[Windows 10 Tip] Disable “Send Feedback” (Smiley) Button in Internet Explorer Toolbar

A few months back we told you how to remove “Send a Smile or Frown” button (also known as Send Feedback icon) from Internet Explorer 11 toolbar in Windows 10 operating system. You can tread more about the tutorial at following link:

[Tip] Remove “Send a Smile” (Feedback) Button from Internet Explorer 11 in Windows 10

The above mentioned tutorial required use of Resource Hacker tool to modify a system file “ieframe.dll” to remove the smiley and other toolbar buttons in Internet Explorer.

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Send_Smile_Toolbar_Button_IE11_Windows_10.png

Today an AskVG reader “Franek” shared a simple Registry tweak to remove this “Send Feedback” or “Send a Smile” button from IE11 toolbar quickly and easily and in this tutorial, we are going to share the same Registry tweak for interested people.

UPDATE: Another reader “MarkC” shared a similar Group Policy trick to remove the “Send Feedback” (Smiley) button from Internet Explorer toolbar which has also been added in this tutorial.

Actually this Registry tweak and Group Policy trick exist since long time and it was used to remove “Send Feedback” option from Help menu in older Internet Explorer versions. Fortunately the same methods still work in IE11 for disabling the Smiley button in the toolbar.

If you also want to get rid of the “Send a Smile” button from Internet Explorer toolbar in Windows 10, following steps will help you:

METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc)

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type gpedit.msc in RUN and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.

2. Now go to:

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User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Internet Explorer -> Browser menus

3. In right-side pane, double-click on “Help menu: Remove ‘Send Feedback’ menu option” option and set it to Enabled.

Remove_Send_Feedback_Help_Menu_Option_Internet_Explorer.png

Apply the changes and it’ll immediately remove the Smiley button from IE toolbar.

PS: If you decide to restore the Smiley button in future, double-click on “Help menu: Remove ‘Send Feedback’ menu option” option and set it to Not Configured again.

METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (Regedit.exe)

If you are using Windows 10 Home edition, you’ll not be able to run gpedit.msc command because this edition doesn’t come with Group Policy Editor.

If you can’t use or don’t want to use Group Policy Editor, you can take help of Registry Editor for the same task. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Press WIN+R keys together to launch RUN dialog box. Now type regedit in RUN and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft

3. Under Microsoft key, create a new key and set its name as Internet Explorer

4. Now create another new key under the new Internet Explorer key and set its name as Restrictions

So the final path would be:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions

5. Now select Restrictions key and in right-side pane, create a new DWORD NoHelpItemSendFeedback and set its value to 1 to remove Send a Smile button from Internet Explorer toolbar.

Remove_Send_Feedback_Smiley_Button_IE_Toolbar_Windows_10.png

Now you can check Internet Explorer and you’ll no longer see the Smiley in the toolbar.

NOTE: If you want to re-enable Smiley button in IE toolbar, either delete the NoHelpItemSendFeedback DWORD or set its value to 0 and it’ll immediately start showing the smiley button in IE toolbar.

PS: If you are not familiar with Registry editing and want a ready-made Registry script to do the task automatically, download following ZIP file, extract it and run the extracted REG file. It’ll ask for confirmation, accept it:

Also Check:

Published in: Internet Explorer, Windows 10

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. Why would one want to do this?
    Its not like it effects the performance of IE browser.

  2. ^^ The smiley button might become annoying to many people. Also having Tools button at the extreme right corner of the toolbar is far better and easier than having that smiley face.

  3. If you don’t feel like editing the registry, this can also be found in group policy under User Configuration/Policies/Administrative Templates/windows components/internet explorer/browser menus/Help menu: Remove ‘Send Feedback’ menu option.

  4. Hi,

    METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (Gpedit.msc)
    is not working for me. But I need to us this. Regedit or something is not a option.
    Do you have any Idea why it doesn’t work?

  5. hmmm, I applied the Local Group Policy setting, didn’t work.
    When I went to the registry editor, the key was already there (presumably created when I set the Group Policy setting), so no change there…

    I’m on:
    Win10 x64 (Version 10.0.10586 Build 10586)
    IE 11 (Version 11.162.10586.0, Update Version 11.0.29)

  6. Same here, I applied the group policy to enabled but the smilie is still there?

  7. Odd?

    After I did mu first winupdate to:
    Win10 PRO x64 (Version 1511 Build 10586.494)
    IE 11 (Version 11.494.10586.0, Update version 11.0.33)

    The problem went away.

    Yaaaay !

  8. Thank you for this easy solution (and for even including a script to do the process automatically).

  9. Combining the method above and the method to remove the Smiley from Office 2013, I came up with this solution to remove it from Office 2016 that worked for me:

    1. In registry editor, navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft
    2. Create new keys: Office > Common > Restrictions
    3. In that key, create new DWORD: NoHelpItemSendFeedback
    4. Edit value from 0 to 1

    Launch any MS Office 2016 product and the smiley’s should not be there.

  10. Well, gpedit is not available in Windows 10 Home, so cannot use that method. The registry method also does not work. Windows 10.0.14393.

    Sure it does not affect how IE operates, but it’s my device, and I want to control what I see on the screen. It is was a grey icon it may be not noticed, but it’s bright yellow with every other icon with thin black outlines only.

  11. For those of you that this did not work for, make sure you have installed the latest updates for IE. I found that this group policy/registry entry does not work in version 11.00.10240.16384 of IE11. It does work in 11.00.10240.17184

  12. Workaround for Windows10 home users: you still CAN use the registry method. Logged in as an administrator, move in the registry editor to Computer > HKEY_USERS > [SID] > Software > Policies > Microsoft. Start with step 3 in method 3. In Windows Powershell you can reveal the SID of any user. You’ll need the computername. Command is: get-wmiobject win32_useraccount -filter “name = ‘name you are looking for’ and domain = ‘your computername'”, for example get-wmiobject win32_useraccount -filter “name = ‘Todd Windowsuser’ and domain = ‘nthwindpc123′”. Restart any open IE windows for that user to see if the policy has been applied ok.

  13. On Windows 10 Home, method 2 works perfect !
    (it is correct that method 1 does not work on Home edition, so used method 2)

  14. Thank you! I know it is a minor thing, but that stupid smiley face is way out of place in the browser experience (haha, a bit of an oxymoron given it is IE, but still). Thanks!

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