Can’t unpin or remove Program Icons from Taskbar in Windows 11/10

If you can’t unpin or remove program icons from the Taskbar on your Windows 11/10 computer, this post will help you resolve the problem. The Taskbar is an integral part of the Windows desktop that continually notifies which programs are currently running on your PC. Users like to pin the frequently used programs or files here so that they can be accessed immediately, only with a single click. Frankly, the taskbar is a much better and more convenient platform than the Start menu and others.

However, sometimes you may find it troublesome when you try to unpin or remove a program or app icon from the Windows 11/10 Taskbar. This post will show you how to unpin or remove the pinned Taskbar items in Windows 11/10.

Can’t unpin icon from Taskbar in Windows 11/10

If you can’t unpin or remove program icons from Taskbar in WIndows 11/10, here are some suggestions you may use to fix this problem:

1. Restart Windows Explorer
2. Remove the Program using the Start Menu
3. Uninstall the program and delete the shortcut
4. Manually Delete Pinned apps using File Explorer
5. Delete Taskband key from Registry Editor
6. Reset Taskbar.

Let us see them in detail:

1] Restart Windows Explorer

This is the first thing that you should do. If the problem is occurring due to a minor glitch, restarting Windows Explorer will fix it.

Go through the following instructions:

1. Open the Task Manager.
2. Select the Processes tab.
3. Scroll down and locate Windows Explorer. If Windows Explorer is already opened, you will see it at the top in Task Manager.
4. Right-click on Windows Explorer and select Restart.

2] Remove the Program using the Start Menu

If you want to remove a program from your taskbar but your taskbar is not responding properly then in such a case, you can try to unpin it using the Start menu.

• To get started, click on the Start button first.
• Then type the app name you want to unpin from the taskbar.
• Once the app loads in the search result, right-click on it.
• From the context menu, select Unpin from taskbar option.

If it works then fine, else, move to our next workaround.

3] Uninstall the program and delete the shortcut

Sometimes this problem occurs due to the system-level corruption regarding that specific program. In that case, you need to uninstall the program and then delete the shortcut. Here are the steps to follow:

• To continue the procedure, open the Windows settings (Win+I)
• From the Settings page, select Apps > Apps & features.
• Move to the right pane and scroll to the application you have to remove.
• Once you find it, select it and then click on the Uninstall button.
• Again click the Uninstall button and then follow the on-screen instructions.
• Once you uninstall the application successfully, the program will be removed from the taskbar automatically.

In case, the program is still appearing pinned on the taskbar, click on the pinned shortcut icon.

When a popup prompts on the screen and asks you to delete the shortcut, click the Yes button.

Now install the application again and check if the problem is fixed now.

FIX: Can’t Pin Apps to Taskbar.

4] Delete pinned apps using File Explorer

The Taskbar has a folder that shows all the pinned apps, and you can access the folder using File Explorer. If you delete the app shortcut from the TaskBar folder, it should get removed from the original Taskbar as well.

Press the Win+R button to open the Run prompt and enter the following path-

%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar

Alternatively, you can open the File Explorer and navigate to this path-

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar

You may need to unhide all the hidden folders before navigating to that path. Once you visit the path, you can see some app shortcuts. You can right-click on a shortcut and select the Delete option.

The Taskbar icon should disappear.

5] Delete Taskband key from Registry Editor

It is recommended to backup Registry files and create a System Restore point first.

Open Registry Editor on your computer and navigate to this path-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband

In the Taskband key you will see several REG_DWORD and REG_BINARY values on the right-hand side. You need to right-click on the Taskband key and select the Delete option.

If it asks you to confirm the deletion. Confirm and after that, restart your computer and try to check if the problem is solved or not.

6] Reset Taskbar

If nothing is working, you can reset the Taskbar. Basically, you are combining both the above suggestions 4 and 5 by running a bat file to delete the icon from the Taskbar.

To do so, press Win+R keyboard shortcut to open the Run dialog box.

In the text field, type Notepad and press Enter.

In the Notepad window, type all the text below –

DEL /F /S /Q /A "%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar\*"
REG DELETE HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband /F
taskkill /f /im explorer.exe
start explorer.exe

Now go to the Menu bar and select File > Save As.

In the Save As window, click on the drop-down menu of “Save as type” and choose All Files.

Next, give it a File name ending with .bat, for instance – Unpin.bat

Select the location where you want to place it and then save the file – eg. Desktop.

Once you create the batch file, double-click on it to run the commands.

You will see that all the shortcut icons pinned on the taskbar get removed immediately, including the program with which you were struggling.

Once the device starts up, pin the other programs back on the taskbar which you need to be there.

These are some standard solutions to fix this issue. However, if they do not work, you can always use the System Restore point or reset Windows 11/10.

I hope this guide helped you to solve the issue.

How do I remove a program icon from my taskbar?

You can easily remove a program icon from the Taskbar. To do so, right-click on the program icon pinned on the Taskbar and then select the Unpin from Taskbar option. If this does not work, restart your computer, as sometimes problems occur due to minor glitches.

Why is my taskbar not hiding?

There can be many reasons why the auto-hide feature of Taskbar is not working on your Windows 11/10 computer. First, check if the auto-hide feature is turned on in Taskbar settings. Sometimes, temporary glitches can also cause issues on a Windows computer. Restart your system and try again. You can also troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state to check if this issue is caused by a third-party program.

Read next: Volume icon missing from Taskbar in Windows.