Disable Taskbar Preview Pane in Vista

Thanks to The Geek's bounty program we now have an incredibly useful application to increase the Taskbar Preview Pane in Vista.  But what if you don't like the preview panes?  To keep everything fair and balanced I will show you how to disable the panes entirely.

Right Click on the Start Menu and select Properties.

From the Properties menu screen uncheck "Show window previews (thumbnails)".  Click Apply then OK and your done!

Mysicgeek's Tech Lingo:  Thumbnail - A miniature preview of a document, photo, video, application, or webpage. 

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This article was originally written on 08/11/07 Tagged with: Vista, Windows

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Comments (9)

1. August 22, 2007 10:35 pm
   Jean Bowden

   My "Show window previews (thumbnails)" is not checked and it is greyed out, but I still have the previews, which I don't want. What can I do to get rid of them?

2. August 29, 2007 5:00 pm
   Joe Schafer

   I have vista and my show thumbnail tab is checked but I still have no preview that pops up… wondering why…

3. March 25, 2008 6:34 pm
   Devin Chambers

   I have Vista and my "Show window previews (thumbnails)" tab it grayed out and unchecked, but I want to check it in order to show previews. Can you help? Thank you.

4. March 28, 2008 9:55 am
   G

   My "Show window previews (thumbnails)" tab (in Vista) is also greyed out and unchecked, but I *have* previews–and don't want them.

5. March 28, 2008 10:13 am
   G

   This worked to disable the previews!
   http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/118399-thumbnail-previews-taskbar-enable-disable.html

6. November 10, 2008 7:04 pm
   boon

   I have Vista home premium and my "Show window previews (thumbnails)" tab it grayed out and unchecked, but I want to check it in order to show previews. Can you help?

7. November 11, 2008 12:12 am
   jd2066

   @boon: If it's grayed out and you don't have previews then Aero is probably turned off. Either your computer doesn't support Aero or there is something wrong with the Aero configuration.
   For help on that, post a question on the forums. Your post will be responded to faster and looked at by more people there.

8. May 7, 2009 2:56 pm
   Mary

   I also have the preview pane darkened out on a brand new Dell. I would love to have the preview. What is Aero and which forum do I go to? Thank you for your patience and anticipated help.

9. June 24, 2009 2:09 pm
   echeddar

   Mary, you need to have Vista. You could turn taskbar previews on on your computer by checking the bottom box in the picture above.