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
    2012-08-31T12:01:52+00:00

    Hey quantumsingularity,

    It did nothing for me

    Thanks for posting in Microsoft answers!

    Method 1:

    You may try the following steps to disable the Taskbar thumbnail preview in Windows 7:

    1. Click “Start” and type “gpedit.msc” and hit Enter
    2. Navigate to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, and Start Menu and Taskbar in left pan of Group Policy Editor.
    3. Locate “Turn off Taskbar Thumbnails” in right pan of Group policy editor and double click.
    4. Select “Enabled” and click “Apply” and “OK”.

    Method 2:

    If the above method doesn’t help, you may try the below steps:

    You can disable the taskbar thumbnail feature (sort of) in Windows 7 using a registry edit. This can be done by setting the taskbar thumbnail preview hover delay to a large value (say 10000 milliseconds or more), so that the preview is not immediately generated when you hover over a taskbar icon.

    1. Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER
    2. Navigate to the following location:

       

        HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced

    1. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named ExtendedUIHoverTime
    2. Double-click ExtendedUIHoverTime and click Decimal
    3. To increase the hover delay to 5 seconds, type 5000 . Type 10000 for 10 seconds and so forth…
    4. Exit the Registry Editor.
    5. Restart your computer.

    Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up registry, refer the link below:

    Backup the registryhttp://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Back-up-the-registry

    Hope this helps!

    Gokul – Microsoft Support

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-12-11T16:54:00+00:00

    Unlike most I want this feature to work, I watch a lot of streaming sports so it's great to have the feature.  My problem is that sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, no rhyme or reason.  I've got a fresh install so there shouldn't be any issues.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-12-03T00:48:13+00:00

    Agreed - the hover thumbnails are terrible. If you accidentally move your mouse too far down and click it opens up that window. Terrible terrible interface that seriously hurts my productivity and has screwed up too many WGT Golf shots. And what makes it worse is that is really isn't even a useful figure. It drives me crazy....and makes me want to return my new laptop.

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  4. Anonymous
    2011-11-29T15:13:09+00:00

    Hover thumbnails are TERRIBLE.  This should be a simple Tast Bar and Start Menu Properties check box.

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