Can we disable the charms bar in Windows 8?

Anonymous
2013-01-22T14:37:05+00:00

Old Title: when I move the mouse around the right hand side bar keeps appearing, when I don't want it to.

I recently bought a new computer with Windows 8 and have managed to work with it OK.  The thing is that when I move the mouse around, the right hand sidebar with the Search, Share, Start, Devices and Settings buttons (and the date and time, bottom left),  keeps appearing.  It is so frustrating as I keep having to click to get rid of it. Ironically, when I am ready to close the computer down, I have to fiddle around with the mouse trying to get the damn bar to appear so that I can get the settings button to shut it down. Are there any solutions for this?

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Anonymous
2013-06-05T09:31:15+00:00

"I am sorry to inform you that we do not have any option to disable the Charms Bar in Windows 8."

OMG, when I pay hundreds of my hard-earned dollars, especially in this economy, I expect to customize my product after purchasing. Did Microsoft have regular people try Win 8 for awhile before releasing it?

Got it!!! Its simple, go to control panel, synaptics touchpad and disable side swipe function, simples. it was really beginning to annoy me.

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Anonymous
2013-01-23T10:24:36+00:00

Hi Deborah,

Thank you for choosing Windows 8 and posting your query on Microsoft Community Forums.

It seems that you are not happy with the “Charms Bar” in Windows 8 as it always appears when you move the mouse pointer to the right hand side of your computer screen and would like to know if we can disable it.

I am sorry to inform you that we do not have any option to disable the Charms Bar in Windows 8. I can definitely forward your suggestions to the concerned department.

Microsoft has designed it for making things faster and easier. The charms bar help you do the things you do most often, like search, share links and photos, connect devices, and change settings without any difficulties.

For more information, please check this link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/charms#1TC=t1

Hope this information is helpful.

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Anonymous
2013-07-31T18:02:19+00:00

"I am sorry to inform you that we do not have any option to disable the Charms Bar in Windows 8."

OMG, when I pay hundreds of my hard-earned dollars, especially in this economy, I expect to customize my product after purchasing. Did Microsoft have regular people try Win 8 for awhile before releasing it?

Got it!!! Its simple, go to control panel, synaptics touchpad and disable side swipe function, simples. it was really beginning to annoy me.

This issue was driving me crazy with my new week old inspiron 7720 windows 8.  I even spent time on the phone with tech support who suggested using an external mouse. I followed your suggestion to disable side swipe function and it worked perfectly.  Thank you.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-05-21T13:46:47+00:00

    SInce they screwed it up so bad and released it to the world... All they can do now is defend it and tell you that you are wrong and it works great for them.

    Remember that perception is reality. Your perception is exactly like mine. I had the same experience. But again, we have to expect people that back up MS will say the opposite of what we are saying. If I had the time I would really dig into this and find concrete examples such as building a win 7 box and win8 box with the same hardware configs. Then do synchronous tasks and show the truth.

    I am sure the very first thing you would notice out of the box is that when you go to the upper right corner to X out a window you wont trigger any charms bar on win7. Also on Win7 you will find it much easier to find MY COMPUTER so you can see all your drives. Simple things we use to love such as searching your file system have been made more difficult in win8 because they feel that we are all too stupid to browse a file system... MS interpretation is that its "easier" because the dumb user never wants to go to MY COMPUTER area to work on file systems, network, hosts, etc. OR control panel area. Instead they make that harder to find and they feel that makes it easier to use.

    The 100% truth is when you watch those commercials on TV they show people acting as if they are so productive now with win8 than ever before. They feel businesses only use MS related products such as spreadsheets and personal use is simply pictures, videos, and music. Unfortunately, there is a huge world of software that businesses use that is very unstable in Win8. But they do not feel you need that software and the compatability settings were touted to work like older OS that implemented them. But there is a difference... The difference is that there is a significant degradation in the stability and performance of anything that used to work in previous OS.

    But hey, they have already have captured most the PC market and they are not held accountable and never will be. All you can do is go with other options such as Win7 or a Mac. I use both and my life is back to normal now but I feel for anyone with a Win8 PC. Specifically those that purchase it in laptop form as I hear the desktop versions are not as bad or intrusive as the laptops.

    Techs want fast access to network,storage, etc. Win8 makes that harder than ever. The touchpad is your enemy on Win8. Out of the box you have to make settings changes because even though they caved in and added ways to disable charms. It is very obvious they still feel we are all dumb and defaulted it to the way they feel is easier. Hence, all users still experience frustration and have to find out how to disable out of the box. I think that says it all. They really do not think your complaints are valid or they would have disabled it out of the box. But instead you have to do it because they feel they are correct in the implementation. Classis case of denial on a corporate level. I do not think they will ever get the hint so best to just go back to Win7 or jump the boat entirely on a Mac.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-05-21T11:40:00+00:00

    I would gather that the slowness being described is the configuration.  I am and have several people using newer and older hardware that is supported by the manufacturer under Windows 8.1 and those systems all seem to be relatively faster using Windows 8.1 than they were for Windows 7 when configured to the likings of their users along with the proper hardware device drivers and so on.  Many have said that their applications and such load faster.  Can and would you expand on the system in question (hardware specifications and resident (running in the background) software) a bit?

    I am unsure what key combinations you would cause to occur during normal typing, as you seem to describe.  Also I am unsure that Windows 8.1 has all that many more "key combinations" than prior versions of Windows.  Could and would you elaborate (give specific key combinations and/or responses you think are caused by a key combination you are getting while typing and what I perceive you presenting as a normal instance of perhaps typing a document, web page address, search term, email or whatever actually may be)?

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