Windows 11 - adding a vertical taskbar like the one from Windows 10

I begrudgingly upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11.  That decision was made because Microsoft will stop support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025.  I actually do a decent amount of work in Linux Mint, but my workplace uses a lot of Microsoft and other Windows-based software.

After upgrading, I uninstalled various unnecessary items like the login screen widgets, Copilot, Xbox, etc. but I quickly found out the taskbar was not very customizable.  The main issue for me is that Windows 11 doesn't allow you to rotate the taskbar to be vertical.  This was actually a deal-breaker for me because I frequently switch between programs, and with a dual 22" LED monitor setup, it was inefficient and awkward to constantly move both my gaze and mouse pointer to the bottom of the left screen to select a program.  Of course there is the ability to Alt+Tab or Windows+Tab, but being able to just click on what you need in the centerpoint between the left and right screens is more efficient for me.

Wikimedia Commons photo by Mack Male showing Windows with a horizontal taskbar.

With dual 1920x1080 resolution screens, having a horizontal taskbar uses up too much of the 1080 part of the resolution.  After searching online I found very few solutions.  I ended up using WindHawk, an open source solution by Ramen Software.  I installed and activated a few mods to get the look I wanted.

• Taskbar height and icon size: change icon size to 18 pixels, taskbar height: 48, taskbar button width: 30
• Taskbar tray icon spacing: tray icon width: 22, tray overflow width: 40, tray overflow icons per row: 5
• Vertical taskbar for Windows 11: Taskbar location: Right, taskbar width: 132, Taskbar location on secondary monitors: Same as on primary monitor
• Windows 11 Taskbar Styler: Theme: None, see below for Advanced Mod settings.

The final result gets pretty close to the Windows 10 vertical taskbar.  

Below is my customized JSON config in case you would like to use it in the Advanced section of the WindHawk Windows 11 Taskbar Styler (paste the contents into Mod settings, replacing any existing content).  I started off with the WinXP taskbar which had the best spacing to fit a lot of taskbar programs.  When coupled with the vertical taskbar, looks distracting with the gradient.  I found the WinXP Zune variant which was a little better.  I removed the gradient and the Start button logo for what I believe to be a clean, readable look with enough vertical space to show 20+ open windows.

{
  "controlStyles[0].target": "Rectangle#BackgroundFill",
  "controlStyles[0].styles[0]": "Fill=#363636",
  "controlStyles[0].styles[1]": "VerticalAlignment=Stretch",
  "controlStyles[0].styles[2]": "Height=Auto",
  "controlStyles[1].target": "Taskbar.ExperienceToggleButton#LaunchListButton[AutomationProperties.AutomationId=StartButton]",
  "controlStyles[1].styles[0]": "CornerRadius=0",
  "controlStyles[1].styles[1]": "Margin=-4,0,4,0",
  "controlStyles[1].styles[2]": "MaxWidth=48",
  "controlStyles[2].target": "Taskbar.ExperienceToggleButton#LaunchListButton[AutomationProperties.AutomationId=StartButton] > Taskbar.TaskListButtonPanel",
  "controlStyles[2].styles[0]": "Padding=0",
  "controlStyles[2].styles[1]": "Background=#363636",
  "controlStyles[4].target": "Taskbar.ExperienceToggleButton#LaunchListButton[AutomationProperties.AutomationId=StartButton] > Taskbar.TaskListButtonPanel > Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Controls.AnimatedVisualPlayer#Icon",
  "controlStyles[4].styles[0]": "Visibility=Collapsed",
  "controlStyles[5].target": "TextBlock#LabelControl",
  "controlStyles[5].styles[0]": "Foreground=White",
  "controlStyles[6].target": "Rectangle#RunningIndicator",
  "controlStyles[6].styles[0]": "Visibility=Collapsed",
  "controlStyles[7].target": "TextBlock#TimeInnerTextBlock",
  "controlStyles[7].styles[0]": "Foreground=White",
  "controlStyles[8].target": "TextBlock#DateInnerTextBlock",
  "controlStyles[8].styles[0]": "Foreground=White",
  "controlStyles[9].target": "SystemTray.TextIconContent > Grid > SystemTray.AdaptiveTextBlock#Base > TextBlock",
  "controlStyles[9].styles[0]": "Foreground=White",
  "controlStyles[10].target": "Taskbar.TaskListLabeledButtonPanel@RunningIndicatorStates > Border#BackgroundElement",
  "controlStyles[10].styles[0]": "Background@ActiveRunningIndicator:=     ",
  "controlStyles[10].styles[1]": "Background:=     ",
  "controlStyles[10].styles[2]": "BorderThickness=1",
  "controlStyles[10].styles[3]": "BorderBrush@NoRunningIndicator=Transparent",
  "controlStyles[10].styles[4]": "CornerRadius=3",
  "controlStyles[11].target": "Taskbar.TaskListLabeledButtonPanel@RunningIndicatorStates > Border",
  "controlStyles[12].target": "Taskbar.TaskListLabeledButtonPanel@RunningIndicatorStates > Border#BackgroundElement",
  "controlStyles[12].styles[0]": "BorderBrush=#BB4B4B4B",
  "controlStyles[12].styles[1]": "Margin=1",
  "controlStyles[11].styles[0]": "BorderThickness=1",
  "controlStyles[12].styles[2]": "BorderThickness=1",
  "controlStyles[11].styles[1]": "CornerRadius=2",
  "controlStyles[11].styles[3]": "Margin=-2,-1,-2,-1",
  "controlStyles[12].styles[3]": "Background=#363636",
  "controlStyles[13].target": "Rectangle#BackgroundStroke",
  "controlStyles[13].styles[0]": "Fill=#858585",
  "controlStyles[14].target": "Grid#SystemTrayFrameGrid",
  "controlStyles[14].styles[0]": "Background=#363636",
  "controlStyles[14].styles[1]": "BorderThickness=1,0,0,0",
  "controlStyles[14].styles[2]": "BorderBrush=#222222",
  "controlStyles[14].styles[3]": "Padding=4,0,0,0",
  "controlStyles[15].target": "Taskbar.TaskListButton#TaskListButton > Taskbar.TaskListLabeledButtonPanel#IconPanel@RunningIndicatorStates > Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Image#Icon",
  "controlStyles[15].styles[0]": "Height@NoRunningIndicator=16",
  "controlStyles[11].styles[2]": "BorderBrush@NoRunningIndicator=Transparent",
  "controlStyles[12].styles[4]": "BorderBrush@NoRunningIndicator=Transparent",
  "controlStyles[12].styles[5]": "Background@NoRunningIndicator=Transparent",
  "controlStyles[16].styles[0]": "Margin@NoRunningIndicator=-7,0,-7,0",
  "controlStyles[16].target": "Taskbar.TaskListButton#TaskListButton > Taskbar.TaskListLabeledButtonPanel#IconPanel@RunningIndicatorStates",
  "controlStyles[16].styles[1]": "Padding@NoRunningIndicator=0",
  "controlStyles[17].target": "Taskbar.TaskListButton",
  "controlStyles[17].styles[0]": "Margin=-1.5",
  "controlStyles[18].target": "Grid#OverflowRootGrid > Border",
  "controlStyles[18].styles[0]": "Background:=     "
}