One day my kids were playing on my computer, and before I could start playing, they managed to change some settings in Windows 10. I knew right away because my taskbar looked completely different.
Instead of displaying small icons normally, it showed text and icons. Each program on the taskbar now took up 5 times more space than before.
Also, if I had multiple instances of the same program open, each instance would occupy its own slot. Fortunately, this was easy to fix. In this article, I’ll show you how to remove text in taskbar icons so that it only shows icons and takes up less space.
Remove icons from the taskbar
First, right-click on the taskbar and select Taskbar Options.
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Scroll down until you see the “Combine” taskbar buttons title and a dropdown menu below it.
In my case, it was set to Never, so I could see all the text on the taskbar buttons. You can choose “When the taskbar is full” or “Always hide labels”.
It always works for me to hide labels. This makes the taskbar much cleaner and saves a lot of space. Any program that has multiple instances open will show up as folded rather than separately.
If you want to save even more space, you can also toggle the Use small taskbar buttons option on the settings screen. This reduces the icons and the taskbar by about half. I believe this is too small, so I do not include it.
Please note that if you have multiple displays, you can control this setting for other taskbars if they are enabled.
That’s all. Most people don’t encounter this problem often, but if you do, you know how to fix it. Plus, it’s a pretty safe and easy setup that can be used as a prank to harass someone who isn’t computer savvy. Enjoy!
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