Comments on: How to Get the Good Old “Show Desktop” Feature Back in Windows 7?

By: Marco

Marco — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 20:35:19 +0000

IT WORKED!!!!

THANK YOU! you have no idea how much it was driving me crazy that I couldnt get that show desktop button to the left. What was Micrsoft thinking not to make it movable.

Thank you so much. Im so happy now I feel normal again lol

By: Andriy

Andriy — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:10:01 +0000

I did the same thing but I figured out new code:
This is the same code but come with a new icon!!!
Try it!!!

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=shell32.dll, 35
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

By: Meg

Meg — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:10:23 +0000

An alternative option does not hurt anybody. Needless complaints about what is right or wrong don't contribute in any way. When you don't need something you just move along... the web is HUGE.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:04:39 +0000

When I'm trying to drag the icon to the left side it automaticcly pins it to the Libraries shortcut.

By: Jack Black

Jack Black — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:31:06 +0000

Why are all of you nerds getting so mad over a button. Goddamn, get outside of your parents' basement for once.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:02:28 +0000

To the argument that it is time consuming to traverse the whole screen on a laptop: Any laptop user should learn to use Windows+D and all of the other keyboard shortcuts to avoid having to use the "mouse" as much as possible. And to everyone else who says the far right is "inconvenient": If you assume that the majority of your focus is near the center of the screen, then there is little difference between an icon on the far right versus the far left. And also as a side note (someone else mentioned it briefly), reverting to the "old" way would not make use of the feature where you can hover over the show desktop icon and it gives you a preview of the desktop (with outlines where your programs are).

By: Jussi

Jussi — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 07:39:52 +0000

Thanks for Chris P's link, that worked for me appropriate.

By: mt

mt — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:32:06 +0000

Using this method leaves a bigger space between the show desktop icon and the other icons on the task bar.
To get around this I used a very simple AutoHotkey (very useful program) script.
1. Download and install AutoHotkey: http://www.autohotkey.com/
2. Open notepad and put this line in (change to your username...):
run "C:\Users\\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\shows desktop.lnk"
3. Save text file with .ahk extension.
4. Use "Convert .ahk to .exe" app that was installed with autohotkey to convert your file.
5. Create a shortcut to the exe and add the correct icon.
a. right click on the shortcut and go to change icon
b. the correct icon is located in %SystemRoot%\System32\imageres.dll
6. Drag the shortcut (which now has the right icon) onto the taskbar where ever you think it should go.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 02:28:04 +0000

Anyone know of a hack to move the fancy pants new show desktop button on the right side to the left side of the start button where it oughta be?

I love my old show desktop.pcf file, but was just curious if it could be done away with by other means.

By: spigot

spigot — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:57:06 +0000

The point of this, and of any operating system; is to make people's lives easier. Thanks to the author of this post for giving people a method to keep a highly functional, convenient (not at the furthest right of the screen) method to show the desktop. I probably use this funcitonality 20 times a day, and I don't want to traverse a few thousand pixels to the right every time I want to do it (I run high resolution displays).

Unfortunately, the OS will not let me drag the newly created shortcut out of the 'tray' area. If I try to drop it on the taskbar to the left of the break, it shows a red circle/cross. Dropping it does no good. Is anyone else having this problem? I am running build 7100.