How to Remove Text from Taskbar Icons in Windows 10 and Windows 11

Your Windows taskbar is showing text labels alongside every app icon instead of icons only, and you want that space back. The fix is a single dropdown, but the option name and behavior differ between Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Remove Text Labels on Windows 10

1. Right-click an empty area on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings.

2. Scroll down to Combine taskbar buttons under Personalization > Taskbar and open the dropdown.
3. Select Always, hide labels.

The taskbar switches to icons only right away, no restart needed. Windows groups multiple windows of the same app under one icon and drops every label.

For a dual-monitor setup, a matching Combine taskbar buttons on other taskbars option sits just below. Set it the same way.

Bonus: Toggle Use small taskbar buttons in the same settings page to shrink icons and bar height to roughly half their default size. On a compact laptop display it makes a noticeable difference.

Remove Text Labels on Windows 11

1. Right-click an empty area on the taskbar and select Taskbar settings.

2. In Settings, go to Personalization > Taskbar, scroll down, and expand Taskbar behaviors.
3. Open the Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels dropdown.
4. Select Always.

The taskbar collapses to icons only immediately. Same-app windows stack under one icon, and every label disappears.

The “Never” option doesn’t do what you’d expect. Selecting Never keeps each window as a separate, ungrouped button, but it also forces text labels on. There’s no native way to get ungrouped buttons with hidden labels in Windows 11. Always is the only built-in option that gives you icons only.

Setting not there? If Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels isn’t visible under Taskbar behaviors, your device is on an older Windows 11 build. The option arrived with the 23H2 update, run Windows Update to get it.

For a second monitor, Combine taskbar buttons and hide labels on other taskbars is in the same Taskbar behaviors section.

Advanced: Registry Edit (Windows 10 and 11)

Use this when the Settings dropdown is greyed out, which is common on company-managed machines where group policy locks the setting, or when you need to script the change across several PCs.

1. Press Windows + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
3. Double-click TaskbarGlomLevel.
4. Set the value data to 0 and click OK.
5. Restart Explorer or sign out and back in.

If TaskbarGlomLevel doesn’t exist, right-click the Advanced key, choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, name it TaskbarGlomLevel, and set it to 0.

Windows 11 note: Value 2 still shows labels, the registry follows the same rules as the Settings dropdown, and can’t get you ungrouped, icon-only buttons either.

Advanced: Group Policy (Windows 11 Pro and Enterprise)

Use this in managed environments where the setting needs to stick across users or devices.

1. Press Windows + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
2. Go to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar.
3. Open Prevent grouping of taskbar items, set it to Enabled, and click OK.
4. Run gpupdate /force in an elevated Command Prompt, or restart.

Group Policy controls grouping behavior but can’t hide labels on ungrouped buttons in Windows 11. If your goal is icons only, leave this policy Disabled or Not Configured and use Always in Taskbar settings instead.

What About “Never Combine” with Icons Only on Windows 11?

Windows 11 doesn’t support this combination natively. Picking Never separates each window onto its own button, but those buttons always carry a text label. There’s no built-in toggle to change that.

Third-party taskbar customization tools are the only path. Windhawk, for example, has modules that add “never combine but hide labels” by hooking into the taskbar at a lower level. It works until a Windows update changes something those tools rely on. If you go that route, know you’re trading stability for the exact layout you want.

Conclusion

Selecting Always in the combine dropdown clears up the labels for most people in seconds, on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. If the dropdown is greyed out on a work machine, group policy is almost certainly controlling it. You’ll need admin access to change it. And if you switched to Never expecting icons only and got labels instead, that’s expected behavior; flip it to Always and you’re done.