Is that the only windhawk mod you are using?

I got the same problem.

 Star11v2, ver2.49.1; Windows 11 23h2 (v22631.4602); in 4k resolution. Using Groupy 1.51 and fences 4.22

Ah, OK. I hadn't noticed what size they were without Start11. Thanks for clarifying that. I'll see if I can find out about those registry keys. Thanks again. 

New feature of vertical taskbar is excellent, long waiting for, works perfect. One remark however. Make taskbar a bit wider, whereby 2 icons of system tray are positioned side by side. Also helps to make time and date more readable, too small now. This wider vertical taskbar was part of Windows 10.

It was then thenonly mod active, but Windhawk played no role, I totally uninstalled it and nothing changed. Then I completely uninstalled, rebooted and re-installed Start11, the problem is still there. I am back now to horizontal taskbar.

Will we, if not in 2.5 but in a future version, be able to reverse the order I see in the images - that is, can the start button be at the bottom and so forth, instead of at the top when using side-aligned task bar? 

I was just thinking that this morning. I kind of like the left, vertical taskbar, but not with the start button at the top. I know, I know, we have been asking for vertical taskbars since Windows 11 debuted, and now we are making even more requests for additional tweaks. Give us an inch and we want a mile.   

I would like to add my voice to this one - I think it would be brilliant. 

The bottom left corner has been the "go to" position for the Start button since W95, so it is ingrained into many people's muscle memory. When Microsoft introduced the vertical task bar they moved the button to the top left, which for me and presumably others felt less natural.

I would absolutely love Start11 to allow the user to choose an inverted task bar, such that the Start button is bottom left, rising vertically would be the app icons, and the system tray top left. That would be fantastic - I would love it. Now that Stardock has made the big step required to offer a vertical task bar, I suspect inverting it would be relatively straightforward. Obviously it would be a user option. 

Yay! The instructions at this link work:

https://www.elevenforum.com/t/change-size-of-taskbar-thumbnail-previews-in-windows-11.6340/

On my PC I had to add two new keys (explained in the link). However, you can only increase the size values up to 512 (200H), which is still usefully bigger than the standard thumbnail window size. Values above that are treated as 512, so there is clearly a blanket maximum size for the thumbnails set elsewhere, or possibly even hard-coded.

No they're not, you state it yourself "Nearly all normal Windows 11 installs" so not all and as Windows Server 2025 is the same core as Windows 11 (before it the same with Server 2022 based on Windows 10), it proves it's not needed. We've been running without it and the IE controls since Windows 10 launched on at least 5 machines on 6 servers and nothing that matters has not worked - even Start11 was perfectly happy until now.

Before someone asks, we remove it for the same reasons we remove browsers and for systems that need to remain secure.

So, the main strange thing that I have encountered is that some pinned icons can get bugged and when a window for that icon is open, the Start button disappears and everything is shifted up.  Then the first icon acts as though it is the Start button unless you click exactly on the icon... then you might get what the icon shows instead of the Start menu.

If I unpin the offending icon, I'll probably get this behavior on a different icon.  If I drag the offending icon to another position, it remains the issue.  Rarely if I unpin enough things and re-pin, the issue will be hiding until I open enough windows.  I couldn't get rid of it completely.

v2.49.1  (never had 2.49.0)
Windows 11 24H2, 26100.2605 (2 day old system)

New bug discovered: Plugging an external monitor, the start button at the secondary taskbar (all center aligned) disappears, left start button and center aligned, some pinned icons do not show correctly, left aligned seems to be ok. Have to restart explorer and things get back in order.

Windows 11 Pro 23H2

Start11 2.49.1

Very minor issue. More something for an improvement than a 'bug'. When 'hotpluging' an monitor in a more exotic multi screen layout, and using Taskbar enhacements with vertical and top alignments some misplacement of the taskbars can occur. See illustrated below. I have not tested what factors can change and what factors cannot change, while still reproducing the issue. The matter is minor as signing the user session off and back on with monitors already connected, does correct the taskbar arrangement.
I'm feeding this back more because as logging on and off resolves the matter, this may be a trivial improvement to make with a workaround/refresh.
(could this be more of an impact for devices that routinely hot-plug screens such as fold out laptops?)

result below (scroll zoo out)

Removing it manually negates it being a 'normal install', yes?

