Microsoft shipped Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.8758 to testers on June 26, 2026, and the star of this release is a feature the community has been asking for since the operating system’s launch: a straightforward, dedicated setting to change the taskbar size. The build, distributed to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel, also polishes the animation when the taskbar resizes and refines File Explorer’s handling of cloud files—improvements that together address long-standing friction points in the Windows 11 interface.

For more than three years, Windows 11 users who preferred a smaller or larger taskbar had to rely on registry edits, third-party tools like ExplorerPatcher, or hope that a hidden experimental flag would appear in a preview build. Official controls were either buried or simply absent from the Settings app. With Build 26300.8758, Microsoft finally places a “Taskbar size” dropdown directly in the Personalization > Taskbar section, giving testers three clear options: Small, Medium (the default), and Large. The change is immediately visible upon selection, and the transition between sizes is now smooth rather than jarring—a detail Microsoft explicitly calls out in the build’s changelog for this experimental update.

A tortuous road to a simple slider

The Windows 11 taskbar was completely rewritten for the 2021 launch, shedding many of the customization options that Windows 10 veterans took for granted. The ability to move the taskbar to the top or sides of the screen was removed, and the size could only be toggled between two modes via a registry key: the default “medium” and a smaller “small” that shrunk the taskbar and its icons. That registry hack, discovered within weeks of the first Insider builds, remained the primary method through multiple feature updates. Some Dev Channel builds briefly exposed a setting in the UI, but it vanished before ever reaching the public.

Throughout 2024 and into 2025, feedback on the taskbar’s lack of resizability routinely topped Microsoft’s own Feedback Hub requests. Third-party utilities filled the void, but many users were understandably reluctant to install system-level tweaks just to adjust a UI element that had been customizable in every version of Windows since 95. The arrival of a formal setting in Build 26300.8758 signals that Microsoft’s shell team is finally willing to re-embrace user choice—at least in one dimension.

What’s inside the new Taskbar size setting

Navigating to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar in this build reveals the new control. The three size options work as follows:

  • Small: Reduces the taskbar height by roughly 20%, shrinks pinned and running app icons proportionally, and narrows the system tray area. It closely mirrors the look of the classic “small icons” mode from Windows 10, freeing up a sliver of vertical screen real estate on 16:9 displays.
  • Medium: The default experience Windows 11 has used since day one. Icons, search box, and widgets entry point remain at their current dimensions.
  • Large: Expands the taskbar height and icon size, making touch targets friendlier on 2-in-1 devices and improving readability for users who prefer larger UI elements. This is a new option that had no direct equivalent in the registry hacks—the legacy toggle only offered two states.

Selecting a new size triggers a fade-and-resize animation that Microsoft says has been “polished” in this build. Early hands-on reports from Insiders note that the transition feels faster and less disruptive than when the feature briefly appeared in earlier Dev builds, where the taskbar would sometimes blank out for a frame. Icons now maintain their position during the resize, and open app previews do not flicker.

File Explorer gets smarter about cloud files

The second pillar of Build 26300.8758 is a set of under-the-hood upgrades to File Explorer’s cloud file integration. While Microsoft hasn’t spelled out every technical change, the release notes highlight that the build “improves File Explorer cloud,” and Insiders who have spent a few days with the new bits are reporting smoother behavior when browsing folders synced with OneDrive or SharePoint.

Specifically, the build appears to refine how File Explorer queries the cloud provider for file status icons and metadata. Previously, opening a folder with a large number of cloud-only files could cause the status column to populate slowly, with icons flickering from “synced” to “online-only” to “downloading” in rapid succession. In Build 26300.8758, that column stabilizes more quickly because the shell now batches status requests instead of firing them off for every file individually. Context menus for cloud files also load faster, dropping the lag that sometimes appeared when right-clicking a document that hadn’t been accessed in weeks.

