Windows 10’s Taskbar Thumbnail previews can be incredibly useful, especially if use your taskbar in its default icon view without labels. Unfortunately, the feature can also take up a lot of screen real-estate when trying to perform other tasks, causing frustration. We’re going to show you how to enable or disable taskbar thumbnail preview in Windows 10 to suit your preferences.
For the unfamiliar, taskbar thumbnails show a window preview when you hover over an icon. This lets users quickly identify which window is which, and hovering over the thumbnail displays the whole application for a larger reference.
Disabling this feature is unfortunately not as easy as it once was. Microsoft’s data likely shows that taskbar thumbnail previews greatly enhance productivity, so there isn’t an easy settings switch. Instead, you’ll have to make a registry tweak, but don’t worry – follow this guide and our Regedit best practices and you’ll be safely on your way.
How to Enable or Disable Windows 10 Taskbar Thumbnail Preview with Regedit
In just a few minutes, you can get rid of those pesky window previews, or get them back if you miss the productivity benefits.
- Open Registry Editor
Press the Start button and type “regedit”. Click the first result under ‘Best match’. - Navigate to the correct Registry key
In your search bar, or via the folder tree in the left panel, navigate to:Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
- Create a new DWORD
Once you have the correct folder selected, click “Edit > New > DWORD (32-bit) Value”. - Name it “DisablePreviewWindow”
- Change DWORD to Disable Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 10
Double-click the newly-created DWORD to open the Edit DWORD interface. Under “Value data”, type “1” to disable the window preview, or “0” to enable it again.