bughit

The entire classic taskbar is, you might say euphemistically, heavily discouraged, having been removed in win11. Why should users who want classic functionality care about Microsoft's "discouragement"? Why would you help people restore classic functionality, and then "discourage" its use? Well, that's subjective. I've been using quick launch and its overflow menu from its inception and find it adequate for launching apps and opening certain frequent folders. I don't need a better way. I need the old way to keep working and to also work on the secondary when the primary is hidden by a full-screen app. A sane default for clone mode (where the secondary task bar already shows the same running tasks and same tray icons as the primary) is to also show the same toolbars. That's more logical, coherent and useful than the current partial clone. But for automatic moving of the primary taskbar when hidden by a full-screen app on primary, an option is needed, because that would be a new mode, which can't be forced on everyone.

Are you saying they shouldn't exist at all? They certainly do have a place, because that's been a feature of the classic taskbar, through win10. A quick launch toolbar, for example, is quite useful and it also has a useful overflow menu, which can have shortcuts to programs and folders and these can be organized into sub-folders which turn into sub-menus. Since the goal is to restore the classic taskbar, removing the toolbar feature does not make sense, that would not be a restoration. What does make sense is that a clone (if clone mode is configured) of the primary taskbar on the secondary screen should have the same functionality. Is my understanding of the specifics of what you proposed correct? That there would be an option for the primary taskbar to automatically move to the secondary screen, when an app (e.g. a vm) goes full-screen on the primary.

I take it you're saying it's difficult/impossible to get toolbars to show on the secondary? If so, would you consider attempting your alternative proposal, of moving the taskbar to a secondary screen when primary is in full-screen mode?

I prefer the old "quick launch" toolbar for launching and don't use pinned apps, leaving the main taskbar area exclusively for running apps. That's how things used to work (xp) and it makes more sense to me than conflating launch icons with running app tiles. Since toolbar functionality is still there, there could be other reasons. The general point is, if one is using toolbars on the primary taskbar, they're going to want them on the secondary, if using it as a primary substitute, when something is running full-screen on the primary. As for moving, I suppose this use-case could be served by the primary taskbar optionally moving to the secondary screen whenever something goes full-screen on the primary. Still I would say a full clone is also worth having, if feasible. Its already almost there, the only thing missing are toolbars.

The secondary taskbar can be configured as a clone of the primary: In this clone mode, it has the same apps and the same tray icons. Clone mode is desirable if you need to be able to use either taskbar interchangeably, when you have something running full-screen on the primary display and the primary taskbar is hidden. This use-case requires that the taskbars be identical. You don't want to have to fall back to an inferior partial clone with missing toolbars. So having the same toolbars should at least be an option. Also, the context menu of the secondary taskbar shows the missing toolbar checked.

Additional toolbars are not shown on secondary taskbars. win11 23h2 SAB 3.8.11 show taskbar on all displays quick launch toolbar has been added to the taskbar it's only on the primary taskbar