This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable the Show Desktop area on the taskbar for your account in Windows 11.
Show Desktop (Win+D) can be used to minimize and restore all of your open windows at once. The show desktop feature helps to take a quick look at what’s on your desktop behind all the open windows.
By default, you can click/tap on the far right corner of the taskbar on the main display to show the desktop and minimize all open windows, and click/tap on it again to restore all minimized windows.
Peek at desktop has been removed from the Show Desktop button in Windows 11, but you can still press and hold the Win+, (comma) keys to peek at the desktop, and release to keys to stop peeking.
Disabling show desktop on the taskbar will not prevent you from using the Win+D shortcut to show desktop.
Contents
- Option One: Enable or Disable Show Desktop on Taskbar in Settings
- Option Two: Enable or Disable Show Taskbar Desktop on Taskbar using REG file
EXAMPLE: Show desktop on far corner of taskbar
1 Open Settings (WIn+I).
2 Click/tap on Personalization on the left side, and click/tap on Taskbar on the right side. (see screenshot below)
3 Click/tap on Taskbar behaviors on the right side to expand it open. (see screenshot below step 4)
4 Check (enable - default) or Uncheck (disable) Select the far corner of the taskbar to show the desktop for what you want on the right side under Taskbar behaviors. (see screenshot below)
5 You can now close Settings if you like.
1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.
2 To Enable Show Taskbar Desktop on Taskbar
This is the default setting.
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Enable_show_desktop_on_far_corner_of_taskbar.reg
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"TaskbarSd"=dword:000000013 To Disable Show Taskbar Desktop on Taskbar
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.
Disable_show_desktop_on_far_corner_of_taskbar.reg
(Contents of REG file for reference)
Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"TaskbarSd"=dword:000000004 Save the .reg file to your desktop.
5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.
6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.
7 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.
That's it,
Shawn Brink
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