Personalization Enable or Disable Show Desktop on Taskbar in Windows 11


  • Staff
Desktop_banner.png

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.

Starting with Windows 11 build 22631.3155, the Copilot icon now appears on the right side of the system tray on the taskbar to make the entry point to Copilot more clear and easily accessible by being closer to where the Copilot pane opens. As part of this change, the display of Show desktop at the rightmost corner of the taskbar will be off by default.


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 Desktop on Taskbar using REG file


EXAMPLE: Show desktop on far corner of taskbar

Show_desktop_on_far_corner_of_tsakbar.png





Option One

Enable or Disable Show Desktop on Taskbar in Settings


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)


Show_desktop_Settings-1.png

3 Click/tap on Taskbar behaviors on the right side to expand it open. (see screenshot below step 4)

4 Check (enable) or Uncheck (disable - default) 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)

Show_desktop_Settings-2.png

5 You can now close Settings if you like.




Option Two

Enable or Disable Show Desktop on Taskbar using REG file


1 Do step 2 (enable) or step 3 (disable) below for what you would like to do.

2 Enable Show Desktop on Taskbar

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:00000001

3 Disable Show 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.

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:00000000

4 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


 

Attachments

  • Desktop.png
    Desktop.png
    19 KB · Views: 147
  • Disable_show_desktop_on_far_corner_of_taskbar.reg
    646 bytes · Views: 327
  • Enable_show_desktop_on_far_corner_of_taskbar.reg
    646 bytes · Views: 363
Last edited:

Latest Support Threads

Back
Top Bottom