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![](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
At this stage in the game the ENTIRE UI should be completely customizable. 1995 to Present and we still have a rigid UI that requires extensive programming to modify.
All they have to do to make everyone happy is...
THANK YOU for installing Windows ?. Please choose the GUI you would like (showing some examples).. Please choose...
Windows XP Style, Windows Vista Style, Windows 7 Style, Windows 8 without Metro, Windows 8 with Only Metro (only for tablets/phones), and Windows 8 with Metro.
Please goto Control Panel later on to change your preferences if you don't like them. Also if you are daring, visit out advanced GUI section where you can turn on and off any windows feature you would like. Move the bars around, customize the start button, skin your own stuff. All sorts of flexibility.
Instead... we have a company that COULD do SO much more. But if they won't even fix the side scroll BUG (yes, it's a massive BUG, not a feature like you claim) where the folder jumps away from the cursor after years of patches AND the bug is STILL there in Windows 8....
Do you honestly expect a customizable GUI?
I don't. I'm waiting for the days when something else goes it better and I'm jumping ship along with 99% of all my customers.
You have some of the BEST programmers in the world. How about making Windows not so messy. If we could see the code under the hood so to speak... we would probably be horrified. Spaghetti mess. Who knows... with each new windows I keep hoping... can I finally enjoy this OS. PLEASE. Windows 7 was SO close. All you had to do was fix the side scroll bug instead of me having to install Classic Shell on 100% of my customers computers. Still doesn't fix OPEN but at least if you are in the explorer shell it's fixed in there which is good enough for me.
But to NOT fix it... and let it creep into a new version of Windows. Where is the quality control? Does anyone at Microsoft even use WINDOWS? Where are the devs who are rummaging through 48TB of data and saying... this is UNusable... I have to keep scrolling down after every click to find the folder I just clicked on. Why is this not fixed?
Something is broken in the company that lets glaring bugs in the UI go unfixed. For the first year till I heard of Classic Shell I used XP to manipulate my files across my network. But, windows 7 has vastly superior speed across gigabit networks.
Ah well, I rant, I rave, I offer solutions, no-one cares. No-one listens. After all... Microsoft knows what we all want. I mean... who would want the stupid Start button that no-one according to their research uses. I go INTO actual homes of actual users and deal with them 1 on 1. None of them like Windows 8. They are SO lost it's sad. I move one icon around on ANY OS and I get a phone call saying... "I can't get on the internet." I remote into their PC and say... it's up near the top - the Firefox icon. They respond... can you move it back to where it was? Sure I say. Another happy customer. Microsoft has no clue what the majority of customers want. 90% of my customer base have very little computer knowledge if things change. 5% can handle the changes and would just move the icon back themselves. 5% can do anything, they just don't want to do anything because they work on a computer all day, and then don't want to fix them either.
Anyways, this is long enough. I don't want to hate... but at this stage in the game... Windows should be ROCK SOLID. Customizable UI's. Loadable Skin Packs to completely deck out windows without 3rd party stuff. It should be PART of the OS. Bugs should be fixed. Especially bugs like (lost passwords (Win 95-ME), horrible copy bugs (Vista), UI unusable for navigating hard drive (Win 7, Win 8). UI completely hostile to novice and professional users (Win 8).
Please note: I hate stuff that pops out from the corners. Charms? Shoot me now. Metro apps that can't be resized? Multi monitor support on Win 8? Shoot me now. Sure I can Win+C for the charms, sure I can stop using the mouse and start typing when laying back in my lazy boy chair... ugh...
Choice.... choice... choice... we have no choice, we have no voice.
Our only hope is Linux and maybe something Google will do. Google seems to do things a lot faster than Microsoft. Linux, while nice enough, still needs a LOT of polishing before it's on par with Windows. If you have to drop to a Terminal, it's not polished enough. No customer I have will ever touch a terminal to fix anything. I have installed Linux on a few customers who want to be "bullit proof" for viruses as they check emails and surf the net. 3 years on... no infections. They like it. :)
Ah well, this is too long. I rant into the air....
Ken,
May be some people love it. What nobody can understand is why are you silent on the name of the service, exe or DLL so we can place it in the "do not allow" section of registry?
Are you willing to name it so we can service the complaints?
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.
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.
