How to remove all Pinned Apps and Reset Taskbar in Windows 11

When trying to remove pinned apps from the taskbar, we tend to unpin apps manually. This will surely work but will take way too much time especially if you tend to pin a lot of apps in your taskbar. However, there is a way to remove all the pinned apps and reset the taskbar in Windows 11/10 and that is by using a .bat file. In this post, we will show you how can create and run a file that will magically remove all the pinned applications.

Remove all Pinned Apps & Reset Taskbar

Since by running the .bat file, we will make changes to the Registry Editor, it is recommended to first backup Registry files or create a System Restore point or both.

To remove and clear all the pinned apps and reset the Taskbar in Windows 11/10:

Open Notepad
Paste the text that contains commands in Notepad.
Click on File > Save As.
Choose a location where you want to save the file.
Enter a file name with .bat extension.
Select All Files from Save as type drop-down menu.
Click the Save button.
Double-click on the .bat file to run it.
The taskbar will be reset.

So, open the Notepad on your computer so that you can create the required file. In the Notepad window, paste the following texts-

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, click on the File button and select Save As. Alternatively, you can press Ctrl+Shift+S buttons together.

After that, select a location where you want to save the file, enter a name with .bat extension (example: testfile.bat), choose All Files from Save as type drop-down list.

At last, click the Save button. Now, you need to double-click on the newly created .bat file. If you saved the texts as mentioned earlier, you could not find any confirmation window or anything else. You should see the changes directly.

That’s all! It is as simple as said.

How do I get rid of pinned apps on Windows 11?

To get rid of pinned apps on Windows 11, just right-click on its icon from the taskbar and select Unpin from taskbar. However, if you want to remove all the files at once, just create the aforementioned .bat file and then run it.

Read: Windows 11 Taskbar Styler lets you customize the Taskbar

How do I remove default pinned items from taskbar in Windows 11?

Thankfully, in Windows 11 you can remove even the default pinned items from the taskbar by just right-clicking on its icon and selecting Unpin from taskbar. But you won’t be able to run the script mentioned earlier to remove these apps.

Also Read: Taskbar has disappeared from the Desktop in Windows.