How to pin more than 3 contacts to the taskbar on Windows 10 Fall Creators Update

By Zac Bowden
last updated

Do you want to pin more than just three contacts to your taskbar? No problem. Here's how to do it.

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update introduces a new feature called My People, that allows you to pin your favorite contacts directly to the taskbar for quick and easy access to instant messaging services, email, contact details and more. Unfortunately, Microsoft imposed a limit of just three contacts that can be pinned to the taskbar, which just isn't enough for some people.

If you're one of those people longing for more pinable contacts, you've come to the right place. The three-people limit isn't fixed and can be adjusted via a simple Registry edit. As always, fiddling around with the Registry can be dangerous, so you should proceed with caution if you're not already familiar with the Windows Registry.

Step No. 1: Open the Windows Registry

First, you need to open the Windows Registry to be able to edit the values necessary to increase the number of people you can pin to the taskbar.

  1. Right-click on the Windows Start button.
  1. Select Run.
  2. In the Run dialog box, type "regedit."

  1. Select OK.

Step No. 2: Unlock more pinable contact spaces

Now that you're in the Windows Registry, you need to navigate to the folder that lets you change a number of people you can pin to the taskbar.

  1. Navigate to:Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\People
  2. In the People folder, right click and select "New > DWORD (32-bit) value."

  1. Name the DWORD, "TaskbarCapacity."

  1. Double-click the newly created DWORD.
  2. Set its "Value data" to 10.

  1. Select OK.
  2. Restart your computer.

You should now be able to pin up to 10 contacts to the contacts area on the taskbar. We haven't tried increasing the value data past 10, so we're not sure if it's possible to continue pushing a number of people you can pin. If you give it a go, make sure to let us know in the comments.

It's likely Microsoft imposed the original limit of three people because most screens aren't big enough to accommodate more, and pinning more than three can make the user's taskbar feel cluttered. If you're someone with a big monitor with more space, pinning more than three people may make sense.

Zac Bowden
Zac Bowden
Senior Editor

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows 10 on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter: @zacbowden.

32 Comments
  • Oh nice! There's no apps to actually use this with BUT this is great considering I have a 34" widescreen with a ton of space
  • Yea, but why should you face a limit with your monitor and have to hack around it? The logic at the end of the article about a cluttered task bar makes no sense because the same would apply to every taskbar pinable object in that case, but it doesn't. Even with a smaller monitor than yours one can easily increase the size of the task bar vertically if desired. Some strange logic going on at both MS and WC here.
  • More so on the Microsoft side of things - I strongly expect them to increase the limit or make it configurable in the next release.
  • Fair enough, I can imagine WC being as confused as us by MS's odd statement.
  • Technically you're not hacking it if they concsiously made a registry key that allows it. o u o
  • Ah, but I was using the term in the wider sense that is generally understood to mean anything that would constitute looking behind the digital curtain, as it were. In fact, a more common usage than the technical one, which makes it more technically correct for most readers more of the time. So technically more correct than the more technically correct meaning, Minister. Technically. [Anyone who can name the reference gets a free like from me.]
  • Or in a multi-monitor environment as you can configure which taskbar to show what, you can have one dedicated to contacts only for example.
  • The updates to People, Mail and Skype the past couple of weeks (Release Preview) made pinned contacts a whole lot more useful. But more apps are undoubtedly needed. For instance, where are the compatible UWP versions of Telegram, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc?
  • WhatsApp doesn't seem to want to come PC or non-phones in any meaningful way right now. I have high hopes for Facebook Messenger though, they've updated their UWP on PC even if they stopped long ago on W10M. I think that if you get email etc. from a specific person it should show a number over their face to indicate the number of alerts specific to that person. Did they keep that "shoulder tap" thing in the end or did it get dropped?
  • "...it should show a number over their face..."
    That's what pinned contacts do. For both Mail and Skype (skype msg, texts).
  • Huh, I guess I need to pin some different contacts. I do not get SMS sync right now as I am trying a OnePlus 5 alongside my ongoing Elite X3 and I have very few Skype contacts. I'll pin more work contacts to hopefully see it working
  • Facebook and Messenger are starting too lag behind in terms of features. The performance of these apps were never great either. They don't bother to update them now with the latest features, so I've gone back to the web versions.
  • ...is probably the reason why WhatsApp has a Windows and Mac PC desktop version application.
  • There's a third-party Telegram client called Unigram which sort-of works in MyPeople. Still ironing out some bugs with it currently.
  • I'm affraid it's DOA for same reasons why MS removed hubs and deep integration in WP7.x - big brands want users to spend time in there, not in solutions like these. I like it a lot but I'm worried that it will end the same :/ 
    BTW mine was way better in Insider, now on stable release I can send only SMS in there via Skype ...but I disconected phone months and installations ago. 
  • [deleted]
  • I have increased mine to 10 and works fine but at the moment this feature is useless unless it includes message clients as that is how most communicate between devices !
  • Their team has been asking around on Social media which apps people would most want to see there, so hopefully it means they are working to convince companies to implement support for it. Right now, it's not that useful - Back in the days where more people used Skype maybe....
  • Number of People in taskbar should be a settings option, like a drop down menu to select up to, let's say, 10 people.
  • I did not get why they had to do the same the hard way with background tasks on mobile.
  • I'd rather have live tiles on the desktop. Pin a contact there and all is solved.
  • Or both.
  • Probably would not be very much useful when drag 'n' dropping.
  • "most screens aren't big enough to accommodate more" What a joke. Thanks for the tip anyway!
  • Nice tip, but you lost me at "open the registry".
  • Does setting a value of zero work?
  • This people app is so useless my words cant describe. Who uses Skype anymore? There wont be any app that supports this ever, and also its just pointless clutter on the taskbar. But I get it - Skype loads in 5 minutes so instead of fixing it, they created quick way to use it
  • Thank you, my wife was feeling left out, but it was either her or one of our children, no win, now all of them have pride of place on the taskbar and as we all use email and Skype I find it useful.
  • Yay, now if i will ever install the FCU there will be an option to get more useless icons on the taskbar. Lets face it, there are no good UWP messaging apps, and the ones that exist will not implement it, cause they DON'T CARE. How fast will My people be removed for uselesness?
  • Neat!
  • Big note! Simply running Regedit won't let you edit the registry. It has to be run as Administrator. Oh... ... You're using an admin account? Ouch. DON'T DO THAT!! Use a standard account so that your crap doesn't get owned by ransomware, and run it from the Cortana search, so you can right-click it and Run As Administrator. Keep your things safe and DON'T RUN AN ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT. THIS ISN'T WINDOWS FREAKING XP.
  • Having to edit the registry is another reason why Windows 10 S is bound to fail. You’ll get frustrated for not being able to do such simple things on 10 S that you’ll happily pay 50 dollars to upgrade quickly to Windows 10 Pro.