Ever looked at the Windows 11 Taskbar and thought it looks too small for your liking? Or maybe you feel it could be a little smaller? If that’s the case, you can change its size to suit your needs by making it bigger or smaller.

Unlike Windows 10, you can’t just unlock the Taskbar and adjust its size freely in Windows 11. While Microsoft has removed this way of going about it in Windows 11, there is a workaround that you can use, although it’s not as elegant.

How Do I Make the Windows 11 Taskbar Bigger or Smaller?

The only way to change the size of the Taskbar is to use the Registry Editor. However, we advise caution when dealing with the Windows Registry because if something goes wrong, you might experience performance issues on your Windows 11 PC. If you’re unfamiliar with it, we recommend reading our guides on what the Windows Registry is and how to not mess up the Windows Registry.

Once you’re all caught up or are already familiar with the Windows Registry, and you know what you’re doing, you can make the Taskbar bigger or smaller. To do that:

  1. Start by pressing Win + R to open Windows Run.
  2. Type regedit in the text box and hit the Enter key.
  3. Then, click Yes on the UAC prompt to launch the Registry Editor.
  4. Copy and paste the below text in the address bar of the Registry Editor and hit the Enter key:
            HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
        
  5. In the Advanced key, look for a value called TaskbarSi. If it’s not there, right-click Advanced, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name that value TaskbarSi.
    creating a new dword in the advanced key in the Registry Editor on Windows
  6. Double-click TaskbarSi to edit it, and then enter 2 in the Value data text box and click OK to make the Taskbar bigger.
    changing the taskbarsi value to 2 in the Registry Editor on Windows

Once you restart your computer, you will see the result: an enlarged Taskbar.

an enlarged Taskbar on Windows 11

To make the Taskbar smaller, enter 0 in the Value data text box, click OK, and then restart your computer. You will then see that the Taskbar has shrunk.

a smaller taskbar in Windows 11

If you decide to go back to the Taskbar’s default size, you can easily set Value data to 1 or simply delete the TaskbarSi value.

Adjust the Taskbar’s Size to Suit Your Needs on Windows 11

Even though you can’t make the Taskbar bigger or smaller on Windows 11 as easily as you can on Windows 10, a little know-how can help. And as long as you followed the instructions mentioned above correctly, you shouldn’t worry about messing up the Windows Registry. However, we still recommend that you use this method only if you know what you’re doing.