Mysterious Rounded Taskbar in Windows 11 Raises More Questions Than Answers

The taskbar has received a major overhaul with the release of Windows 11, as Microsoft has placed all icons at the center of the screen, so they’re no longer aligned to the left.

The overhaul of the taskbar, however, is a work-in-progress, with the software giant working on further polishing, such as the drag and drop support, that further enhance the experience on the desktop.

But as it turns out, there’s something really big coming to the taskbar in a future Windows 11 update. Or at least, that’s what seems to be the case at first glance, so don’t be too surprised if this is just the Internet being, well, the Internet.

Someone on reddit claims the most recent preview build shipped as part of the Dev channel in the Windows insider has a glitch that enables a rounded taskbar. It’s easy to believe this is a graphics bug in Windows, but according to the user, this isn’t the first time they’re seeing the rounded taskbar and for some reason, it came back in the latest build.

There’s always the chance that the rounded taskbar isn’t actually real because, as Neowin also noted, an application called RoundedTB can convert the current taskbar into a rounded version with just a few clicks. So it could very well be just a rounded taskbar enabled with the app and Microsoft isn’t necessarily working on anything on this front.

But at the same time, it’s not a secret that Microsoft is experimenting with all kinds of ideas, so it wouldn’t necessarily be a surprise to see the company testing a rounded taskbar and then dropping it before it makes its way to users.

Either way, you’d better take this rounded taskbar with a healthy pinch of salt, but if you really like the design, the aforementioned app is the only way to get it.