How do you disable miniature pop-up windows when hovering over icons in taskbar?

Anonymous
2009-11-17T20:57:10+00:00

Attempting to disable "small windows" that pop up when you mouse over icons in taskbar. Annoying me. They could be disabled in vista, but can't figure out how in W7. afraid i'm stuck with them. when i personalise and chose windows basic screen, "windows" become picture of icon. better, but still not good.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2013-11-03T07:27:06+00:00

Method 1: is not available in Windows 7 Home Premium , only in the Pro version. And I could not find any registry value that would match the gpedit.msc corresponding option.

Method 2: works on my system. Without "ExtendedUIHoverTime" registry entry:

With "ExtendedUIHoverTime" registry entry:

So it prevents (for the number of milliseconds specified) the pop up of the taskbar thumbnail, but does not remove the additional (!) pop up (text box black on white) I guess known as "taskbar icon name".

After hours of investigation on the Internet, the only efficient solution I could find is indeed this light program that also brings lots of additional functionalities. It works also on Windows 8.1, does not change anything to the regular registry (quoting FAQ -> "The only registry keys the tweaker modifies are it’s own settings. There are no registry keys for the options it provides. The tweaker does that by injecting a DLL to explorer, hooking/subclassing/some other methods of the dark side.")

http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker

I now use it, no more registry manual manipulations ("ExtendedUIHoverTime" registry entry removed),  I love it.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-08-09T18:05:14+00:00

    Method #1 didn't work.  Method #2 works great on my Windows7.  Thanks for the fix for those annoying pop-ups!!

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-09-27T06:20:20+00:00

    The number of people searching for a way to turn this worthless, hardware boggling "part of the Aero Interface" OFF is stunning.  A search shows thousands of people asking for a way to turn it off in hundreds of forums - and it could be disabled in the RC1 version of Windows 7.

    But now the only way to turn it off is to turn off the Aero Interface?  What kind of 1986-think is that?

    I don't mind turning off the Aero Interface - that was another piece of worthless bling added to Vista that continues in 7 - but it doesn't make the only reliable solution any less annoying.

    Saw the webinar about Windows 8 where Microsoft claims Windows 7 sales has (finally) exceeded the sales fo Windows XP.  Geez.  They only had to discontinue support for XP and start releasing XP "patches" that can clearly slow down system performance before they could make that claim - and it's just not true.  Accumulated and compiled world-wide statistics of what operating systems are used in the computers visiting major and far-flung websites still show XP use exceeds the combined worldwide use of Vista and 7.  USE OF BOTH "NEW AND IMPROVED" OPERATING SYSTEMS, COMBINED, DOES NOT EXCEED THE USE OF OLD, DISCONTINUED AND MUCH MALIGNED, XP.

    This is one of the reasons.  We can't shut down the stuff we have absolutely no use for, and which truely interferes with our work, without disabling a feature we may want to keep.

    Madness.  Madness.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-09-27T10:41:07+00:00

    Hi

    One of the things that make Windows so powerful is that if you don't like a feature, someone, somewhere will have a fix for the issue.

    Note: The following program is not supported by Microsoft. Any support must be provided by the software developer. Use at your own risk.

    7 Taskbar Tweaker - RaMMicHaeL's home page:

    http://rammichael.com/7-taskbar-tweaker

    Regards

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-11-22T01:12:56+00:00

    This doesn't solve the problem completely (as the gpedit.msc directions also did not work for me - for some reason those directions apparently only apply to Windows Vista users), but sometimes it's function over form.  Easiest way to get rid of those horribly annoying thumbnail pop-up windows (whatever they're called):  Right click on your desktop. Choose Personalize, and under Basic and High Contrast Themes, choose the Windows 7 Basic theme.  It's not as pretty as the "Aero" themes, but I hated those stupid thumbnails so I'll sacrifice the looks.

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