3 Ways to Disable Taskbar Thumbnail Preview in Windows 11

Quick Tips

• If you find the taskbar thumbnail previews distracting or overwhelming, turn them off on your computer.
• You can adjust your system settings or computer policy to disable taskbar thumbnail previews.
• Alternatively, use the registry editor to delay the taskbar preview from appearing.

Method 1: Disable Taskbar Thumbnail Preview Using the Settings App

The Settings app is the primary destination for making important changes to your Windows PC. Whether you need to create a new user account, update Windows, or customize the Taskbar, you can do it all using the Windows Settings app. Here’s how:

Step 1: Press the Windows + I hotkey to open the Settings app. Then, choose System from the sidebar > About from the right pane.

Step 2: Click Advanced system settings in the right pane.

Step 3: In the System Properties window, switch to the Advanced tab.

Step 4: Click the Settings button under the Performance section.

Step 5: In the Visual Effects tab, uncheck the following options:

• Enable Peek
• Show thumbnails instead of icons
• Show taskbar thumbnail previews 

Step 6: Click Apply and OK buttons to save the changes. Now, restart your system to see the changes.

Method 2: Disable Taskbar Thumbnail Preview Using the Local Group Policy Editor

The Local Group Policy Editor is a Microsoft Management Console that lets you access and modify system settings. Here’s how to use the Local Group Policy Editor to turn off the Taskbar thumbnail preview in Windows 11:

Note: The Local Group Policy Editor is exclusively available on the Windows Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions. You’ll see the “Windows cannot find gpedit.msc” error if you try to access the tool on Windows Home.

Step 1: Press the Windows + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run tool. Then, type gpedit.msc in the search bar and click OK.

Step 2: In the Local Group Policy Editor, navigate to the following location:

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar

Step 3: Click on the Standard view tab from the bottom bar.

Step 4: Double-click on the Turn off taskbar thumbnail policy to access its properties window.

Step 5: Choose Enabled > click Apply > OK to save the changes.

Method 3: Delay the Taskbar Thumbnail Preview Using the Registry Editor

Like the Windows Settings app or the Local Group Policy Editor, there is no direct way to disable the Taskbar thumbnail preview using the Registry Editor. Instead, you can use the Registry Editor to delay the preview time. This allows you to control the time before the thumbnail preview appears when you hover over a Taskbar icon.

Here’s how to use the Registry Editor to delay the Taskbar thumbnail preview:

Note: While you will make a small change, it’s still better to back up the registry and create a restore point. Doing this ensures your data and settings remain safe even if something goes wrong while editing the registry.

Step 1: Press the Windows + R keyboard shortcut to open the Run tool, type regedit in the search bar, and click OK.

Step 2: In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following location:

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

Step 3: In the right pane, right-click on the blank space, hover the cursor to New, and choose DWORD (32-bit) Value from the context menu.

Step 4: Name the value ExtendedUIHoverTime.

Step 5: Right-click on the ExtendedUIHoverTime value and choose Modify.

Step 6: Choose Decimal.

Step 7: Type the Value data according to your choice. Note that you must add 1000 to every second you want to delay. For instance, if you want to delay the thumbnail preview by 3 seconds, type 3000 in the Value data.

Step 8: Click OK to save the changes.

If you don’t want to see the thumbnail preview, you can set the value data to a high number, like 9000. This will delay the thumbnail preview by 9 seconds, ensuring it doesn’t have enough time to appear.