Windows 7: Remove Show Desktop Button

If you want to complain to Microsoft about something, please contact

them directly. Trying to do it here is just a waste of (figurative)

breath.

And how would you suggest we do that? The closest thing to a feedback channel that Microsoft has is Connect which does not even list Windows as one of the products for which feedback can be left. Not everybody can be special enough to be selected as a beta-tester and have their opinions listened to (not that Microsoft has much of a track record for actually listening to user feedback, they are almost as bad as Google for ignoring what users say… almost; Google is still the grand-champion supreme of ignoring user feedback and telling us what we should want because they know so much better what we want than we do).

Ken knows full well that his post here won’t have any influence over the design of Windows, he is merely expressing his opinion and frustration, and providing what information he has on the subject for others who feel the same to commiserate and learn from.

If like you said, posting here won’t have any benefit, then it certainly can’t hurt either.

Yeah, so this thread is ancient, but Micorsoft... is still in 2015 foisting these ridiculos things on the user, forcing an agenda that only they understand.

There is no logical reason for the "show dekstop" icon to be made permanent in the tray space.

If there is, someone should explain it to us all.

I don't use it. Never have. I don't need it and it's taking up rather valuable space in the tray.

It should never be the case that a user should need search out third party applications or otherwise edit the registry, etc... just to make a minor but important change the GUI that should have always been mutable.

Let's add to that the notification icons can't be configured. Yeah, I know... 12 fanboys just sat up in their chair to say that you can, but the options aren't really options.

There are three non-options in the list under the customise dialog window.... they are,  Show icon and notifications, Hide icons and notifications, and Only show notifications.

Each of which is totally useless... because the one we need is the one that isn't there... "Show icon only".

What I want is quick access to the background applications that run in the tray so that I can configure them... like my mouse controls, video card options, buttons for my game controllers etc...

The one thing I want to do, is the one thing that for no obvious reason, Microsoft decided to exclude. Why ?

I don't get it.

I'm still running XP on one or two machines... It's the friggin' best ever. I have a laptop with 8.1 which just blows. I have this Win7 box that works but is aggravating, all thanks to the GUI and let me tell you. I have absolutely ZERO faith in Windows 10 being any less of a pain than any of the rest of these.

That these UX/UI designers think that what they've done over time with the inteface is an improvement is laughable in the extreme. It's horrible... It's a joke, but it's not funny.

It's like someone has infiltrated MS and is purposefully sabotaging things in an attempt to run people off.

Well, I liked it when it was an ICON that I could put anywhere I wanted along the bottom IF I wanted it.  Also, I never use it in Win 7 since it's all the way in the corner out of the way.  When I had XP and Vista I put it near my other icons/shortcuts.

I really enjoyed the layout of Vista and XP - I hated Vista for it's copy bug, and memory issues but the layout was quite nice.  Flexible, shortcuts, clean.

I love Win 7 except for the Show Desktop button in the bottom right (what a stupid place for it) and the UI bug where folders drop down to the bottom as I complained about in another post.

As I have always said... by this stage of the game we should be able to choose our UI and customize it anyway we like and LOCK it in place.

Yeah, so this thread is ancient, but Micorsoft... is still in 2015 foisting these ridiculos things on the user, forcing an agenda that only they understand.

It should never be the case that a user should need search out third party applications or otherwise edit the registry, etc... just to make a minor but important change the GUI that should have always been mutable.

Microsoft never really got over people trying to customize the interface, thus implying that Microsoft’s design was not perfect from the start. They have never liked customization and have always ignored it at best, and actively prevented it at worst.

There is no logical reason for the "show dekstop" icon to be made permanent in the tray space.

If there is, someone should explain it to us all.

Well, you could always just press Win+D to show the desktop, so… uh… oops, I just did the opposite. ⊙_ʘ

I don't use it. Never have. I don't need it and it's taking up rather valuable space in the tray.

It does have some practical use, like dragging files to the desktop, but then you could do the same thing in XP by dragging a file to an empty spot (ANY empty spot, even a couple of pixels wide) on the Tashbar, without requiring the Show Desktop icon.

I 'm still running XP on one or two machines... It's the friggin' best ever. I have a laptop with 8.1 which just blows. I have this Win7 box that works but is aggravating, all thanks to the GUI and let me tell you. I have absolutely ZERO faith in Windows 10 being any less of a pain than any of the rest of these.

I use XP on my home desktop. There are some limitations, but it is decidedly snappier than my Windows 7 laptop, mostly due to Windows 7’s sluggish Explorer. Windows 10 is based on Windows 8.1 like Windows 7 was based on Windows Vista, so expect a similar “improvement” and customer/critic reaction. ◔_◔

That these UX/UI designers think that what they've done over time with the inteface is an improvement is laughable in the extreme. It's horrible... It's a joke, but it's not funny.

It's like someone has infiltrated MS and is purposefully sabotaging things in an attempt to run people off.

I know what you mean. Google is the same, except 238% worse. Microsoft has always been notorious for making undesirable changes and ignoring user feedback, but Google has perfected that despicable behavior.

Google clearly has no UX/UI people (or the worst, least educated, least experienced ones in the world). Microsoft can at least claim to have some half-way decent ones.

Google keeps making horrible decisions, doing horrible things, and ruining perfectly good products, and makes a point to ignore user outrage no matter how large and vocal it is. They are extremely fascist and do whatever the hell they want (for some unfathomable reason) and tell users to like it. They also “protect users from themselves” by locking things down and preventing users from doing anything because they worry that some noob idiot somewhere might somehow figure out how to do something advanced that requires modifying default settings and mess things up for themselves.

At least Microsoft has always provided an API and encouraged some level of development and claims to have seen the light and made a change to get user feedback and actually listen to it for Windows 10 in (what to them at least is) an unprecedented way.

Microsoft sucks, but Google sucks 476% more (percent suckage is double worsage percent).