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Start11 v2.5 Beta Arrives with Vertical Taskbars

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Start11 v2.5 Beta Arrives with Vertical Taskbars

Vertical taskbars for both sides of the desktop

from Stardock Forums

v2.5 Beta Brings Vertical Taskbar Option on Windows 11

Get Start11 Now  |  Learn More about Start11 v2

Today we are releasing the Start11 v2.5 beta with new features, a couple of enhancements and bug fixes as well. The update is available now as a beta and you can download this release from the Download page of your Stardock account or through Object Desktop manager – learn more here.

New with version 2.5 is the ability to use a vertical taskbar on Windows 11. The vertical taskbar can be placed on the left or right side of the display and functions just as you remember from previous versions of Windows where this configuration was supported. To enable the new taskbar experience, open the configuration panel, click Taskbar, scroll to the Taskbar position option and select you desired configuration.

Along with the new vertical taskbar support, centered taskbar buttons with a left aligned Start icon is now supported on more than two monitors (previously only two screens were supported). While support for two monitors covered the majority of our users, we wanted to make sure power-users who have many displays can utilize this layout as well.

In addition to the new functionality, several bugs are being squashed with this update. We have improved compatibility with the latest Insider builds of Windows 11 that we expect to be released in the coming months and with this release, Start11 v2 will be ready for those updates.

Vertical taskbars have been highly requested by our community and we are happy to finally check this feature off the backlog. If you have any requests for upcoming features or find any bugs that we missed in our testing, make sure to join our community here.

And if you haven't tried Start11 v2 yet, you can download it from the app page and it is also included in the award-winning suite, Object Desktop.

 

 

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144,530 views 84 replies
Reply #76 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting BL2239, reply 75

I just loaded the new version with the vertical taskbar and so happy this is finally happening.

One issue/question please?    With the horizontal bar I can set the divider between the task bar and the screen high enough to have several rows of icons.    With the vertical bar, no matter how far I shift the divider over, there only seems to be one icon per horizontal space, and then a slider bar appears to allow you to see all the icons?

The taskbar is working like Windows 10 where wider did not give you another column.

This is something we are considering though as it could be useful for those who do not want to see text and can allocate more width to the taskbar.

Reply #77 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting PhoenixRising1, reply 73

Stardocks dock is called object dock. But I will concur that program could use some modernization and further updates although you could try placing a shrunken taskbar on top and a dock on the bottom of the screen to mimic the look a little. I use a dock and taskbar together all the time myself.

In regards to Quick Access Popup, isnt that what start 11 v2.5 does? I mean they have all kinds of tools and customization's built in that seriously saves on clicks.

I have tried object dock and the start 11 v2.5 at the top off the screen, did not work well, firstly I have bought ALL Stardock software & all UnInstalled, Object dock, ho boy looks like something from windows xp, just can't compare MyDockFinder not even close, which also auto hides the dock if the active window is maximized and only the menubar at the top off the screen is always displayed.

As for "Start11 & customization's built in that seriously saves on clicks",  Quick Access Popup, No need to move mouse anywhere just left/right-click the mouse wheel or config any other mouse button/hotkey to save any movment off the mouse before clicks, just opens a popup menus (dark mode/light). i.e I have one popup menus to send system hotkeys, like new sticky note or extract text form anywhere & anohter popup menu too show me all apps I have installed if already running brings them to the front, anohter button to show me 'Task View' off all apps I have running & desktops for me to select one.

Start11 is good but it may just be me, just can't see the point of millions of people buying trackballs/mouses with all these extra buttons and in 2025 & have to move the mouse to the Left/Right/Top/Bottom of the screen (desktop monitors are getting wider & having the taskbar on the left/right even more mouse travel) before you can select/click when one can have it all these menus come to your mouse!