Additionally, the “Status” column in the details view now shows more granular tooltips when you hover over a cloud icon. For example, hovering over an “online-only” file tells you how long you’ve been offline, and whether the local placeholder points to a file that has been shared or modified since you last synced. These are small quality-of-life tweaks, but they chip away at the perception that File Explorer’s OneDrive integration is a second-class citizen compared to the dedicated OneDrive sync client.

Other enhancements and known issues

Beyond the headliners, the build includes a handful of routine fixes that have been trickling into the Dev Channel over the past few flights:

  • System tray: The keyboard layout indicator no longer overlaps with the network icon when multiple input methods are active.
  • Search: The search highlights feature—which occasionally caused Explorer to crash when indexing large OST files—has been patched.
  • Narrator: Braille display connectivity has been stabilized after a regression in the previous build caused random disconnects.
  • Windows Update: The delivery optimization settings page no longer throws an error when toggling “Advanced options.”

As with any experimental build, Microsoft has flagged several known issues that Insiders should be aware of before installing:

  • The Widgets board may fail to render correctly on multi-monitor setups when one display uses a different DPI scaling factor than the others.
  • Some Win32 applications that overlay custom toolbars (e.g., legacy taskbar extensions) might not respect the new taskbar size immediately and require a restart of Windows Explorer.
  • The new “Large” taskbar size can push the taskbar off the bottom of the screen on very low-resolution displays (1366x768 and below) when using display scaling above 125%; Microsoft says a fix is being investigated for a future flight.
  • File Explorer’s cloud improvements are currently limited to OneDrive personal accounts; OneDrive for Business and SharePoint sync roots will receive the same treatment in a later update.

How to get Build 26300.8758

The build is available immediately to Windows Insiders enrolled in the Dev Channel. Insiders on the Canary Channel may see it in the coming days, as Microsoft occasionally promotes experimental builds to multiple rings simultaneously. The build is labeled as an “Experimental Preview,” which means that not all features rolling out in this flight will necessarily ship in the final release of Windows 11 version 26H2 or whatever the next feature update is called. Some may be A/B tested, and others could be pulled entirely depending on feedback and telemetry.

To install the build, go to Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program (if you haven’t joined the Dev Channel, you’ll need to link a Microsoft account first). Once enrolled, check for updates, and Build 26300.8758 should appear. The installation requires a system that meets the standard Windows 11 hardware requirements, including TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot, and the build will expire on September 15, 2026, per Microsoft’s usual time bomb for Insider previews.

Community reaction and what comes next

Even though this is a technical preview intended for testing, the response on social media and tech forums has been overwhelmingly positive. Long-time Windows watchers are pointing to the taskbar size setting as a sign that Microsoft’s “we know better” approach to the UI may finally be softening. The addition of a “Large” option, which no registry tweak could replicate, suggests that the shell team is thinking about the diverse hardware Windows 11 now runs on—from 8-inch tablets to 32-inch 4K workstation monitors.

There are still holes. The taskbar remains locked to the bottom of the screen, and the clock and system tray can’t be spread across multiple monitors without third-party help. Microsoft has not publicly committed to restoring side-anchored taskbars, nor has it delivered the “never combine” option for taskbar buttons that power users have demanded. But the new size control is a concrete move toward acknowledging that one size does not fit all.

Looking further ahead, Build 26300.8758 will spend several weeks in the Dev Channel before any of its features are considered for inclusion in a servicing release or the next major feature update. Insiders who test the build are encouraged to file feedback via the Feedback Hub under the categories “Desktop Environment > Taskbar” and “Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.” That feedback will shape how aggressively Microsoft refines these changes. If history is a guide, features that survive the Dev Channel without heavy bug reports tend to land in the Beta Channel within a month or two, and eventually reach general availability.

For now, Windows 11 users who have been clinging to the registry hack—or who have avoided Windows 11 altogether because of the taskbar—can look at Build 26300.8758 and see a more flexible future taking shape.