The feature needs to be manually enabled by users

Jul 26, 2022 18:05 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has recently launched the taskbar overflow in Windows 11 Dev builds, and while the company has only released this feature to a limited number of testers, it looks like more people can actually give it a try.

Someone on reddit has discovered that the taskbar overflow is also live in the latest Beta build, only that it needs to be enabled with Vivetool.

The process is quite easy actually, as the following commands are required (Windows 11 build 22621.436 in the Beta channel is required):

vivetool /enable /id:35620393   vivetool /enable /id:35620394  

The Windows 11 taskbar overflow

The Windows 11 taskbar overflow is still in its early days right now, so it more or less feels like a half-baked feature for the time being.

However, Microsoft will obviously further refine it before releasing the feature to everybody in the Insider program, so don’t expect to see it going live officially in the Beta channel just yet.

“We’re reintroducing taskbar overflow, with a newly designed experience for Windows 11. This taskbar experience has been thoughtfully crafted to offer you a more productive switching and launching experience when space is constrained. Your taskbar will automatically transition into this new overflow state when it has hit its maximum capacity. In this state, taskbar will offer an entry point to an overflow menu that allows you to view all your overflowed apps in one space,” Microsoft originally announced.

“The overflow menu will contain many of the current taskbar behaviors users are familiar with, such as supporting pinned apps, jump list, and extended UI. After invoking overflow, the menu will quietly dismiss once you click outside of it or navigate to an application.”

The taskbar overflow doesn’t yet have an ETA for production devices, as the feature is expected in 2023 at the earliest.