How to Disable Taskbar Preview Thumbnails in Windows 11
Just like Windows 10, Windows 11 also has taskbar preview thumbnails allowing users to take a peek into open windows. This useful feature becomes a hindrance when you are playing a game on your PC. You mistakenly hover your mouse over the taskbar and a small window will cover an area on your game screen. The best way to avoid this is to disable the taskbar preview thumbnails in Windows 11.
In Windows 11, you can’t change the view or size of taskbar thumbnails. Besides that, Windows 11 doesn’t allow you to disable the taskbar preview thumbnails from Settings as well. Even the Group Policy fails to effectively turn off the thumbnails. So, you will have to rely on the Registry Editor hacks. Yes, you can turn off (or delay to be precise) those annoying taskbar thumbnails using a simple registry trick.
SEE ALSO: How to Customize Taskbar and Start Menu in Windows 11?
Get Rid of Annoying Taskbar Preview Thumbnails in Windows 11
In this tutorial, we will show you the registry hack that disables the taskbar preview thumbnails completely. Besides that, we will also show you another tweak that disables previews of multiple similar windows. So, next time you hover your mouse over it, you won’t have to scroll through similar-looking thumbnails. Instead, you will get a list with names which is more convenient.
Though we have explained the process for Windows 11, the same process also works for Windows 10 as well. So, let’s get started with the steps.
Step 1: Launch the Registry Editor
First of all, you would need to launch the Registry Editor in Windows 11. For that, press “Windows + R” to open the RUN utility, type regedit, and press Enter.
regedit, and press EnterYou may also see the UAC prompt, click Yes to continue. Now, we will use the Registry Editor to disable the taskbar preview thumbnails in Windows 11.
Step 2: Create a New DWORD to Disable Taskbar Preview Thumbnails
Now, go to the following path in the Registry Editor.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
Here, you need to create a new DWORD in order to get the desired results. So, right-click on the blank space on the right side or right-click on the Advanced key and select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value.
Name this new DWORD as ExtendedUIHoverTime.
ExtendedUIHoverTimeSEE ALSO: How to Enable the Drag and Drop feature in Taskbar on Windows 11?
Step 3: Set the DWORD Value and Restart the Explorer
After creating the DWORD, it’s time to set its value to make it work. So, double-click the newly created DWORD to modify its value.
INFO: Before we move forward, let us make something clear to you. This DWORD doesn’t actually disable the taskbar preview thumbnails in Windows 11, instead, it delays them. So, they will take more time to appear giving you the same results.
So, in the ‘Edit DWORD window‘ select Decimal as the Base type and enter the number of seconds in the “Value data” field to delay the taskbar preview thumbnails. In this tutorial, we have used 5000 to delay the thumbnails by 5 seconds. You may use your own custom value here.
After that, close the Registry Editor and restart Windows Explorer. You can use the Task Manager to restart the Explorer process. So, open the Task Manager, right-click on the Windows Explorer process, and select Restart.
Step 4: Before and After Comparison
Now, after you have disabled the taskbar preview thumbnails, it’s time to check how it looks. Open a few windows on your Windows 11 PC and hover the mouse over the taskbar icons.
You will notice that taskbar preview thumbnails do not appear immediately. Instead, they appear after the amount of time you have set in the previous step. Since we have set the value to 5 seconds, the thumbnails will appear after 5 seconds. Now, it won’t block your screen while you are playing your favorite game.
SEE ALSO: How to Disable Quick Access in Windows 11 and 10?
Step 5: Disable the Thumbnails for Multiple Similar Windows
So, after you disable the taskbar preview thumbnails in Windows 11, they are delayed for a certain amount of time. However, when you click on the taskbar icon of similar grouped windows, it will still show you big thumbnails.
So, if you want to see the list of open windows (just like Windows 7) instead of taskbar preview thumbnails, you can try this trick.
Go to the following path in the Registry Editor and create a new DWORD there.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband
Name this new DWORD as NumThumbnails. You don’t need to set any value for this DWORD. Just leave it and close the Registry Editor.
NumThumbnailsSEE ALSO: How to Make Your Computer a Time Server by Tweaking the Registry?
Step 6: Restart Windows Explorer to View the Changes
Now, open the Task Manager and restart the Windows Explorer service to make the changes effective.
After Windows Explorer has restarted, click on the taskbar icon of multiple similar windows. You will see a list of open windows instead of large taskbar preview thumbnails.
NOTE: In case you wish to revert the changes, just go to the same path in Registry Editor as mentioned in Step 2 and Step 5 and delete the ExtendedUIHoverTime and NumThumbnails DWORDs. Make sure to restart Windows Explorer to make the changes effective. You can also sign out and sign in again to restart the Explorer.
Disable Taskbar Preview Thumbnails in Windows 11
The above tutorial explained how you can easily disable the taskbar preview thumbnails in Windows 11. Now, you won’t have screen-blocking thumbnails while you are playing your favorite game. The process is not very tricky but you must be careful while working with Registry Editor. Also if you don’t like these tweaks, you can easily revert the changes as well. You can also check out the new header UI for File Explorer in Windows 11 and more tips and tricks here.
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