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
    2013-09-23T15:38:45+00:00

    Did the Regedit

    Which changed what exactly?   Both in the registry and in your testing.

     

     

    did not work on my Toshiba Satellite

    That's the first mention of that detail in this thread.   What Touchpad does it have?...

     

    Looks like it is an insufficient specification to know for sure but it could be a Synaptics device.   So which driver version do you have?  

     

    FWIW I finally tried using my Touchpad last night and discovered that I must still have an old W7 driver, so no EdgeUI stuff in it (but lots of other quirky features that I would have to learn to deal with if they had been enabled.)    If there is a download I can try to get a newer version I will, so I can try to understand what you all are seeing.  

     

    I still think that using a real mouse--easier to use buttons and more reliable scrolling using a wheel--would be less trouble, especially as I see Touchpads getting wider which means that users are going to get more problems (with who knows what symptom) from "palm" touches while typing.

    I had the same issue with thinking regedit didn't work. It works, but only disables the hot corners. Swiping in from the right edge of the touchpad, or scrolling the pointer up on the right side of the screen still pops up the Charms bar. I disabled all touch and swipe functions on the touchpad, but scrolling up on the right of the screen, as I do with vertical scroll bars, can still bring up the charms bar. There needs to be a complete disable option. It doesn't have anything I can't get elsewhere.

    As for a real mouse, that's great when I'm at my desk, but I frequently use my laptop on my lap.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-09-23T15:28:08+00:00

    It only appears it you hit the upper and lower right corners. That's if you are using a mouse or a pen. If you are using touch or, as I suspect most of the complainers may be, using a Touch pad with touch gestures enabled (e.g. more than just a mouse pointer), it would appear after a "swipe" gesture was detected from just about anywhere on the right side. Further, it would be the full charms bar, e.g. black, with the notification block on the left which shows the time and date. In contrast, with a mouse or pen you get the signal of the ghost charms bar before you deliberately do something which shows that block. Worse, if single tap is configured as single click, you may unintentionally start things without having a clear idea of where the "pointer" is, since that is probably configured to disappear too. I imagine it could take a lot of mental agility to drive a touch pad effectively as a "touch device" that way. Every time this issue comes up I keep giving myself a vague promise to configure my tablet that way and see how it is supposed to work but so far I haven't bothered. I still think the best solution would be to disable the touch pad entirely and get a real mouse. Or maybe just leave the touch pad for swiping but disable its touch tap function? Etc. FYI Robert --- 

    It also appears if you have the pointer in the lower right corner and scroll up. An action do hundreds of times daily with vertical scroll bars. I have used the registry hack to disable the corner activation, and have disabled all touch and swipe actions from the touch pad. It's a shame that we have to cripple the functionality of our computers to disable a function we don't want. There is nothing in the Charms bar I can't get elsewhere. Microsoft, 8.1 needs to give us options to disable all this touch screen **** for those of us without touch screens. I need to work.

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