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Reply #78 from Stardock Forums Top

The vertical taskbar is great! I am having one issue and not sure it is caused by the vertical taskbar. With the horizontal bar when I right click on one of the notification area (the little icons in the bottom of the taskbar) a context menu appears, however with Cloudflare Warp no context menu appears, this only happens with the vertical taskbar and only with Cloudflare, other icons context menu appear. As you can see when I hover over it, this is what is displayed (which is normal) I am having an issue that the context menu (to disable it or exit it) doesnt appear

Reply #79 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi. Any chance to make vertical taskbar and keep start menu opening in the center of the screen?

I find it less distracting.

Reply #80 from Stardock Forums Top

I have noticed a change in behavior recently. Not sure if it corresponds to an update in Windows.

The expected behavior is, when I have an app open but obscured by other apps or minimized, when I click on the app in the taskbar it provides a list of those windows, when it click on one I expect it to come to the foreground.

The new behavior is, it remains obscured and I either have to click on it again in the taskbar or if part is visible click on that to get it to the foreground. Annoying and a change. Not sure if it is a bug in Start11 

Reply #81 from Stardock Forums Top

I love the revival of the vertical task bar, but also observe some glitches.

The most annyoing one: for some applications, when I hover over the icon in the task bar, the ribbon with thumbnails of the windows of this application don't appear. Even worse, sometimes the thumbnails of another application (adjacent to the one I am hovering over) are shown!!

This video demonstrates the problem:

https://nas-zusamzell.synology.me:5551/?launchApp=SYNO.SDS.Drive.Application#MyDrive

In the video I am hovering over the taskbar application icons in this sequence:

  • SAP Logon: no problem (3 windows properly shown)
  • Chrome: PROBLEM: No thumbnails (it would be two: one "normal" Chrome and one "Incognito window" Chrome - I do not display tabs of Chrome as thumbnails)
  • Edge: PROBLEM: No thumbnail (it would be 1 instance of Edge, I do not show tabs of Edge as thumbnails)
  • Outlook: PROBLEM, even worse: It shows the thumbnails of Edge (icon above)!!!

This is not a new problem - I observe it since the vertical taskbar was released end of 2024.

My screen resolution is 3440 x 1440.

Reply #82 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting PMuthsam, reply 81

I love the revival of the vertical task bar, but also observe some glitches.

The most annyoing one: for some applications, when I hover over the icon in the task bar, the ribbon with thumbnails of the windows of this application don't appear. Even worse, sometimes the thumbnails of another application (adjacent to the one I am hovering over) are shown!!

This video demonstrates the problem:

https://nas-zusamzell.synology.me:5551/?launchApp=SYNO.SDS.Drive.Application#MyDrive

In the video I am hovering over the taskbar application icons in this sequence:

 

    • SAP Logon: no problem (3 windows properly shown)

 

    • Chrome: PROBLEM: No thumbnails (it would be two: one "normal" Chrome and one "Incognito window" Chrome - I do not display tabs of Chrome as thumbnails)

 

    • Edge: PROBLEM: No thumbnail (it would be 1 instance of Edge, I do not show tabs of Edge as thumbnails)

 

    • Outlook: PROBLEM, even worse: It shows the thumbnails of Edge (icon above)!!!

 


This is not a new problem - I observe it since the vertical taskbar was released end of 2024.

My screen resolution is 3440 x 1440.

Are you using anything else which might alter the OS as this is not normal.

Reply #83 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Neil, reply 82

Are you using anything else which might alter the OS as this is not normal.

No, I don't use any other tool.

In the meanwhile I found that this problem is occurring not only with the vertical task bar, but also if I have the Start 11 task bar horizontally (at the bottom).

 
Reply #84 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting PMuthsam, reply 83


Quoting Neil Banfield,
reply 82

Are you using anything else which might alter the OS as this is not normal.



No, I don't use any other tool.

In the meanwhile I found that this problem is occurring not only with the vertical task bar, but also if I have the Start 11 task bar horizontally (at the bottom).


 


If you update to 2.7 beta this should be addressed.

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