How do you disable the taskbar preview window pop-ups?

I am desperate to turn this stupid "feature" off, because it is interfering in a very bad way with my user experience. I am on a laptop with a fairly short screen compared to what a lot of programs and websites seem to expect people to have these days, so I am often working with text or forms or whatever at the bottom of the windows, which are right next to the taskbar. And since I'm on a laptop, I'm using the touchpad instead of a mouse.

As a result, my cursor very often ends up hovering over the taskbar as I type or select different fields, or whatever it is I'm doing, since the touchpad is sensitive and gets tapped accidentally while typing, or the cursor simply moves too far. (I could change the sensitivity of the pad, but that is not the main problem here.) When the cursor hovers, the previews and task list pop-ups cover what I'm doing and make it more difficult and time-consuming to complete my work.

There MUST be a way to fix this and disable it. I seriously regret upgrading from Vista, because the window taskbar previews are such a huge negative impact on my user experience. I could barely afford the copy of Win7 I have (saved up for it a few months), and buying a new copy of Vista to re-install (it was the original installation on my laptop, but got wiped and I didn't have a working back-up) is not feasible.

The regedit method and the gpedit methods do not work fo rme - I have Home Premium. I have googled and seen 3rd party .exe software claiming to solve the problem, but I do not want to have to constantly run a questionable program just to get rid of something that Microsoft should have realized would be problematic.

thanks for the help!

it just amazes me that even though people hate pop-ups, Microsoft wouldn't include an EASY method of disabling them.  if people don't like pop-ups in their web browsers, why on earth would they like them in their OPERATING SYSTEM????

thanks again for the help.  but it won't be much longer before i give up on Microsoft altogether....

Telum (and others),

Taskbar Thumbnails (not called popups) are actually a very important and handy feature for many of us.

However, for those who don't agree there IS an easy way of disabling them and no need to "hack" the registry:

1. Click on Start button and type GPEdit.msc in Instant Search text box, then hitEnter .
2. Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates >Start Menu and Taskbar in left pane of Local Group Policy Editor.
3. Locate and double click on Turn off taskbar thumbnails in right pane of Local Group Policy editor.
4. Select Enabled radio button.
5. Click OK to make the change effective.
6. Logoff and logon again or restart computer if needed.
7. To re-enable Taskbar preview feature in Windows 7, just set the value to Disabled or Not Configured .

---

VP Tech Services

First, your tweak DOESN'T work.  The is a MS bug obviously.

Really?  How are the thumbnail previews helpful?  The average computer idiot can't handle having more than two apps open at once so they have to be really dumb not to be able to figure out which button is the app they want to switch to.  But I guess if you are brain dead and you have the silly grouped  (ie you have several browser windows open MS will group them under one button) thumbnail option still working you might need this feature. Which is even more ridiculous considering every modern browser has tabs.

But no matter what your preference the user shouldn't have to resort to hacks to disable ____ that MS thinks are useful.  Some things you have to go into the registry for, some you use GPEdit.msc, some you use the Control Panel.  How about just a simple Right click on the Toolbar and select TURN OFF GROUPING, TURN OFF THUMBNAILS. Heck no that would be too simple. 

And hey MS is listening to the USERS right? You did see all the Ads that said so.

 If you prefer Windows XP, install and run Windows XP.

Ken Blake (MS MVP)

Would that I could, but I don't have a choice on my work computer.