How to disable gestures (charms bar, edge swipes, etc...) without changing the registry

Anonymous
2012-12-23T17:49:41+00:00

I've had a Windows 8 laptop for a few days and the charms bar/settings pages that kept popping up out of nowhere were driving me absolutely insane.  BUT, I finally figured out how to turn them off. 

I went into control panel>hardware and sound>mouse>device settings>settings.  From there you can adjust a lot of the trackpad settings, including DISABLE EDGE SWIPES. 

I have a Toshiba Satellite with a synaptics mouse/trackpad, so i cant guarantee this works with all models, devices, etc. 

Windows 8 for laptop is now tolerable!  Hope this helps!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers

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Anonymous
2013-05-23T18:33:46+00:00

Try this; maybe it will work:

Control Panel>Mouse>UltraNav>TouchPad Settings>Application Gestures>Edge Swipes>Deselect “Enable Edge Swipes”

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-10T04:17:39+00:00

    I am scared to try this "Charms Killer program.   http://winaero.com/download.php?view.72"

    I think that could be a virus or bad person trying to get into my computer.  What do you think?

    do you think that I could just go to Windows 7 or Windows XP??

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-10T04:11:38+00:00

    Thanks DevonPaddyB,

    I did everything you said above exactly as you wrote it out and restarted.  When the computer was completely up again and I swiped the right side, the charms bar came out.  Dang!!!!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-09T17:27:38+00:00

    I was a bit wary about a download - glad it's worked for you. Many thanks to Winaero and techattend for  finally sorting this out for us all.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-09T17:03:39+00:00

    This is a Windows 8.1 fix so should be independent of the make of computer. This is  the sequence I followed using the Techattend tutorial.

    1. Open Charms menu - go to SEARCH and type in Regedit.exe. A User Account Control screen opens and asks for an OK to proceed - click YES.

    The screen  should now show the paths on the left hand side of the screen.

    1. Find HKEY_CURRENT_USERS and click arrowhead to the left of this to open the path.
    2. Similarly open SOFTWARE then MICROSOFT then WINDOWS then CURRENT VERSION then IMMERSIVE SHELL.
    3. Right Click IMMERSIVE SHELL - follow NEW across to KEY and Left Click. A folder called NEW KEY opens up. Overwrite the name NEW KEY with EDGE UI.
    4. Right Click the new folder EDGE UI and follow NEW across and down to DWORD(32 BIT)VALUE
    5. The screen shows a box with NEW VALUE highlighted in blue. Overwrite NEW VALUE as DISABLECHARMSHINT
    6. Double click on DISABLECHARMSHINT to open the EDIT DWORD menu. Overwrite the value 0 as value 1.
    7. Click OK - exit the registry and RESTART the computer 

    I tried this and it didn't work on my Lenovo.  I even went back into the registry after restarting, and the DWord was still there, value still at 1, yet that freakin' Charms bar kept popping up.  The ONLY thing that worked for me is the Charms Killer program.   http://winaero.com/download.php?view.72    And I had to tweak it in my system tray once I installed it so that it runs at startup, and also uncheck the box in the popup that asks me if I want to run this "unknown" software the first time it starts up.  I can finally stand my computer!

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