How to Enable or Disable Animations in the Taskbar in Windows 10


By default, Windows 10 uses animations in the taskbar.

Some examples of taskbar animation are:
  • Slide effect when dragging icons on taskbar.
  • Fade and slide effect when opening taskbar thumbnail previews
  • Progress bar below icon on taskbar when downloading (ex: Chrome) or transferring files (ex: File Explorer)

This tutorial will show you how to enable or disable animations in the taskbar for your account in Windows 10.


 CONTENTS:

  • Option One: Enable or Disable Animations in the Taskbar in Visual Effects Performance Options
  • Option Two: Enable or Disable Animations in the Taskbar using a REG file





OPTION ONE

Enable or Disable Animations in the Taskbar in Visual Effects Performance Options


1. Press the Win+R keys to open Run, type SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe into Run, and click/tap on OK to directly open to the Visual Effects tab in Performance Options

2. Check (enable - default) or uncheck (disable) Animations in the taskbar for what you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshot below)

Enable or Disable Animations in the Taskbar in Windows 10-animations_in_the_taskbar.png

3. If you don't see an immediate change, then you can restart the explorer process or sign out and sign in to apply instead.






OPTION TWO

Enable or Disable Animations in the Taskbar using a REG file



The downloadable .reg files below will modify the DWORD value in the registry key below.

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

TaskbarAnimations DWORD

0 = Remove
1 = Add



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


 2. To Enable Animations in the Taskbar

This is the default setting.

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

Enable_animations_in_the_taskbar.reg

Download


 3. To Disable Animations in the Taskbar

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

Disable_animations_in_the_taskbar.reg

Download

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. Restart the explorer process or sign out and sign in to apply.

8. You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.


That's it,
Shawn