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Windows 7

Snappier Taskbar Thumbnail Previews by Disabling Animations

SUMMARY: Prevent Windows 7 from animating the taskbar thumbnail previews. This will also disable other Start Menu and Taskbar animations.

Depending on your configuration, when you hover your mouse pointer over active icons in Windows 7's Taskbar, thumbnail previews of folders / applications appear, and they do so with animation. For various reasons such as computer speed, graphics card speed, or personal preference, you might rather have these previews display quicker without the animation "eye candy".

1. Click the "Start" button, selecting "Control Panel".

2. If you are using an expanded Control Panel, select "System" from the pop-up menu.

Otherwise when the "Control Panel" window appears, click "System and Security", then "System".

3. In the left pane, select "Advanced system settings".

4. If the User Account Control dialog box appears, click "Yes".

5. The "System Properties" multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Click the "Advanced" tab.

6. Underneath "Performance", click the "Settings" button.

Accessing Performance Settings in Windows 7

7. The "Performance Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears. Make sure the "Visual Effects" tab is selected.

8. Click the "Custom" radio button if it is not already selected, then uncheck "Animations in the taskbar and Start Menu".

Preventing Windows 7 from displaying animations in the Start Menu and taskbar, including thumbnail preview animations

9. Click "OK" on the dialog boxes to close them.

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1. Marin Computer Support (11/02/2009 05:32:48)

Cool tip. I like Win7 a lot but I am still getting use to the various settings for fine tuning. This one is helpful as I prefer performance over the bells and whistles. Thanks.

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2. Andrew Malek (01/07/2010 18:04:51)

Glad to help! And yes, especially on slower systems (or those loaded with lots of background processes) turning off "eye candy" can speed things up.