Disable checkboxes in file explorer

Question

After the upgrade to Windows 11 on my ASUS UX360UAK Laptop (with touchscreen), I can't get rid of the explorer check boxes. Neither via View Settings nor with the corresponding entries in the registry I am able to hide the explorer check boxes (see attached picture). I guess the problem arises due to a possible tablet/touchscreen mode on the particular laptop. Non of my other computers show a similar behaviour.

Anybody encountered the same and found a solution?

Regards, Ralph

****Original Title: Windows 11 explorer checkboxes permanently displayed****

Answer 1

I got a 2in1 Dell Laptop. I did a clean install of a Dell issued copy of Windows 10 Pro after a SSD change. After an immediate subsequent upgrade to Windows 11 Pro I had the same issue.

I coudn't disable the checkboxes. I couldn't switch to compact view. I checked the registry keys - they all were set correctly. But as it is a tablet mode issue I circumvented the problem.

For everyone who uses a 2in1 and uses it as laptop try the following:

• Open Registry Editor
• Go to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell
• Set DeviceConvertible to 0
• Sign out and back in to your account

Voila, no more checkboxes and compact view also works. This cost me 3 hours of my day. By now I can send Microsoft an invoice for 100s of hours of unpaid work due to their bugs...

Answer 2

Bang on!

I am provisioning a new Asus Zenbook and encountered this issue. I tried all the recommendations I could find and nothing worked. I spent 30 minutes with Asus support and then visited the customer service centre for more than an hour. I was advised to format and reinstall Windows.

However, I read that sometimes the machine overrides the Windows Explorer settings because it is in tablet mode. So I made one last attempt to Google for the answer, which brought me here. Although my Zenbook does not flip and does not have a touchscreen, it turns out this flag was set to enable 'DeviceConvertible'.

When I disabled this registry setting and restarted the machine - the issue was gone. Thank you supersonnig85!

Answer 3

Continue having the issue with Microsoft Surface Pro 9 running Windows 11 Home because there is no "DeviceConvertible" setting in the registry. Anyone know of a solution?

Answer 4

Hi David_S22,

Have a look at this https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/profile/3a6ed114-f7e4-4c4d-b99f-f6902a763396

and set the value for the TabletMode entry to hexadecimal 0.