How to Disable Additional Monitor Taskbar in Windows 10?

It is a common practice to connect to a bigger monitor screen when your laptop size is small. It helps in many ways like prioritizing and differentiating the tasks in two screens. By default when you connect an additional monitor, Windows 10 will show the taskbar on both the monitor displays. Though this is useful in handling things separately, you may also want to control both screens from the taskbar on primary taskbar.

How to Disable Additional Monitor Taskbar in Windows 10?

Follow the step by step instruction on how to disable additional monitor taskbar in Windows 10.

You can access the taskbar settings in different ways:

• Right click on the taskbar of one of the monitors and go to ‘Taskbar Settings’.

• Press ‘Win + I’ shortcut keys to open Windows Settings app. Then navigate to ‘Personalization > Taskbar’.
• Right click on your desktop and choose ‘Personalize’ to go the settings page and look for ‘Taskbar’ from the left sidebar.

When you are on taskbar settings, scroll down the right pane and go to ‘Multiple displays’ section. Here turn off ‘Show taskbar on all displays’ option.

This will disable the additional monitor taskbar and you will have only one taskbar on the primary monitor.

Additional Taskbar Controls for Multiple Displays

Windows 10 offers few other options for controlling taskbar on additional monitors. Let’s say, you want to keep the taskbar on both primary and secondary monitors but have more control on the icon display. In this case, you have two more options under ‘Multiple displays’ section:

• Show taskbar buttons on:
  • All taskbars – show icons on both primary and secondary taskbars.
  • Main taskbar and taskbar where window is open – if you have an open app on primary display then the taskbar will show icon only on primary display. If you have opened an app in secondary monitor then the taskbar will show icon in both primary and secondary taskbars.
  • Taskbar where window is open – taskbar will show icon where you have opened the application.
• Combine buttons on other taskbars:
  • Always, hide labels – hide the description of the application on secondary taskbar.
  • When taskbar is full – show the description till the taskbar is full.
  • Never – show each occurrence of the app. For example, when you have three Word document, secondary taskbar will show you three icons with descriptions.

Changing Additional Taskbar Location

When you scroll up in the taskbar setting, you can find few options for primary taskbar that will also affect secondary taskbar. For example, you can change the location of the taskbar from bottom to top, left or right.

However, this will change the location of the taskbar on all the monitors. There are no ways to setup different location for primary and secondary taskbars separately. Similarly, ‘Combine taskbar buttons’ will affect the icon display on the primary taskbar.