Windows 11 received numerous feature updates during its first two years on the market, bringing customers new and previously missing features. Even though Microsoft restored the ability to show labels, ungroup icons, and display seconds on the tray clock, enthusiasts still use third-party apps to restore the old taskbar from Windows 10. That might soon be over, though, as the latest Canary build introduced a feature ID to block the classic taskbar.
As spotted by @PhantomOfEarth on X (Twitter), Windows 11 build 26002 contains a hidden feature called DisableWin10Taskbar. As the name implies, it makes it impossible to fall back to the Windows 10-era taskbar. Moreover, enabling the ID breaks third-party apps, such as StartAllBack or ExplorerPatcher.
Build 26002 has a new velocity feature: DisableWin10Taskbar, 42537950
— PhantomOcean3 🍂 (@PhantomOfEarth) November 29, 2023
When enabled, it, as the name suggests, prevents the Windows 10 taskbar from loading. (explorer crashes or just loads the Win11 taskbar when trying to load it with ExplorerPatcher) pic.twitter.com/OcPVRpSXoF
Windows 11 build 26002 ships with DisableWin10Taskbar turned off by default, so you need to enable it manually with the ViVeTool app. Therefore, it is hard to tell if Microsoft indeed plans to block Windows 11 users from restoring the old taskbar. Future Windows 11 preview updates will most likely give more insights into the matter.
Another taskbar-related change in the latest preview builds is a new location for the Copilot icon. Not so long ago, users noticed new feature IDs that allowed moving Copilot to the bottom-right corner next to the notification button. In Dev build 23595, that change is now official. The idea behind it is to place the Copilot icon closer to where the pane appears on the screen. However, as a result, the "show the desktop" option is now turned off by default.
You can learn more about Windows 11 build 26002 here and build 23595 here.