Clear and Reset Taskbar Pins in Windows 11

The default taskbar pin layout in Windows 11 includes Start, Search, Task View, Widgets, Chat/Teams, File Explorer, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft Store, all center-aligned. That's way too many pinned items for my liking, so I got rid of most of them. I prefer to pin only Start, Search, Windows Explorer, and my browser.

If you've also customized the taskbar but you want to reset the changes and go back to the basics, read on. Since there's no convenient "reset" button in the Settings, you'll have to do it in a more roundabout way.

Let me show you how!

Reset and clear pins on the taskbar

First, we'll have to delete a couple of keys in the registry. As always, I recommend creating a system restore point just in case you misclick something. Still, it should be fine as long as you follow the instructions:

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and hit Enter.
2. In the registry, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband on the left side. However, depending on your Windows version, this key may not be there. In that case, you can skip to the next section.
3. Right-click the Taskband folder and select Delete.
4. Confirm your decision and click Yes.

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Now, before we move to a different location in the registry, you'll need to determine your user account's SID (Security Identifier) first. It's a unique string value that identifies your account. Even if you change the user account name, the SID remains the same.

To find it:

1. Press Win + R, type either cmd or powershell, and press Enter.
2. Type the following command and press Enter: whoami /user

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You'll see your SID in the terminal. Keep it open, since you'll need it in a bit.

Go back to the registry and do the following:

1. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\<SID>\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband. Replace <SID> with the actual SID for your user account.
2. Again, right-click the Taskband folder and select Delete.
3. Confirm by clicking on Yes.
4. Now you can close the Registry Editor.

We're almost done!

All that's left to do is to open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Users*your account username*\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar. This will take you to the TaskBar folder. Delete all shortcut files in it, and restart your PC to fully apply all the changes.

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Alternatively, you can also restart the Explorer process in Task Manager if you don't feel like restarting your computer.

Either way, that should remove all custom pins from the taskbar and bring back the default look.

selma citakovic Selma is a gamer, geek and gremlin hunter with a passion for cyber security and smashing Windows bugs before they bite. She’s IBM-certified, loves real freeware, despises bloatware, and powers most of her troubleshooting with an unhealthy amount of coffee.

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