Charm bar - how to get rid of it.

silentbutnice

I made the mistake of getting win 8 for my girlfriend preinstalled on her new laptop.

The reason why it's a mistake is because we can't seem to get rid of the charm bar which keeps popping up most times when she uses the trackpad.

I looked this up before and I should the windows 7 shell that basically turns things back to win 7 format which is fine. The charm bar now only pops up when she slides in finger from the right hand side of the trackpad.

I tried to find a way to disable it via the trackpad settings but there's nothing I've found.

Have ye guys any ideas on how I can disable the bloody trackpad from bringing up that charm bar every time?

Antar Bolaeisk

You can do it through the registry: http://www.askvg.com/how-to-disable-charms-bar-hint-in-windows-8/

_Kaiser_

Just get Start8 for under a fiver and disable all the Win 8 nonsense entirely.

Overheal

Start8 is the common "I hate windows 8" fix.

Whats happening though, is that by default (meh) there is a setting that allows the user to swipe from the right-side of their trackpad to pull up the charm bar, and from the left you can do the app switching. This is part of the same functionality you would have with a touch screen. Ultimately, its one of the dumber choices they included in the OS as a default setting.

Under general settings you can disable the left swipe, but im not sure theres an option for the right swipe. Might fix the problem either way. But understanding that the charm bar will pull up if you swipe on the pad from the right, or move your mouse into the top right or bottom right corner, will probably be a help anyway. Its not so much that the interface is the worst thing ever created, but they did a lame job introducing all these little changes to people ahead of time. People get a new laptop and frequently complain that it just "randomly" jumps between apps (they're swiping with their hand) because the OS offers no prior notice or documentation of the swipe control, which is breaking several well defined rules of user experience.

silentbutnice

Start8 - will that get rid of the swipe from the right on the trackpad problem she's experiencing?

The OS is fine in fairness, and she doesn't mind the metro screen. The charm bar popping up though is just ridiculous.

Soundman

Are there no trackpad settings/programs in Control Panel? I have a Dell Inspiron that by standard had a few stupid (to me) gestures activated. Went into Control Panel and there was a DELL TOUCHPAD icon. Was able to turn off all gestures in there.

silentbutnice

Soundman wrote: »

Are there no trackpad settings/programs in Control Panel? I have a Dell Inspiron that by standard had a few stupid (to me) gestures activated. Went into Control Panel and there was a DELL TOUCHPAD icon. Was able to turn off all gestures in there.

She has a lenovo. Can't find any trackpad icon for her in control panel.

Soundman

No mention of Synaptics in Control Panel? Maybe do a search for Touchpad or trackpad in the search within the charm bar. You might see something under APPS.

Antar Bolaeisk

Wonder if you just disable the service or any other startup item related to synaptics would that get rid of it. I know it's a baked in Windows 8 thing but maybe it's reliant upon the driver reporting the correct swipes to the OS.

Soundman

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Wonder if you just disable the service or any other startup item related to synaptics would that get rid of it. I know it's a baked in Windows 8 thing but maybe it's reliant upon the driver reporting the correct swipes to the OS.

Wouldn't think so. I accidentally stopped my Elantech service from starting and lost all but the basic trackpad functions, including simple scrolling.