Thursday, May 14, 2015

Windows 10: Cleaning up the Taskbar

You can change or remove the big (ugly?) Search bar as previously explained.
I decided I didn't need that at all, because if I can't find something already with what I know of the system, then I just Google it.

But the other thing that has been bugging me is that Task View thingamajig. I don't use multiple desktops, so I don't need. And so I Googled for a way to remove it, and the HowTo Geek tells us how...

Go into the Registry using Windows Key +R, and when it opens, navigate to the following: HK Current User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Explorer (the same place you go to change the counter for screenshots) and there, right-click that word Explorer in the left column, and from the little dropdown, choose "New" and "Key". When the new name bar opens, give it the name MultiTaskingView, and then when that appears under Explorer on the left,right-click that name MultiTaskingView, and again choose "New" and "Key" and name this one AllUpView. It is also in the left column, but underneath the other key you just created (like a folder within it). Now right-click AllUpView and choose "New" and "32-bit DWORD" and that will appear in the right side pane (the values pane) and you name that one "Enabled" (no quotes) and it will have a value already of zero. Leave it that way. Now, close Registry Editor, and do a Reboot. When your Reboot finishes, that Task View thingamajig is gone.

If you want to bring it back, just go back into Registry, to where you created all this, and delete that 32-bit DWORD called Enabled. And that's how you hack the Registry in Windows 10, and clean up your Taskbar, all in one swell foop! And here's a screenshot of all that, so you can see where it all gets done.


This is a screenshot of my cleaned-up Taskbar, without Search and Task View. And I like it. I think I'll keep it this way....


Please note:
If you read this earlier, where I was talking about creating the DWORD, you saw where I couldn't tell my right from my left. I said it would appear in the left, but that was an error - I meant to say "right". The left pane is the one for the Keys and the right-hand side is  for the DWORDS, and is often called the action pane, because it's the one where things do stuff, whereas the left pane just shows us the relationships between all the various Keys and their "departments". And I'm sorry about that goof-up, folks - I was listening to some hot piano at the time and got distracted... But this hack really works and I didn't make any mistakes with that. 

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