Windows 11 will finally let you move the taskbar. Maybe wait two weeks.

Since Windows 11 launched in 2021, the taskbar has been welded to the bottom of the screen. Microsoft removed the option that every previous version of Windows had, people complained for five years, and on 27 August it came back.

The update is KB5120998, which takes Windows 11 24H2 to build 26100.9278 and 25H2 to 26200.9278. Under Settings, Personalization, Taskbar, you can now put the taskbar at the bottom, top, left or right, and there's a smaller taskbar option if you want the screen space back. The Start menu gets a size setting, small or large, alongside the automatic default. Windows Search now indexes the folders you use most without being asked, so your own files actually turn up in results. Around 35 changes in total.

Here's the catch, and it's a real one. This is a preview update: it contains no security fixes and it does not install itself. You only get it by opening Windows Update and clicking "Download and install" under optional updates. Since then, complaints have piled up in the Feedback Hub and on Reddit from people who did exactly that. Custom mouse cursors revert to a large white pointer that looks like it wandered in from Windows 98, and won't change back. Desktop wallpapers reset to solid black, sometimes returning to black after being set again. Some people report blurry or pixelated text that survives running ClearType. Microsoft's release notes say it isn't aware of any issues with the update.

The sensible move is to leave it alone. Every one of these features arrives for everyone in the mandatory 10 September Patch Tuesday update, by which point the bugs have a fortnight to be found and fixed. If you already installed it and got bitten, go to Settings, Windows Update, Update history, Uninstall updates, remove KB5120998 and restart. And if Windows Update itself ends up jammed after all that, Tendvane's Windows Update repair wizard resets the plumbing behind it.