If you’re like most people, you use the taskbar to quickly access your most-used programs and files. But if you’ve been using Windows 11, your taskbar may have lost its labels—or worse, they’ve disappeared altogether. Fortunately, restoring taskbar labels is easy. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open the Start menu and click on “Task Manager.”
  2. In Task Manager, click on the “Processes” tab and then select the “Windows Explorer” process.
  3. Right-click on the “Windows Explorer” process and select “Set Priority.” Click on the “Priority” drop-down menu and select “High.” This will make Windows Explorer run at the top of your computer’s priority list. 4. Close Task Manager and open Windows Explorer again. 5. Right-click on any empty space inside of Windows Explorer and select “New Task…” 6. In the new window that pops up, type in “%SystemRoot%\system32\shell32.dll” (without the quotes) and press Enter 7. Click on OK to close the new window 8. Double-click on the newly created task icon to open it 9. In the newly opened window, click on the “Task Bar” tab 10. On the right side of this tab, click on any empty space inside of it 11. Select “New Label…” 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 ..

One of Windows 11’s most contentious features is the redesigned taskbar. Many long-standing abilities have been stripped away, including the “Combine Taskbar Labels” preference. Luckily, there’s a way to ungroup the icons on your Windows 11 taskbar.

Stardock is a company that has been making customization software for Windows going all the way back to the XP days. Start11 is the company’s suite of tools for Windows 11, and it includes a number of taskbar tweaks that make Windows 11’s taskbar function a lot more like Windows 10’s.

The ability to ungroup taskbar icons was introduced in Start11 Beta v1.2, which was released on March 16, 2022. You can try Start11 for free with a 30-day trial, after which it costs $5.99. Keep in mind that, as of March 2022, this is beta software and may not work perfectly.

RELATED: Windows 11 Won’t Let You Move the Taskbar (But It Should)

To get started, head on over to the Stardock forum post in a web browser on your Windows 11 PC. Click the link to download the EXE setup file and open it once it’s finished.

You’ll first be asked to purchase a product key or start a free 30-day trial. Whichever you choose, follow the instructions to unlock Start11.

Next, go to the “Taskbar” section of the Start11 settings.

First, make sure to toggle on “Let Start11 Enhance the Taskbar.”

You have three options for how taskbar icon should be combined. Select the one you’d like to use.

Always: Icons will never be ungrouped. Sometimes: Icons will be ungrouped only when multiple windows of the same app are opened. (This doesn’t seem to work differently than “Never” at the time of writing. ) Never: Icons will always be ungrouped.

After making your selection, you may be prompted to reboot your PC or restart Windows Explorer. Follow whichever one you are prompted to do. If restarting Explorer doesn’t apply the changes, reboot your PC.

There you have it, taskbar icons that are no longer combined in Windows 11!

It’s unfortunate that we have to rely on a third-party app to “fix” a problem in Windows 11 that didn’t exist in Windows 10. Microsoft changed a lot about the taskbar, and the company has been slowly adding features—like drag and drop—back to it. In the meantime, we can thank the trusty Windows developer community.

RELATED: All the Ways Windows 11’s Taskbar Is Different