Windows 11 Drag and Drop Taskbar tool

30/12/2021

As every Windows 11 user knows and is not too happy about, Microsoft removed all the Windows 10 taskbar functionality from the taskbar in Windows 11.

Sources claim that Microsoft is working on bringing it all or partially back for Windows 11 later on in 2022, but it can be just an assumption or rumor. In the meanwhile, there is a solution you can use from the developer called HerMajestyDrMona, posting a tool on GitHub named Windows11DragAndDropToTaskbarFix.

It’s a standalone tool (portable) so there will be no changes made to your system while using it or just to try it out to see how it works. The program is an independent C++ process that does all the job.

So one requirement is, you need to have Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable x64 installed on your system. Don’t worry if you are new to this, all links are provided on the developer’s GitHub page to help you on the way.

Also, there is a good description to find out how it all works.

Changelog for Windows11Drag And Drop Taskbar tool 2.1.0.0

Added AutoOpenPinnedAppsEvenWhenNoWindowActive=0 configuration option (disabled by default), which allows you to open pinned apps, even when they have no active window. It solves discussion #37.
Updated the ConfigFileChangeTimeMonitorAllowed configuration option. When it’s set to 2, the program will automatically restart itself when you make changes to the configuration file. It was requested in issue #35.
Added an additional detection if the left/right mouse button is pressed in order to minimize the risk of issues that may occur when the Low Level Mouse Hook thread gets terminated by Windows (???). Discussed in issue #36
Added program auto restarts in the case when Low Level Mouse Hook terminates. But it doesn’t work anyway 😀 (because it’s still waiting for messages, I’m just sentimental, and I don’t like removing things already added).
Probably some other minor fixes. Please read CONFIGURATION for details about the newly added options.