I’ve been both a Windows and a Mac user for many years. Rather than pledging allegiance to a single platform, I prefer to make use of both operating systems, in turn benefiting from their individual strengths and weaknesses. On the Windows PC side of things, for example, I’ve always loved the utility of the taskbar, which offers quick access to system functions, applications, and more.

For as great as the PC taskbar is, it has been heavily criticized in the Windows 11 era thanks to its lack of reposition options. This all changes now, as Microsoft is rolling out an update that lets you natively place the taskbar on any side of the screen without a hitch. Simultaneously, the ability to resize the taskbar down into a slimmer version of itself is also being released.

For fans of the legacy Windows Vista-era taskbar, this is huge news. It’s now possible to shrink the taskbar, which, when combined with left-justified icons and labels enabled, makes the system look and feel like the good old days of Windows’ past.

However, what really intrigues me is the option to place the taskbar at the top of the screen. When combined with the smaller taskbar setting and the left-justified apps setting, it effectively transforms the Windows 11 taskbar experience into a pseudo macOS Menu Bar.

Putting aside the obvious lack of menu bar entries themselves, all the hallmarks of the Menu Bar are present when Windows 11’s taskbar is configured in this way: quick settings and applet shortcuts are located in the top right-hand corner, as is the time, and the top left-hand corner is where each respective company’s logo (and therefore main menu) is located.

With the addition of app pins on the Windows 11 taskbar, it functions sort of like a hybridized version of both the Mac Menu Bar and the Dock itself. No, it’s not a one-to-one replica by any means, but it’s a rather fascinating convergence nonetheless.

It’s all configurable from within Settings

To set up your Windows 11 taskbar in a similar style to the macOS Menu Bar, there are three basic tweaks you need to make:

• Step 1: Relocate the taskbar to the top of the screen
  1. Launch Settings.
  2. Navigate to Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors.
  3. Under Taskbar position, choose Top.
• Step 2: Shrink the taskbar size
  1. Launch Settings.
  2. Navigate to Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors.
  3. Under Taskbar size, choose Small from the drop-down menu.
• Step 3: Align applications to the left
  1. Launch Settings.
  2. Navigate to Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors.
  3. Under Taskbar icon alignment, select Left from the drop-down menu.

This last step is down to personal preference. In fact, if you choose to leave your taskbar icons aligned to the center of the screen, it will more so mimic the macOS Dock interface, which may look and feel more at home if you’re a Mac user.

If you’d like to go a step even further, you can download and install a free third-party PC application called TranslucentTB from the Microsoft Store, which will make the taskbar transparent, and therefore even more similar to recent macOS releases (which feature a transparent Menu Bar style by default).

One interesting quirk of setting up your PC with a top-mounted taskbar is that the Show Desktop shortcut is now located at the top right-hand corner of the screen, right where the close window button would otherwise be on a bottom-located taskbar setup. As such, it’s quick and convenient to minimize all active applications using this button by darting your cursor to the top right-hand corner, and I find myself using the button far more often than I did when it was located in the bottom right-hand corner.

And there you have it. In just three simple steps, it’s super easy to make your Windows 11 taskbar behave far more like a macOS Menu Bar. I commend Microsoft for finally putting in the work to make the Windows 11 taskbar a more flexible PC interface element on the whole, and I can’t wait to see the company further refine the user experience in the months to come.