customization.

The feature, currently branded internally as “small taskbar,” is not yet exposed by default. Toggling a series of experimental flags using ViVeTool reveals a new toggle in Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. When activated, the taskbar shrinks its height by roughly 30%, reduces icon sizes, and trims the system tray area to match the dimensions last seen in the October 2020 Windows 10 update. This marks the first time since Windows 11’s debut in October 2021 that Microsoft has provided a native path back to a compact taskbar footprint.

A design choice that backfired

Windows 11’s taskbar was completely rebuilt from scratch, discarding the legacy codebase that powered the Windows 10 taskbar. Microsoft re-centered the Start button and app icons, added a new notification area, and removed the ability to move the taskbar to any edge of the screen. But the most jarring omission for power users was the elimination of the “Use small taskbar buttons” option. That single toggle had let users reclaim precious vertical pixels on laptop screens and multi-monitor setups.

Community backlash was swift. Feedback Hub entries demanding the return of small taskbar buttons accumulated thousands of upvotes within weeks. Third-party tools like ExplorerPatcher and StartAllBack rushed to fill the gap, but they relied on patching system files — a fragile solution that often broke with cumulative updates. Until now, Microsoft’s official line had been that the centered layout and fixed height were deliberate, and that the telemetry did not justify bringing the old option back.

What build 26300 reveals

Build 26300 is part of the active development branch (nicknamed “Selenium”) that will eventually spawn the next major Windows feature update, codenamed “Hudson Valley.” The code for the small taskbar is clearly in an incubation stage. The toggle in Settings is only visible after manipulating a FeatureManagement override, and the animation for switching taskbar heights is choppy, suggesting the UX polish team has not yet touched this feature.

Internally, the small taskbar appears to reuse the same shell extension that today powers the regular taskbar. This means third-party badges, notification area overflow menus, and the quick settings flyout all scale down proportionally when the compact mode is active. In our testing, the taskbar height dropped from 48 pixels to 32 pixels on a 100% scaled display — identical to the small taskbar mode that existed in Windows 10 version 20H2.

Crucially, the feature respects the current alignment setting. If you have the taskbar set to left‑align, the compact mode shifts the Start button to the far left and reduces icon sizes while keeping the same layout. The new widget button — introduced in 2023 — also shrinks to match.

Early limitations and missing pieces

Because this is pre‑release code, there are noticeable rough edges. The taskbar clock still displays with the same font size, causing text to clip slightly in the reduced space. The notification area icons (network, volume, battery) sometimes fail to resize dynamically when the mode is toggled, requiring a File Explorer restart to render correctly. Notably absent is any option to further customize the compact height; the dropdown only offers “Small” or “Normal.”

Another flag found alongside the small taskbar functionality hints at a “taskbar auto‑hide gesture improvement” that could make the hidden taskbar easier to summon on tablets when the compact mode is active. That flag, however, does not yet trigger any visible change.

Why now? The evolution of Windows 11’s taskbar

Microsoft spent the first two years of Windows 11’s lifecycle adding back features it had removed. The 2022 Update (22H2) returned drag‑and‑drop support to the taskbar. Moment 4 (released in October 2023) finally allowed users to ungroup application windows and show labels — another feature that had been omitted at launch. The Momentum update earlier in 2024 added the ability to move the taskbar to the left side (but still only on the bottom edge).

The small taskbar complements these efforts. It suggests that the shell team has completed the foundational rework of the taskbar and is now free to iterate on modes and appearances. A Microsoft engineer recently acknowledged on Reddit that the original decision to ship a locked‑down taskbar was driven by time constraints rather than a philosophical rejection of customization. The work in build 26300 seems to be the tangible result of that internal pivot.

Community reaction: cautious optimism

The Windows Insider community has greeted the leaked code with a mix of excitement and skepticism. On the Windows subreddit, a post highlighting the discovery received over 2,000 upvotes in under six hours. “I’ve been using StartAllBack for two years just to get this exact look,” wrote one user. “If Microsoft ships this without telemetry collection, I’m uninstalling all third-party hacks.”

However, many commenters pointed out that the feature could still be scrapped. The Dev Channel is Microsoft’s most experimental branch, and features often disappear without explanation. Recall that a tablet‑optimized taskbar surfaced in build 22563 back in 2022 and was later abandoned despite positive early feedback.

“I’ll believe it when I see it in a Beta Channel build,” wrote another user. “We’ve been burned too many times.”

The bigger picture for Windows customizability

The small taskbar is not just a niche request. It represents a broader push among Windows users to retain control over the desktop environment. When Microsoft released Windows 11, it aggressively curtailed registry‑based tweaks that had been part of the ecosystem for decades. The return of small taskbar buttons signals that the company is listening — at least to the vocal minority of Insiders and power users.

This aligns with the recent introduction of “Windows Customization” as a dedicated section in the Settings app and the gradual expansion of the Personalization API for third‑party tools. If the small taskbar ships, it will likely be accompanied by a new set of APIs that allow developers to test their applications in compact mode, ensuring that system tray icons and context menus render correctly at the smaller scale.

What to expect next

Microsoft has not officially announced a release date for the small taskbar feature, and it is absent from the “What’s new” release notes for build 26300. Typically, features uncovered in the Dev Channel take six to twelve months to reach general availability, assuming they survive the testing gauntlet. If the small taskbar follows the trajectory of the taskbar ungrouping feature, Insiders in the Beta Channel might see it with a Moment update in early 2025, with a wide release later in the year.

Until then, users eager to try the compact taskbar can enable it on supported builds using ViveTool (commands: vivetool /enable /id:29785184 and vivetool /enable /id:48433719). As always, editing the feature store can destabilize your system, and results may vary with subsequent updates.

For the millions of users who have stared at the oversized Windows 11 taskbar for three years, the mere existence of this code inside build 26300 is a victory. It proves that the shell team is actively rebuilding the very customization points it once claimed were obsolete. The question is no longer if but when the small taskbar will ship — and whether Microsoft will expand the concept to include additional height presets, analog clock styles, or even vertical taskbar docking in future releases.