- A new menu bar could be brought to Windows 11
- It would come in the form of an optional dock for Command Palette in PowerToys
- This would contain shortcuts to your favorite tools, as well as system-monitoring info, but it's just a concept for now
Windows 11 may not allow you to move the taskbar to the top of the screen, but it could give you a top menu bar as a kind of substitute for that ability, and that's an idea I like – but it's proving somewhat divisive.
Windows Central highlighted this potential new development, and I should make it clear upfront that this is a proposed addition for PowerToys, Microsoft's suite of add-on tools for Windows 11, and not a possible change to the OS itself.
The new feature is an optional dock for Command Palette, which is one of the tools in PowerToys – it's a launcher for Windows 11, essentially. (Command Palette will take over from the Run utility eventually, though it's still a work in progress for now).
Said dock comes in the form of a menu bar that can be situated along the top (or sides, or indeed the bottom) of the Windows 11 desktop environment. It can carry info readouts for your system – like a little display for CPU usage, or internet speeds – as well as allowing you to pin your favorite functionality and PowerToys utilities to the bar.
As usual with PowerToys, if you really want to go in-depth with the feature there will be all sorts of customization tricks possible, including altering the appearance of the dock with a different backdrop, or having it use a light or dark theme.
Analysis: taskbar stand-in
So, this is sort of like a PowerToys-focused taskbar alternative which you can deploy anywhere as noted, giving you more quick and convenient access to these utilities, and a variety of functionality besides, alongside at-a-glance displays for system info.
I like the idea and would welcome this addition to PowerToys, although some people aren't too happy with the idea of losing desktop real-estate to a second bar (with the taskbar already along the bottom of the screen, of course). That's fair enough, and you don't have to turn on the Command Palette dock if you don't want it. (Assuming it ever gets made, that is – we don't know if this project has any legs yet, it's just a concept right now).
The dock could work better, perhaps, if the bar only appeared visible if you moused over the top (or side) area of the screen where it's located.
There are others who approve of this idea in principal, but would rather this was implemented as a full taskbar replacement. Meaning that you could add in Windows 11 taskbar elements as 'widgets' on this dock, and then permanently hide the taskbar, using this instead of it (and placing it wherever you wanted, of course). Realistically, though, I don't see that happening – PowerToys isn't designed to replace Windows 11 functionality, it's an add-on pack of extras.
Seeing as Microsoft appears to have just turned over a new leaf in terms of improving Windows 11 – promising to stamp out bugs, and pep up performance levels and overall responsiveness – maybe this new attitude might just include giving us long-awaited abilities like moving the taskbar, anyway? I doubt it, given how far we've got with this functionality remaining banished from Microsoft's newest OS, but I guess you never know.
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