How can I disable the Windows 8 charms bar?

Question

Can someone please tell me how to disable the annoying effect that pops up when you drag cursor to top- or bottom-right corners?

Solution 1

Skip Metro Suite (turns off charms/hot corners, etc) + Start8 (Search/settings all in a normal Start Menu) should get your computer back in business.

Part of the beauty of Windows is the ability to customize. don't let others convince you otherwise.

Solution 2

At first I ignored the Windows 8 charms, then I thought they were a gimmick, but now I am a convert. In particular, I like this consistent overlay for finding context sensitive Settings.

I have seen an Charms customizer, if you really dislike it, and you have the time perhaps you could create a colourless overlay?

http://www.vikitech.com/11109/customize-windows-8-charms-bar

Solution 3

http://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-charms-bar-hint-in-windows-8/

This will disable the charms bar hint. The charm bar will no longer appear when you drag your cursor to the right corners. It'll still appear if you put your cursor in the corner then swipe down or up.

In case the link goes down:

• Launch the Registry Eeditor (Windows+R, regedit.exe)
• Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell\
• Under ImmersiveShell, create a new key named EdgeUI
• In the new key, create a DWORD named DisableCharmsHint and set its value to 1;

No need to reboot.

Solution 4

You don’t; it’s an important part of the navigation in Windows 8.

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Comments

[Admin]

For those who like their taskbar vertical, the left side has never been an option due to buggy apps that start with X=0 (i.e. underneath the taskbar). The Charms bar makes the right side unusable too. Awesome!

[Admin]

Charms bar is annoying ! I keep accidentally triggering it on my touchpad. And no I don't have a touch screen. And there is NO way to disable it in my Synaptic touchpad settings. New features are nice but they should not be forced down our throats. I've moved back to Windows 7 for now.

[Admin]

For Win8.1 see this.

[Ian Boyd]

Like it, or not, this is the answer.

[Ramhound]

There is no guarantee this will work in the RTM. I guess we are going to have hundreds of questions like this asked 4 months ago, bumped because of the release of Windows 8, going to be fun...

[Gnoupi]

@IanBoyd - no, that's not the answer to "How to disable Windows 8 charm?". That's "your question is irrelevant, you don't". At best this should be a comment.

[Ian Boyd]

i guess, @Gnoupi, that the answer could be: enter into an agreement with Microsoft where, for an undisclosed amount of money, they will sell you source code, from which you are allowed to create a private build of Windows 8 that only you are allowed to run. Then modify the source code to remove *charms." Except the implicit assumption in the question in the question was: how to disable charms in Windows using supported settings, or through a 3rd party tool. Like it or not, there is no way to do that. Like it or not that is the answer.

[Gnoupi]

@IanBoyd - There are programs able to change things in the Windows look and feel which are not possible to begin with, with the given configuration tools (see Stardock software and else). As such, the question makes sense, like many others like this. And also, see rev's answer on the same question, giving tools allowing exactly this.

[Ian Boyd]

@Gnoupi Those programs rely on undocumented internal details. That makes them fragile; prone to breaking or causing other problems. That makes them unsupported.

[James Allen]

Also havnt tried this in the release version but +1 because it's the best answer. Can also disable top-left corner: "Right-click EdgeUI afterwards and select New Dword (32-bit) Value from the context menu and name it DisableTLcorner. Double-click the new entry and change the value to 1 from its default value of 0" Source: bit.ly/NSMtp7

[James Allen]

Agreed, this isn't an answer, it's an opinion and should be a comment. I happen to agree with it though - I prefer to invest time and a bit of temporary frustration in 'getting used to' new OSs, it always pays off in the long run

[Jon]

Agree that this is not an answer. There are ways to disable the charm bar; Rev's answer is one way. There was no assumption (implied or otherwise) that the answer had to be a Microsoft provided solution.

[Jus12]

"Hmm... Can we make the wheels round instead of square?".... "No. you don't! Square wheels were created by the designer for a purpose. We can't question that."