Disable Windows 8 mouse over corner interfaces

Aug 19, 2012

Tutorials, Windows, Windows 8, Windows tips

A menu is displayed in Windows 8 whenever you move the mouse cursor to one of the corners of the screen. The Charms Bar is displayed on the right when you move the mouse cursor to the upper or lower cursor here. On the left, you see the active app, and when you move the mouse down or up depending on whether you are at the top or bottom of the screen, you get a black bar with all apps that have been started but not closed in that session.

Some of you may run into issues with these interfaces, as they may make it harder to access other contents in this corners. If you are running applications or games in windowed full screen mode for instance, the close button may be at exactly the same position the top right Charms menu trigger is.

You have alternatives at your proposal. The Charms Bar can be opened with Windows-C, and Win-Tab lets you cycle through apps without the apps menu on the left.

Microsoft has added options to the operating system to disable the mouse over menus in Windows 8.

Disable Charms Bar corner activation

To disable the activation of the Charms bar when you move your mouse to the top or bottom right corner of the monitor, you need to get your hands dirty in the Registry.

Press Windows-r and type regedit in the run box and then enter to load the Windows Registry editor. Accept the prompt that appears. Use the left sidebar menu to navigate to the following key in the Registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ImmersiveShell

Right-click on ImmersiveShell and select New > Key. Name that key EdgeUI. Right-click on EdgeUI and select New Dword (32-bit) Value and name it DisableCharmsHint. After you have created the value, double-click it and change its value from the default value of 0 to 1.

This disables the corner mouse over interface on the right side. If you ever want to enable the feature again, simply change the key back from 1 to 0 to do so.

Disable Apps Bar corner activation

If you have skipped the above paragraph go back and follow the instructions to create the EdgeUI key in the Registry. 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.

If you ever want to restore the corner activation, simply switch the value back to 0 to do so.

Closing Words

If you disable one or both edge interfaces you are left with displaying the interfaces with keyboard shortcuts. The easiest way to display the Charms Bar then is to use Windows-C, and to switch apps Win-Tab.

Comments

ryan said on May 18, 2014 at 5:17 pm


WTF is a “HKEY_CURRENT_USER” this guide is not one bit helpful…window 8 is a nightmare enough,why does the this guide have to be as well??????
1. John Haugeland said on May 19, 2014 at 6:23 pm
  
  
  Sir, please keep the complaining to a minimum. You’re emailing dozens of people.
  
  The instructions are very clear and very easy to google.
  
  By the way, if you hate Windows 8 so much, hold the Windows Logo key and hit “d”. There: Windows 7 for you.
  
  Try being more calm and reading the instructions. Sometimes it’s not as bad as you think.
2. Martin Brinkmann said on May 18, 2014 at 6:17 pm
  
  
  Ryan, if you open the Registry Editor, you find it listed on the left sidebar. Just click on it and follow the path as explained.
Geo said on February 13, 2013 at 8:48 pm


The DisableCharmsHint does not work for me on two separate machines. The DisableTLcorner works fine. Odd. I’m sure it’s me somehow
Kristin said on January 17, 2013 at 6:43 am


THANK YOU THANK YOU!! You made it super easy for a non-tech gal to fix this annoying problem on my new Dell!!!
mayoniizu said on January 2, 2013 at 8:37 pm


i already oppen the regedit and i cant seem to find ImmersiveShell path after accessing HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion , do you have a hint how to solve this??
i’m currently using windows 8 64 bit on asus ux32vd laptop
1. Martin Brinkmann said on January 2, 2013 at 8:52 pm
  
  
  I have no idea why you do not have it. Are you using Windows RT?
  
  Try Skip Metro Suite which you can use to disable all hot corners: https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/26/skip-metro-suite-is-your-all-in-one-getting-rid-of-windows-8-metro-solutions/
James L said on December 4, 2012 at 3:57 pm


After using various methods – regedit, classic shell, notilesplease and skip metro suite, my charms bar still appears randomly.

The hand icon doesn’t appear on the desktop or when I’m in programs now, but the charms bar randomly appears when I’m in chrome. I hover to the right of the screen not even in the corner and down and it appears sometimes even when my arrow is near the middle of my page.

Any idea? Thanks
Kirken said on October 30, 2012 at 11:09 pm


That’s sad there is no way to just disable the charm bar by the top right corner. Bottom right corner is enough and useful. But the top one is irritating as it covers the close buttons of any full screen application, if you are too fast moving to it.
ilev said on August 20, 2012 at 8:00 pm


Another way to boot into the desktop WITHOUT any third-party app, which is build in Windows 8 :

All you have to do is to go to options in any Explorer window, choose the ‘view’ tab and click on ‘Restore previous folder windows at log-on’.

The system will boot to the desktop at startup, but only if you leave an explorer window open at shutdown.

source : neowin.net
ilev said on August 20, 2012 at 6:33 pm


You don’t need to hack the registry, just use Skip Metro Suite apps.
The app bypasses the Metro screen, disables Top-Left Corner (Switcher)â€ and â€œDisable Charms Bar”…

http://winaero.com/comment.php?comment.news.103
John Haugeland said on August 19, 2012 at 6:41 pm


I think this is just because those two companies resolve in IPv6 before IPv4, so your blackhole isn’t getting applied.

Try blackholing both addressing systems.
1. sgr said on August 19, 2012 at 10:13 pm
  
  
  Thanks John H.
  Finally I got them banned but I had to turn off Windows Defender to make those changes permanent.
  I do not get it why is that. How come I can ban other sites without turning off WD.
  Do google and facebook pay to ms for this? I leave this question open though.
  1. John Haugeland said on May 19, 2014 at 6:21 pm
    
    
    No, you just screwed the rule up. It’s not about Microsoft taking money. :|
Nicolai said on August 19, 2012 at 5:41 pm


Of course it’s possible to “block dns lookups” to facebook/etc via the HOSTS file, but doing so is just stupid. It will still be possible to access the sites (just bypass the lookup by using the sites IP’s, instead of the domain name or use a proxy).
sgr said on August 19, 2012 at 3:56 pm


Hi Martin,
Did you know that this is impossible to ban facebook.com and ad.doubleclick.net via hosts in windows 8 RTM ?
Hard to believe ha? Try it on and let us know if you succeed.

Best Regards.
y said on August 19, 2012 at 12:43 pm


Great!
Steve said on August 19, 2012 at 12:35 pm


Another of the many hacks needed to actually restore the OS to basic functionality!
1. Julian said on October 27, 2012 at 8:23 pm
  
  
  There is nothing wrong with the OS current functionality. Maybe you should just adjust.
  1. Angus said on November 27, 2012 at 1:47 am
    
    
    DisableTLcorner works after restart. Score!
  2. Angus said on November 25, 2012 at 10:43 pm
    
    
    Registry mods to me are AOK – no need for third-party software. The Charms hint disable is especially great, b/c it only disables the “hint” part of it – if you start at the corner and drag along the side a little, Charms is still accessible. You definitely want it accessible… but not to appear at random.
    
    I haven’t been able to get DisableTLcorner to work, but that’s no biggie I guess. I already disabled the lock screen and caps lock button with the registry… probably all I need, for this laptop at least.