Windows 11 Taskbar not hiding? Here is a fix!

Microsoft changed the functionality of the taskbar of the company's Windows 11 operating system, but some issues that users experienced in previous versions of Windows remain an issue, still.

The Windows 11 taskbar is displayed all the time by default on all editions of Windows 11. The taskbar items are centered, and one of the core differences to Windows 10 is that some appearance options have been removed.

The only available taskbar position is at the bottom of the screen, and icons may be displayed centered or at the left side.

Taskbar options have changed when compared to Windows 10, but some options are still available, including the ability to set the taskbar to hide automatically.

1. Right-click on a blank space on the Windows 11 taskbar and select Taskbar settings from the context menu.
2. Scroll down on the Taskbar Settings page that opens and activate the Taskbar behaviors group on the page.
3. There you find listed "Automatically hide the taskbar", which, when checked, hides the taskbar whenever the mouse cursor is not hovering over the area of the taskbar.

The option to automatically hide the taskbar in tablet mode is no longer available.

Windows 11 Taskbar not hiding?

The hiding feature of the Windows 11 taskbar works fine for most users. There are cases, similarly to those on Windows 10, where the taskbar is not hiding itself automatically.

The bug is easy to spot, as you will see the taskbar on the screen even if you have moved the mouse cursor away from its position.

Sometimes, it is relatively easy to fix. One common cause for the issue is that programs may block the functionality because it requires user interaction. This may happen when an UAC prompt is displayed during installation, but it may also happen when you receive calls, new emails, chat messages, or when program operations complete. The program icon flashes, usually, when that is the case.

All it takes to resolve this is to interact with the program. Click on the program icon and interact with the prompt that is displayed. Once done, the taskbar should hide again automatically.

There may be other scenarios in which the taskbar does not hide itself automatically anymore.

Quick Windows 11 taskbar not hiding fix

Many issues that you run into may be resolved by restarting the Explorer process on the Windows 11 machine. It is a quick fix that should resolve the issue. Note that it is recommended to find the cause for recurring issues, as you may not want to restart Explorer regularly to correct the issue.

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-Esc to bring up the Windows Task Manager.
2. Select "more details" if the basic version is displayed.
3. Switch to the Details tab.
4. Locate the process explorer.exe.
5. Right-click on the process and select "End task" from the context menu.
6. Select File > Run new task.
7. Type explorer.exe.
8. Select OK.

The process restarts the Explorer process, which is responsible for the taskbar (and many other things).

Tip: you may restart the explorer process from the command line as well:

1. Use the keyboard shortcut Windows + R to open the runbox.
2. Type cmd.
3. Type taskkill /im explorer.exe /f
4. Type explorer
5. Type exit

Troubleshoot Windows 11 taskbar issues

The very first thing you may want to do is check if the preference to automatically hide it is still enabled. If that is the case, try clicking anywhere on the desktop to see if this hides the taskbar again.

Another cause for the taskbar to not hide itself automatically anymore on Windows 11 are notifications, and here especially those of programs that you don't see on the taskbar or the visible part of the system tray area.

One of the options that you have is to display all icons all the time, at least for the troubleshooting session, to make sure that these icons are not blocking the taskbar from hiding itself.

1. Select Start and open the Settings application.
2. Navigate to Personalization > Taskbar.
3. Open the Taskbar corner overflow group on the page.
4. All icons that are not displayed all the time are displayed here. You may want to toggle each to the On setting to display all icons in the system tray area.

Note that the process is quite different on Windows 11 when compared to Windows 10. On Windows 10, you had to select the "Select which icons appear on the taskbar" in the taskbar settings to get the same option, and a handy "show all icons" toggle.

When you display all icons on the taskbar, you will see the culprit immediately. Click on it, interact with the prompt, if one is displayed, and the taskbar should hide itself automatically again on Windows 11.

Some programs may display notifications regularly, and this may prevent the hiding of the Windows 11 taskbar. If that is the case, you may block it from sending notifications to avoid this.

1. Select Start and open the Settings application again.
2. Go to System > Notifications.
3. If you don't need any notifications, toggle the main Notifications option to Off on the page.
4. If you need notifications, locate programs in the list that is displayed on the page and toggle their notifications to off.

Group Policy options

Administrators may configure several options in the Group Policy to handle notifications on Windows 11 systems. Note that the Group Policy Editor is only available on professional and Enterprise editions of Windows 11.

1. User Configuration > Start Menu and Taskbar > Lock all taskbar settings -- This can be useful if you don't want the taskbar settings to change once you have configured them.
2. User Configuration > Start Menu and Taskbar > Turn off all balloon notifications - Notifications balloons are not shown if you enable the policy.
3. User Configuration > Start Menu and Taskbar > Turn of automatic promotion of notification icons to the taskbar.
4. User Configuration > Start Menu and Taskbar > Turn off feature advertisement balloon notifications.
5. User Configuration > Start Menu and Taskbar > Notifications > turn off calls during Quiet Hours
6. User Configuration > Start Menu and Taskbar > Notifications > Turn off toast notifications

Now You: do you display the taskbar all the time, or have set it to hide automatically?

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