This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Why does Microsoft insist on giving us useless features that we cant disable without going through x hours of troubleshooting and re-programming? The current thing for me is the annoying Show Windows Desktop Button in Win 7 thats attached to the start bar and serves no practical function other than to look tacky.
For those of you who don't know this already, the same function can be achieved by pressing the windows key+d.
Personally, I find this feature to be inconvenient even for novice users due to its inconvenient location in the bottom right corner; essentially as far away from the start button as physically possible.
I'm a rather advanced user and I decided to switch back to Window$ from Ubuntu after 7 came out because of the performance improvement and support for adobe cs4. (though thats another story entirely)
I suppose the question I have is where can this little 'feature' be found in the registry so I can remove it? (or if there is an easier way to remove it i'd be interested in that as well, though Im nearly certain it doesn't exist)
Also as a side note to Microsoft: Perhaps an update to make this icon movable and removable via gui would be nice, seeing as how im sure several other people do not like it and have less experience than I do in programming and customization.
Edit: Im not interested in 'disabling' the active feature of it, I want to remove it entirely.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Hello,
Unfortunately, this is by design. However, there are 3rd party applications that would definitely accomplish the task at hand for you. I apologize for any inconvenience.
Thank you,
Aaron
Microsoft Answers Support Engineer
Visit our Microsoft Answers Feedback Forum and let us know what you think
One of the main reasons this is annoying for me is when I move to go 2 handed on the keyboard I tend to toss the mouse down in that corner out of reflex and then I can see what I'm typing.
I'd say since this function is passive and doesn't allow anything other than show what the desktop looks like, it's pointless. You actually have to click in order to proceed to the desktop. If it actually switched to the desktop that would be something, but it doesn't. That's almost like hovering over Word icon and seeing the application before actually requesting it to launch.
How simple. Thank you. I wish it would tone down the complainers like Jeff who, if they would spend the time looking a little further rather than going off the deep end with their frustration, would be a lot stressed out.
Except that the post you are referring to resolves only one of the several issues caused by the inability to remove the button.
How simple. Thank you. I wish it would tone down the complainers like Jeff who, if they would spend the time looking a little further rather than going off the deep end with their frustration, would be a lot stressed out.
I agree. I hate the thing as well. I miss the old XP and Vista style toolbar at the bottom. I could put shortcuts and show desktop if needed. With Win 7 they cram it down your throat and to top it off, they give us useless stupid icons across the button that move around when you click on them (shortcuts stay in 1 place, pinning something to the taskbar works "ok" enough but I HATE that the "shortcut" turns into a window tab so to speak.
Ugh...
