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How to change the taskbar settings in Windows 7

Anonymous
2015-01-26T14:58:30+00:00

my computer was just re-imaged and when I scroll and hover over my word documents for example, a preview of a miniscreen appears. I want to know how I get it back to being stacked and I just see the name of the tab and/or document to click on. I hope this makes sense. 

Original title: tab displays (browser windows and documents)

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Accessibility

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Anonymous
2015-01-27T12:03:14+00:00

Hi Msalta,

Thank you for posting your query on Microsoft Community.

  1. Are you referring to icons in the taskbar?
  2. Which version of Windows is installed on your computer? Because in some version Group policy in not available.

If the taskbar thumbnail previews of multiple windows/tabs opened for an icon go past your screen's edge, then they will automatically be displayed in list mode instead of thumbnail preview mode.

For example, if your screen resolution is 1200x800, and say you have more than 15 tabs open in IE, then it will display in list mode when you hover over IE's icon on the taskbar.

You may try the following steps to disable the Taskbar thumbnail preview in Windows 7.

Step 1

  1. Open Run windows by pressing Windows Key +R and type gpedit.msc and hit Enter.
  2. Go to User Configuration, Administrative Templates, then Start Menu and Taskbar in left pan of Group Policy Editor.
  3. Locate “Turn off Taskbar Thumbnails” in right pan of Group policy editor and double click.
  4. Select “Enabled” and click “Apply” and “Ok”.

Step 2

If it doesn’t work please follow the second step which is given below.

You can disable the taskbar thumbnail feature (sort of) in Windows 7 using a registry edit. This can be done by setting the taskbar thumbnail preview hover delay to a large value (say 10000 milliseconds or more), so that the preview is not immediately generated when you hover over a taskbar icon.

  1. Open Run windows by pressing Windows Key +R, type regedit.exeand press ENTER
  2. Navigate to the following location:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced

  1. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) value named ExtendedUIHoverTime
  2. Double-click ExtendedUIHoverTime and click Decimal
  3. To increase the hover delay to 5 seconds, type 5000. Type 10000 for 10 seconds and so forth…
  4. Exit the Registry Editor.
  5. Restart your computer.

Important:To do so: Important this section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

322756 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/ )

Hope this work, if not please get back to us with the results. We will be happy to assist you.

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-01-28T21:04:08+00:00

    ok, the verdict is in. I rebooted and closed 7+ Taskbar Tweaker which starts automatically. The annoying Taskbar thumbnail preview reappeared. I then opened the Local Group Policy Editor to be sure that my setting was still in effect. Positive.

    Then  I looked at the comment for “Turn off Taskbar Thumbnails”. It says

    "Requirements:

    Windows Vista only

    So maybe it works for Vista, but it does not even claim to work on other systems and definitely does not work on mine.

    So 7+ Taskbar Tweaker is the  only solution and it must be running in order for its settings to be effective.

    If you're interested, you should be able to find it on Google.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-19T20:12:31+00:00

    "You may try the following steps to disable the Taskbar thumbnail preview in Windows 7."

    I had this problem and it made Windows 7 effectively unusable.

    Somebody, on some forum, recommended 7+ Taskbar Tweaker. This solves the problem but it must be kept running in order to have the desired effect.

    I had never seen the suggestion to use the Local Group Policy Editor until now. I tried it and it looks good. I will wait until my next reboot to find whether it does in fact work. If so, it's a great solution. Also, a great solution for many other problems.

    By the way, I have seen the other suggested solution "sort of". It is totally useless. "Sort of"  simply doesn't cut it. Don't even bother trying it.

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