Taskbar Animations - Turn On or Off in Windows 8

Brink · Jan 25, 2014

How to Turn On or Off Taskbar Animations in Windows 8 and 8.1

Information

Taskbar animations include the animated opening and closing of taskbar thumbnail previews. If you turn off animations in the taskbar, then taskbar thumbnail previews will quickly open and close without the slide or fade animation.

This tutorial will show you how to turn on or off animations in the taskbar for your account in Windows 8, Windows RT, Windows 8.1, and Windows RT 8.1.

EXAMPLE: Taskbar Thumbnail Previews

OPTION ONE

To Turn On or Off Taskbar Animations in Visual Effects

1. Open Visual Effects settings in Performance Options.

2. Select (dot) the Custom option, and do step 3 or 4 below for what you would like to do. (see screenshot below)

3. To Turn On Animations in the Taskbar

NOTE: This is the default setting.

A) Check the Animations in the taskbar box, and click/tap on OK.

4. To Turn Off Animations in the Taskbar

A) Uncheck the Animations in the taskbar box, and click/tap on OK.

OPTION TWO

To Turn On or Off Taskbar Animations using a REG File

Note

The .reg files below are for the registry key and value below.

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

TaskbarAnimations DWORD

0 = Turn off taskbar animations
1 = Turn on taskbar animations

1. Do step 2 or 3 below for what you would like to do.

2. To Turn On Animations in the Taskbar

NOTE: This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_On_Taskbar_Animations.reg

3. To Turn Off Animations in the Taskbar

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Turn_Off_Taskbar_Animations.reg

4. Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5. Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to Merge it.

6. If prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7. Sign out and sign in, or restart the computer to apply.

8. When finished, you can delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn

Taskbar Animations - Turn On or Off in Windows 8

To Turn On or Off Taskbar Animations in Visual Effects

To Turn On or Off Taskbar Animations using a REG File

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