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In Windows 11 there seem to be no (standard/user-friendly) way to set the option of always showing all the tray icons (Taskbar corner overflow, as it is now called in Settings). It only allows you to toggle them one by one:

enter image description here

Obviously, that is far from ideal.

Is there another way to make all the tray icons to be always visible, so none are hidden, as it was possible to do in Windows 10 and older versions? Perhaps, there is a Registry key that controls this, or a "hidden" shell command to open the "old" settings dialog?

retif
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2 Answers2

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Here is a workaround :

  • Click the Start or Search icon in the Taskbar
  • Type cmd, right-click on Command Prompt, and then click Run as administrator
  • Copy and paste the following: explorer shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}
  • Press Enter
  • Select "Always show all icons and notifications on the taskbar"
  • Click OK

If the checkbox "Always show all icons ..." is greyed out, I'm not totally sure what fixed it yet but it appears that changing the EnableAutoTray value in the Regedit helped.

To do so, open Regedit, go here:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

Then set EnableAutoTray to 1

It seems this needs to be done on every boot so you could create a shortcut on your Desktop using right-click, New, Shortcut and use the command above.

Update : at first, I did not like the idea of selecting each app individually using Personalization -> Taskbar -> "Taskbar corner overflow", but in the end, it's not that bad. Whenever there is a new application installed that goes in the overflow, you can use the Personalization setting to add it. It's bit annoying but it works.

Update 2022 : please see comment from Grx70 below, as he wrote : you can drag and drop the icons that are overflowing by selecting them from the popup and moving them onto the tray bar

JP Tétreault
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    For context, this brings up the older taskbar settings page, according to a page I found just by searching for the CLSID in this answer: https://winaero.com/always-show-tray-icons-windows-10/ – Engineer Toast Oct 13 '21 at 19:06
  • I tried the group policy "Turn off notification area cleanup" and lost all search and taskbar pins. – js2010 Dec 07 '21 at 15:40
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    You actually don't have to use the Personalization -> Taskbar -> "Taskbar corner overflow" settings page. Simply dragging the icon from the popup onto the tray bar will have the same effect - the switch will be flipped to On in the settings page. – Grx70 Dec 17 '21 at 13:19
  • For me this only opens Quick Access, no oldie settings page. – Medinoc Mar 22 '23 at 08:54
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My Checkbox for show all was unusable, here's what got it for me on a Windows 10 Home > 11 Home upgrade machine.

Open Regedit, go here:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]

Look for EnableAutoTray and set the value from 0 to 1

Then run this cmd:

explorer shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}

The check box for showing all items should be interactable.

user1648897
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    This seems to be the ONLY workable method. Both actions need to be taken. And it needs to be re-applied after EVERY restart of Explorer.exe since Explorer now seems to force the Registry Key back to 0 every time it is (re-)started. – Tonny Dec 11 '21 at 23:12