That said, its not a required component (its for the changelog prompt and other messaging).

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Same issue.  I cannot figure out how to resize the vertical taskbar.  It's pretty skinny and a bit hard to use.  Resize works fine when docked to bottom, just not when it's vertical which is honestly the main reason I purchased this.

Which is probably 99% of all Windows installs, does everyone keep Notepad, Wordpad, Paint, Teams, "Games", News, Weather ....... installed on their machines?

Anyway, back to the beta. Seems to work just fine on Windows Server 2025 so far. I still need to use it a bit more and rebuild my original start menu again - of course, without webview.

To help to debug: The initial problem was discovered by plugging/unplugging one external monitor with the same resolution. Plugging the laptop to my dock, only 2 of the 6 external monitors presented the problem. Again restarting the explorer brings everything in order. Please let me know if you can reproduce or need screenshots

I have two minitors setup -when enableing vertical taskbar - main window has vertical taskbar on th left, the other monitor stil has horizontal taskbar

Probably you have to activate it for the secondary monitors too

I have been waiting for left/right alignment for years! Made me start using Start11 immediately!

I have a couple issues though:

1. No thumbnails are showing when left or right aligned. This makes the left/right alignment borderline useless. Restarting Windows makes no difference.
2. If  Taskbar Button Combining is enabled in any form, clicking the taskbar button does nothing. I've had to disable combining for the buttons to be usable.
3. There is no way to hide the taskbar button labels if the taskbar is wider than default.
4. The tray icons are painted in a single column taking up huge amounts of space. If you make the taskbar wider, the tray does not accommodate and paint more icons per line. I have attached pictures of
   1. Left aligned Start 11v2 taskbar with default width
   2. Left aligned Start 11v2 taskbar with extra width
   3. Right aligned Windows 10 taskbar with extra width

Another thing, the button images are messed up.

This is the top left of my taskbar.

It should have been Windows button, Outlook, Edge, Edge and Explorer.

The Windows button and the Outlook button have merged and a click alternates randomly between either.

Got sizing to work.  Strange I was changing a bunch of settings in the rounding and blue panes and it started working.  Changed them again and it started.  Seems like some of the padding settings lock out sizing.

Start Button not Displaying as Expected

Here are my findings after testing:

Scenario 1
Taskbar: Align Left
Vertically center the taskbar buttons ON
Hide the start button on the primary display OFF
No apps pinned to the taskbar
No apps open
Results: Start button hidden, but clicking where it should be opens the start menu; Pressing the WinKey on the keyboard opens the start menu

Scenario 2
Taskbar: Align Left
Vertically center the taskbar buttons ON
Hide the start button on the primary display OFF
With either an app pinned to the taskbar, or an app open
Results: Start button displays, and clicking it opens the start menu; Pressing the WinKey on the keyboard opens the start menu

Scenario 3
Taskbar: Align Left
Vertically center the taskbar buttons ON
Hide the start button on the primary display ON
No apps pinned to the taskbar
No apps open
Results: Start button displays, but clicking it does not open the start menu; Pressing the WinKey on the keyboard opens the start menu

Scenario 4
Taskbar: Align Left
Vertically center the taskbar buttons ON
Hide the start button on the primary display ON
With either an app pinned to the taskbar, or an app open
Results: Start button hidden, and clicking where it should be does nothing; Pressing the WinKey on the keyboard opens the start menu

Windows 11 Pro - 22635.4655; Start11v2 - 2.4.9.1

Some issues similar (maybe the same) as others have reported for the vertical taskbar:

1. Intermittent: Some icons for pinned apps seem to have slid up the taskbar and don't appear
2. Some apps don't respect the taskbar when maximized and overlap (or more strictly underlay) it. I would expect that for full-screen, but not maximized.
3. I often end up with too many app icons and no way in W11 to access those it hides. I know this is a W11 problem, not Start11, but is it something that could be fixed? W10 used to create another row of icons. This isn't specific to the vertical toolbar, but I have enough room when it's horizontal.
4. (Edited to add) When I have the taskbar vertical, some windows lose their window controls.

Taskbar resize works fine top or bottom, but not when aligned vertically. Running Win 11 24H2 on a Samsung G95 57" "dual monitor" setup with DisplayPort and HDMI inputs.

On the plus side, resizing vertical taskbars works great on my ARM Samsung Book.