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mdsan
mdsan
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Recent Windows Updates changed taskbar behaviour

Start11 appears to no longer be functional

October 12, 2023 11:37:37 AM from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Last night, Windows 11 (22H2) automatically installed updates KB5031354 and KB5031323. Upon restart, the taskbar has completely changed behaviour:

- Taskbar is significantly taller on screen -- previously I had it set to the thinnest possible setting -- it's about 175% taller now.

- All icons are much bigger and have a peculiar underline.

- The start menu button is no longer customizable. In Start11's configuration panel, I have selected "Use a custom start button image", but the default image remains.

- The search bar reappeared.

- Inside the Start Menu, my left side shortcuts are all missing; only user, settings, and power remain.

 

In short, it appears that Start11 is no longer actually doing anything at all. I think this is simply the newest version of Windows 11's taskbar. I can confirm that I have both "Let Start11 enhance the taskbar" and "Use the Start11 Start Menu" selected and have both restarted explorer and restarted the entire computer.

Is there a known fix?

 

 

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mdsan
basj
Join Date 03/2001
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Reply #1 October 12, 2023 8:47:41 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But, I just updated my system with that two updates and I don't see any issue with it. Refer screenshot below. Please post a screenshot of your issue. Also, please try uninstalled Start11, reboot immediately (important), reinstall Start11 latest version available.

Taskbar size was set at Small on this screenshot.

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

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mdsan
dchong073
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Reply #2 October 12, 2023 11:12:58 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I am having the same issues on all of our systems. I have uninstalled Start11, rebooted and reinstall Start11 latest version available and it goes back to the windows system default. 

 

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mdsan
basj
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Reply #3 October 12, 2023 11:22:58 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Please try purge and reinstall steps as mention here : [Link]. Just make sure to redownload the latest version from your account page. Reboot after the purge. Reinstall and reboot again after the installation. Retest and report back here.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

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mdsan
dchong073
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Reply #4 October 13, 2023 1:58:38 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I followed all the steps twice and Windows just overrides everything. These were the updates that changed everything and also the purge.

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mdsan
nomorebigpic
Join Date 08/2011
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Reply #5 October 13, 2023 7:00:48 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I am having similar problems following these Windows updates.

I can still access the Start 11 menu by pressing the Windows Key, but clicking on the taskbar icon always brings up the standard Win Menu, even though the Start 11 app has got it marked to show the Start 11 menu.

I do wish they'd leave things alone!

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mdsan
TPScroggins
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Reply #6 October 13, 2023 8:37:03 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I also have been running the update without any issues, it might be a good idea to see if you have any other "Windows modification" software running.  (Explorer Patcher, OpenShell, ViveTool, ect)

 

Paul Scroggins
Associate Technical Support Analyst

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mdsan
nomorebigpic
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Reply #7 October 13, 2023 3:45:10 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Yep, just discovered Explorer Patcher on my system. Never even heard of it so no idea how it got there. Removed it and all back to working properly now, thanks.

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mdsan
kevin34ct
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Reply #8 October 14, 2023 11:56:25 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I have the same problem and reported it a couple of weeks ago.  Stardock forums will only tell you to uninstall then reinstall.  That doesn't work.  For me to get a small taskbar, I set the registry setting and turned off Auto-Hide.  Not the way I wanted it, but I think I will try to get used to the Windows 11 start menu and uninstall Start 11 for good.  It was good when it worked, but now it's just junk.  There should be no reason to keep uninstalling and reinstalled a product that can't survive through a Windows patch.  I understand it's a modification, but there are so many manual tweaks you can do that usually survive a Windows update.

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mdsan
PhoenixRising1
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Reply #9 October 14, 2023 2:14:45 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

@Kevin

While it is true that the 22h2 update did in fact make Windows 11 customization's a little harder to use due to Microsoft's practices of changing what it allows to happen on its OS; things like taskbar resize usually does not break after a Windows update.

TPScroggins is correct. Programs like explorerpatcher, by design, break on every single windows update. In fact, there are times where you could use a windows 11 modifier and it changes your registry settings. When you go to uninstall the program the changes to your registry could still be enabled causing issues with programs such as start 11. If the registry is giving two competing commands then you then you will run into a problem like the taskbar not being able to resize.

Personally I am a big fan of running a clean install of Windows 11 every now and then to get everything off my system that I may have played around with.

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mdsan
Neil Banfield
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Reply #10 October 14, 2023 2:55:38 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting kevin34ct,
reply 8

I have the same problem and reported it a couple of weeks ago.  Stardock forums will only tell you to uninstall then reinstall.  That doesn't work.  For me to get a small taskbar, I set the registry setting and turned off Auto-Hide.  Not the way I wanted it, but I think I will try to get used to the Windows 11 start menu and uninstall Start 11 for good.  It was good when it worked, but now it's just junk.  There should be no reason to keep uninstalling and reinstalled a product that can't survive through a Windows patch.  I understand it's a modification, but there are so many manual tweaks you can do that usually survive a Windows update.

