Home windows 11 is about to get a second taskbar (effectively, sort of)

Microsoft is towing with the thought of bringing a secondary menu bar-style expertise to the Home windows 11 platform, particularly as a part of the Command Pallette software program that is bundled inside its first-party PowerToys suite.

Referred to as Command Palette Dock, this new consumer interface would permit for user-customizable shortcuts to be positioned in a devoted on-screen strip, with choices for pinning Command Palette extensions, system useful resource monitor tickers, multimedia playback controls, clipboard history, and different helpful quick-access instruments. In fact, the strip itself can be toggleable, that means that it would not be pressured upon the consumer.

“The dock is designed to be extremely configurable. It may be positioned on the highest, left, proper, or backside fringe of the display screen, and extensions could be pinned to 3 distinct areas of the dock: begin, middle, and finish. Customers also can customise the visible look, together with background, styling, and theme conduct, just like the principle Command Palette shell. An edit mode permits extensions to be dragged, reordered, and moved freely between dock areas,” says Niels Laute, Senior Product Supervisor at Microsoft.

In the interim, this Command Palette Dock initiative is in a extremely experimental part of growth. The proposal itself could be seen on Microsoft’s PowerToys repository over on GitHub, which showcases a few pattern screenshots and movies, in addition to some written descriptions. Builders are in a position to take a look at out the function through compiling code from a devoted department inside GitHub. The corporate is actively on the lookout for suggestions on the proposal, but it surely hasn’t dedicated to formally bringing the function to gentle as but.

Command Pallette Dock remains to be conceptual

The function could or could not find yourself transport as a part of the PowerToys suite

The concept of a devoted UI floor for tickers, instruments, extensions, and different quick-access features is a compelling one, and I personally hope to see Command Pallette Dock get off the bottom. So long as it is an optionally available addition to the Windows 11 expertise, I can see many energy customers appreciating the function and its flexibility. Conceptually, I am a giant fan.

Of explicit observe is the power to place the utility’s interface strip to any facet of the Home windows desktop, making it act as a kind of secondary taskbar of kinds. Home windows 11 notoriously lacks the power to relocate its predominant taskbar, which has been a serious sore level for a lot of Home windows 10 holdouts. Taskbar repositioning is an working system mainstay within the desktop computing world, with macOS and most Linux distributions embracing the function, and older variations of Home windows providing it natively, too.

Taking Microsoft’s recent commitment to enhancing “the general expertise of Home windows,” into consideration, I’ve excessive hopes that Command Pallette Dock’s configurability is an omen of what is to come back within the PC area extra broadly. The power to dock the out-of-box taskbar to the facet or prime of the display screen, in addition to a easy dropdown menu for resizing it on the fly, would go a great distance in making Home windows 11 extra palatable for these nonetheless on the fence about upgrading to the OS.

Plus, I simply assume it might be cool to have two separate, repositionable taskbar interfaces pinned to totally different sides of my PC monitor at any given time — one for managing working apps, and one other for glancing at CPU efficiency, controlling music playback, and extra.