Windows 7: Remove Show Desktop Button

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.  (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.

Hope this helps because I have my own gripes too!

First, I'd like some clarification. I honestly don't know why this is making you crazy or where the button is that's causing it, but you can easily remove the "show desktop" button from any place. Remove it from the task bar by "unpinning", you can easily remove it from the programs section (when you click on the Windows globe (aka "start"), and it should be easy to remove from anything you want. Try the R-mouse button and "delete it from the list". I love shortcuts, but this button doesn't bother me in the slightest and I use it sometimes. When you have the mouse already, it's much quicker to use the button than transfer your hands to the keyboard so I put it back in my reconstituted "Quick Launch bar". Now that's something that made me nuts.

I also don't use "windows-d" as you suggest. Instead, I use windows-m (for "minimize all windows") but I'm anything but a novice or noob when it comes to windows. here's a link if you don't have one handy http://www.seoconsultants.com/windows/key/

we all just have to learn how to minimize/eradicate the annoyances MS programmed in to the OS. I think it's called job security; if they did it right the first time, then they wouldn't get paid to release the next 3 SPs, the multitude of fixes and updates that will begin bombarding us daily, etc. :D

Sorry I was in class so I couldn't reply as quickly as I would have preferred. 

The button itself isn't making me crazy, its just another feature that I don't care to have.  Its located in the bottom right corner of the windows7 Taskbar. (see image link at the bottom of this post)  It cannot be unpinned or removed via gui (ie: none of the methods you listed work)

Now that I'm back on the computer with win7 I've looked through the registry and cant find it so I'm going to just redo my GUI entirely and hide the windows start bar. 

Image showing where the "Show desktop" button is.

http://uploads.imagup.com/10/1248472241\_Capture.PNG

Search/google for "aero peek" and you might find a way to turn that off. It does allow people to find things though, and if you use it in conjunction WITH the task bar, then it makes more sense.

My lowest resolution monitor is 1680x1050 (even on a laptop) so this is not even something on my radar. it comes out to a few small pixels in an obscure place so it doesn't bother me, but I wish you luck.

I just ran across this post and I hope you are still out there and maybe found a solution to remove the button.  I personally l;ike the idea of a button to clear the windows out and show the desk top but the problem is where it is located.  I have it set up so the task bar hides unless I have the mouse on top of the task bar.  The problem arises when I go to use the scroll down button and the task bar pops up and the window I'm working on is minimized and then I have to go find it again and open it.  Then after a few scroll clicks down it pops up again and it starts all over.  I love the hide task bar feature but you can't use the feature with a window at full screen.  If you have any idea of how to get around this issue I would very much like to hear from you.

Bob Astrom

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