The newly designed taskbar is one of the most controversial changes to Windows 11. The updated taskbar does not have extremely basic functions such as drag and drop, which is disliked by many users. The good news is that Microsoft is listening to feedback, and it’s fixing most of the issues with the taskbar in the Sun Valley 2 update.
As you probably know, Windows 11 doesn’t allow you to drag and drop files onto the taskbar to quickly open them in your favorite software, nor can you drag and drop apps onto the taskbar to create shortcuts.
Microsoft has been mulling support for this feature internally for nearly six months. With Build 22557, Microsoft has finally enabled drag-and-drop support for the taskbar, allowing users to drag and drop files between app windows.
Starting with Windows 11 Build 22557, it is now possible to drag and drop files such as pictures or text between app windows. To get started, just select and hold a file located on the desktop or in File Explorer, and drag it to an open area in the taskbar.
This will bring their windows to the foreground, and apps can duplicate what you’re dragging. For example, you can drag a picture from the desktop and drop it onto the Outlook attachments screen by hovering over the Outlook icon on the taskbar.
Additionally, drag-and-drop support provides customization opportunities, allowing users to customize the taskbar to create quick shortcuts by dragging apps from the Start menu’s “All Apps” list and dropping them onto the taskbar, and even drag-and-drop desktops via the “Show Desktop” feature that appears in the left-hand corner of the taskbar.
Currently, Microsoft is testing the feature in a preview build on the Dev channel, an early version that allows users to test new features before rolling them out to customers around the world. The feature may roll out to Windows 11 version 22H2 in a future cumulative update.