Restore taskbar repositioning (top of screen) in Windows 11 — critical legacy workflow broken

Since Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 in October 2025, many of us who were fully satisfied with Windows 10 have effectively been forced to upgrade to Windows 11 even though it removes or degrades long-standing features.

One of the most damaging regressions is the loss of the ability to move the taskbar to the top of the screen.

This is NOT a cosmetic preference!

For many of us, having the taskbar at the top has been a muscle-memory workflow for the last 25+ years. That’s 25+ years of habits, layout, and screen-use patterns that Windows itself encouraged by making the taskbar movable. Removing this capability in Windows 11 is a massive step backward in usability and choice.

I’ve seen comments from the Windows product team stating that restoring this feature would require a “major code rework” because of assumptions made in the Windows 11 taskbar design.

With respect: that is the problem. Those assumptions should never have been made without preserving compatibility for a decades-old user pattern.

When you remove a capability that has existed for multiple generations of Windows, you break trust and force users to fight the OS instead of getting work done.

Why this matters:

1. This is a regression, not an enhancement. Windows 11 took away something Windows users have relied on for decades.

This is a productivity issue. Taskbar placement affects pointer travel, focus, and how people organize multiple monitors.

This was a supported option for 25+ years. Microsoft set the expectation that Windows was customizable and would stay that way.

Forced upgrade + reduced functionality = frustration. If Windows 10 support ends, Windows 11 should be at least as capable for common, long-standing workflows.

What I’m asking Microsoft to do:

Publicly acknowledge that removing taskbar repositioning (especially to the top) was a mistake / oversight for power users and long-time customers.

1. Commit to restoring full taskbar positioning at minimum to top/bottom in Windows 11 in a supported way — not a hack, not via 3rd party tool, not a registry trick, not a “maybe someday” PowerToy — by the end of 2025.

Review the design assumptions that allowed this regression to ship, so future Windows updates do not remove long-standing, muscle-memory features without a migration path.

1. Communicate clearly in the Windows Insider / Windows Update notes when long-standing UI options are being altered or removed.

This is not about “I like it better this way.” This is about Microsoft honoring the people who have used Windows for decades and built their daily workflow around features Windows itself provided. If you’re asking us to move forward from Windows 10, meet us where we are — don’t make us relearn basic positioning that never needed to be taken away.

Thank you for taking this seriously and for prioritizing restoring taskbar positioning by the end of 2025.Since Microsoft ended support for Windows 10 in October 2025, many of us who were fully satisfied with Windows 10 have effectively been forced to upgrade to Windows 11 even though it removes or degrades long-standing features.

Thank you for taking this seriously and for prioritizing restoring taskbar positioning by the end of 2025.