How to Disable Aero Shake Feature in Windows 7 and Later?

UPDATE: This tutorial will also work in Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10.

If you are using Windows 7, you might be familiar with its new “Aero Shake” feature which lets you minimize all running windows except the one which you are currently working on using a simple mouse shake.

Its quite handy feature but if you don’t like this new feature and want to disable it (as automatic minimize issue may become irritating), then this tutorial will help you.

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First Method: Using Group Policy Editor

1. Type gpedit.msc in RUN or Start Menu Searchbox and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now navigate to:

User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Desktop

3. In right-side pane, double-click on “Turn off Aero Shake window minimizing mouse gesture” option and set its value to “Enabled“.

Disable_Aero_Shake_in_Win_7_using_g.png

4. That’s it. It’ll immediately disable Aero Shake in your system.

Second Method: Using Registry Editor

Some Windows editions such as Starter, Home Basic and Home Premium don’t come with Group Policy Editor. If you can’t use Group Policy Editor, here is a Registry method to do the same thing:

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1. Type regedit in RUN or Start Menu Searchbox and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

3. Create a new key Explorer under Windows key so the new path would be:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

4. Now select “Explorer” key and in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoWindowMinimizingShortcuts and set its value to 1

Disable_Aero_Shake_in_Win_7_using_r.png

5. Restart or log off your system and Aero Shake will be disabled.

NOTE: If you want a ready-made registry script to do the task automatically, then download following ZIP file, extract it and then run “Disable Aero Shake.REG” file to disable Aero Shake feature. A restore script is also included in case you want to restore the default setting.

Download Registry Script

Also Check:

How to Disable Aero Peek Feature in Windows 7 and Later?

How to Disable Aero Snap Feature in Windows 7 and Later?

Published in: Troubleshooting Guides, Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. GPEDIT worked like a charm. I will occasionally grab a window and shake it to see what process is associated with it in the Task manager by seeing which one goes up in the CPU usage list. Since I got Win7 this kept minimizing all the rest of my windows. This was getting a bit annoying. Thanks for the tip!

  2. Have had this hanging mouse and disable sound for over a week. Installed Avast and it found a virus. Fine. Though that was the fix. It didn’t. Also updated Windows, cleaned disk, etc.. Tried the suspend fix with the usb. Still no fix.
    Mouse cable never gets unplugged. I believe this has to be a virus and no program is finding it.

  3. Could a previous Windows update have caused all this mouse/sound problem to start with? Very suspicious that various people with different mouses all have this same issue years back.

  4. @ phyllis

    Try to revert GPU driver settings back to default, and make sure you have the latest stable version also, don’t change any settings after install is finished.

    You can also try clean install.

  5. Had the same problem, applications kept minimizing. problem was tablet mode was turned on. Turned off tablet mode and everything went back to normal.

  6. Thanks! I used the Group Policy Editor as described in the first method, and it did exactly what I wanted!

  7. But I can’t solve my problem in my windows 7,so please help to me,can u send ur mail I can send that problem in screen video type.

  8. I really hate the fact that so many ‘features’ have to be disabled via the registry.
    For some people this really is too complicated.
    For me personally, I’m not authorized to edit the registry in my office.

    Windows 10 was going to the THE windows. Yet they didn’t program checkboxes for features that can be very horrible to some user 🙁

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