Firstly you do not need to uninstall and reinstall Start11 for a Windows patch.  This might be the case for other non Stardock products though. The only reason for doing that would be if the software had not been installing updates correctly which is why support suggest it when you report an issue.  Always best to start knowing you have the latest version.

With regards to your problem, this was different to the problem in this thread.  Your issue was Windows removed the native support for a smaller taskbar and so to use that you have to enable the enhanced taskbar in Start11 but this does not support autohide taskbar for sizes other than medium.  This is not the fault of Start11 and Start11 is not removing anything here.

The problem in this thread is almost certainly caused by having a version of ExplorerPatcher on the computer which is broken by the newer Windows patch resulting in Start11 thinking it is on Windows 10 and so not enabling the taskbar support for Windows 11 but explorer patcher being non functional. Removing ExplorerPatcher will resolve this.

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mdsan
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Reply #11 October 16, 2023 9:05:16 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I did in fact have ExplorerPatcher installed. After uninstalling, the taskbar shrunk and I can now customize the Start button.

However, the appearance is still significantly different. The font beside each icon has changed and is almost unreadably small.

Also (minor) the start button itself changed and I can no longer set it to the windows 10 button appearance.

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mdsan
Neil Banfield
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Reply #12 October 16, 2023 11:01:12 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting mdsan,
reply 11

I did in fact have ExplorerPatcher installed. After uninstalling, the taskbar shrunk and I can now customize the Start button.

However, the appearance is still significantly different. The font beside each icon has changed and is almost unreadably small.

Also (minor) the start button itself changed and I can no longer set it to the windows 10 button appearance.

Can you post a screenshot of what you see please?

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mdsan
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Reply #13 October 16, 2023 12:24:41 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

 

Monitor is 28" at 4K resolution; for physical scale, the taskbar is 8mm in total and the font of the text beside each taskbar icon is slightly less than 2mm (equivalent to about 6pt font). Also note the underlining of the icons. It looks like the taskbar is simply a scaled new Win11 taskbar rather than maintaining its original look and feel.

 

Unfortunately I cannot find a screenshot with the old appearance.

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mdsan
PhoenixRising1
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Reply #14 October 17, 2023 3:54:03 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

@msd

Are you able to change the taskbar size under the [taskbar] option and then the [taskbar size] settings?

Also note, that if you were using explorerpatcher then you probably had the Windows 10 taskbar patched into your Windows 11 system. The Windows 10 and 11 taskbar do look different and use different font. However the Windows 11 taskbar should be bigger then the Windows 10's. It sounds to me that somehow you got switched to a [small] taskbar size after uninstalling explorerpatcher.

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mdsan
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Reply #15 October 17, 2023 4:24:45 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

I am able to change the taskbar height through Start11 Settings. The font size remains 6pt regardless of the taskbar size.

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mdsan
PhoenixRising1
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Reply #16 October 17, 2023 4:40:14 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

The last thing I can think of is to adjust display scaling

under [settings] > [system] > [display] > [scale]

increasing that should increase text size

If that doesnt give you the look you are looking for I will leave it to Neil.

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mdsan
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Reply #17 October 18, 2023 8:38:45 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Unfortunately not. Display -> Scale changes the size of the taskbar as well as its text.

I also tried Accessibility -> Text Size to no effect. (This changes every type of text EXCEPT the taskbar text.)

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mdsan
basj
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Reply #18 October 18, 2023 9:21:48 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Hello,

I believe if you wanted to change the taskbar button font size try changing the "Taskbar button font size" Refer screenshot below. Its under "More Start11 taskbar settings..." (only available for Windows 11 system with Start11 enhance taskbar turned on)

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

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mdsan
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Reply #19 October 18, 2023 9:25:27 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

There it is!

 

Thanks, Basj!!

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mdsan
basj
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Reply #20 October 18, 2023 9:54:59 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Great, glad to help.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

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mdsan
kevin34ct
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Reply #21 September 20, 2024 6:00:33 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

This problem was fixed in the latest release of Start 11.  Thank you to the developers for realizing there was an issue and creating a new feature.  I am finally back to my taskbar on all monitors, small size and autohide.

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mdsan
basj
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Reply #22 September 20, 2024 7:14:08 AM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Quoting kevin34ct,
reply 21

This problem was fixed in the latest release of Start 11.  Thank you to the developers for realizing there was an issue and creating a new feature.  I am finally back to my taskbar on all monitors, small size and autohide.

Awesome, glad to hear that.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

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