There's a video at [Link: windows.microsoft.com] that shows exactly my issue.

The video shows that you can set up the icons for open files to either group together when several files are open in a program, or not group them together. The video shows the behavior that I want to change but doesn't even mention it.

I've got a desktop and a laptop with Windows 7. The laptop drives me nuts because whenever I move the cursor down near the bottom of the screen, icons for the open programs pop up. It's impossible to go to the bottom line on the screen and edit, because those icons pop up, covering the place I want to edit.

The desktop doesn't do this and while the video I refer do shows it happening, and the video is about the appearance of the taskbar, it doesn't even mention it.

Anybody know how to modify the taskbar behavior so those icons don't pop up?

A greater help would be to give me some idea how to find such instructions when I don't know what Windows calls them!

Thanks so much!


...and now, what the heck: I just checked how this operates and I have to actually place the cursor on the taskbar to get those icons to open, while I've spent time cursing that they open when the curso is a half inch above them. Gotta love them computers!

Ernie,

I don't know how to tell you how to look up a behavior you don't know the name for. I thought I remembered something about this being related to Aero, and Peeking at a window, so I Googled based on those terms.

Here's what you need:
[Link: howtogeek.com]

In general, I will say that most users fumble around in the OS, and often do things the hard way. I think some of the books on the tools we rely on often in our work are a great time investment. I tend to read them very quickly, not in a way of trying to remember everything, but rather to say what is possible, and glean what I think will be of value to me. Then, the side effect is that I tend to vaguely remember items like this, and I tend to pick the right words to Google, as somehow my brain remembers just enough to get me to the right place.

If you are interested in a very good Win7 book, I've always liked the "Missing Manual" series for this type of thing, and have read this book, and thought it quite good.

[Link: amazon.com]

edit: this isn't the behavior I was referring to. I'll be editing a Word document and I move the cursor down near the last few lines in the document. I have not moved the cursor onto the taskbar. Suddenly one or several small windows pop up, related to the icons in the taskbar, and covering the place I'm trying to edit. The page must then be scrolled so the cursor can hover where I want to edit, while not making those windows pop up.


Hmm. It says


I have no idea what I just read. As I try it over and over, I see that if I move the cursor to the bottom right of the screen, all open windows disappear; at this moment I see one transparent window over the desktop. But I'm not actually ON the desktop, and if I move the cursor off the corner, the windows that were open reappear. It's as though someone has installed a little app that will let me see if any new icons have magically appeared on the desktop while I was editing that last document -- of what possible use is this thing? I cannot call it a feature.


I used to tell people to do exactly that with App tutorials. Read them through lightly because when you get stuck, you're likely to remember that the tutorial contained a helpful possibility.


I begrudgingly agree that reading such a book is a good time investment. I think it's a time waste because there is so much to read and so few things are really needed.

And let me go back to the article:


What is it useful for? I can't see it. It's like a temporary Windows logo-M; it seems useless because the moment I move the cursor the screen reverts.

By the way, thanks for the fast clear response.

Is this what you are talking about (circled in red)?



edit: Not sure why the embedded pic isn't working: dropbox.com/s/359k8c7emv05s7i/Capture.PNG

Are you trying to stop the preview "thumbnail" popup from showing?

When you hover over an open/active app icon you see a tiny thumbnail preview of the app. If you have multiple instances (3 .txt notepad files open for example) you would see all 3 as thumbnails.

I didn't know it was an option. Can you do screen recording? Would like to see how the desktop behaves when you hover one of the icons.

Sign out of dropbox and see if you can open this from its URL. I get nothing when entering the URL directly. The computer accessing it might have to be signed on to your account.

Yes. It's really only a problem when the thumbnail opens up before I've gone all the way down to the taskbar. Or maybe sometimes I go down on the screen further than I had planned to. It's been irritating me for weeks but now when I try to make it happen, I can't.


That's called Aero, and bcf gave me the information that let me find that I have chosen an Aero Theme for windows, and if I choose a non-Aero theme, the thumbnails don't open. I was okay with them except when they got in the way. I'll report back if I have any more info, but it's solved now.


Let me give you a Microsoft answer: a person can do screen recording, and I can, but I don't know how. When I'm being very purposeful to examine the situation, it doesn't malfunction at all: it's Aero working.

Right Click Windows Icon in lower left, select properties.
Select Taskbar tab.
Taskbar buttons: Change to "Never Combine"
I take cash.

The correct answer for you is "No, i can't do screen recording."

Your reason would be "You don't know how."

Just like if someone asked me "Can you swim the English channel?" I would say "No, i can't swim the English channel".

My reason would be "I can't swim."

I cannot get the popup thumbnails to popup UNLESS I hover over an icon in the taskbar.

Nothing I could do near the bottom of the Word window would trigger them.

As far as I know none of the settings mentioned here so far control the popup behavior.

Here is a extensive discussion of the "feature":

[Link: answers.microsoft.com]


I didn't read through the whole thing so I don't know if there is a solution.

Ernie,

Did you read past the first paragraph of the link I gave you? How about this section toward the bottom of that link; "If you want to disable Aero Peek on everything, including the taskbar thumbnails, you’ll need to head into System Properties in Control Panel (search for “View advanced system settings”), and then remove the checkbox from Aero Peek there:"

This shows you how to disable the thumbnails from popping up when you mouse over them in the taskbar, which is exactly what it seems to me you are trying to do. These are features of Aero, so yes, if you choose a non-Aero theme, you won't get these features, but that is sort of "Throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

I tried this but wasn't able to kill the thumbnail preview.

Start/Control Panel/System/Advanced System Settings/Performance Click Settings.

Choose Custom Radio Button.

Uncheck Enable Aero Peek.

Click Ok then Ok.

Thumbnail preview of open apps still appeared.

I restarted the computer.

Thumbnail preview of open apps still appeared.

Yes. I read the third paragraph, which said
"And of course, if you wanted to completely disable Aero Peek, we’ve got you covered for that too—just head into the taskbar properties (right-click the taskbar and use Properties), then remove the checkbox from 'Use Aero Peek to preview the desktop'."

The information on total removal, which accomplishes my goals, was given before the information on partial removal, which might accomplish my goals. I took the first information that solved the problem. They might have presented "adjust" before "kill" if they wanted to effectively communicate those details.


Oh! They didn't want to suggest how I could adjust it, but how I could kill it. ...Okay, and how is the result different from what I did? It sounds like you keep an Aero Theme but disable the things that Aero does. This is wading in horsesh*t, and I don't mean shot.


Why do you have to say stuff like this? You point out that I should have read how to "disable Aero Peek on everything,"... why would any writer expect that a sentence starting like that would end with "here's how to make a slight adjustment"?

Could you take a moment to describe the baby I threw out? I have no idea how Aero Peek does anything helpful for me.

Okay so somehow i ended up sliding down the rabbit hole and i can't stop myself.

I read a couple of articles/posts and watched a video that made mention that this was easy to do in Vista by going to run/GPEDIT.MSC and adjusting settings for the task bar. Not available in windows 7.

Now your options seem to be to learn how to do it in the registry (i haven't been able to find a howto)

Or...

...to use a 3rd party app like Taskbar Tweaker. [Link: download.cnet.com]

How have you configured your task bar? Is it set to auto hide or is it always there at the bottom of the screen?