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
    2013-06-13T13:34:21+00:00

    After playing around with this for awhile, I have finally figured it out. On your touchpad settings, which is under the Mouse settings, uncheck the One finger right side swipe. Every time you are touching the right side of your touchpad, you are causing the charms clock to display.

    I was ready to go back to Windows 7 myself, but now I have downloaded the windows 7 shell and Skype directly from Skype. I didn't like the way Windows displayed Chrome. I can control the size of my Chrome window and my skype window on my own. My son figured all this out within the first hours of taking this thing home. No more sliding them to a 3/4 or 1/4 panel. Unfortunately the other features will have to stay that way until further playing.

    Good luck on your endeavors.

    If you really want to have your start button back, Google the Windows 7 Shell. It looks like a windows icon in a Shell.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-06-19T23:54:04+00:00

    If you can find a way to disable the Charms bar from appearing on its own when you touch the touchpad, you can always get it to pop up when you want it by pressing Win+C (windows key+C).

    Some people seem to have found a touchpad setting in the Control Panel to disable this touch gesture. There's also a registry setting described elsewhere online. Of course, be careful when changing anything in the Windows registry (and make a registry backup first).

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