How to Disable All Live Tiles in Start Menu (or Start Screen) in Windows 8 and Later
Almost all of us know about the Start Screen introduced in Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft tried to put Windows Phone style Start Screen in Windows 8 OS. Start Screen in Windows 8 shows live tiles for various modern (aka Metro) apps such as Weather, News, etc. Live tiles show live previews of application content and also show notifications to the users.
In Windows 10, Microsoft has added the good ol’ Start Menu back which also shows Live tiles of apps.
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Although live tile is a good feature of Windows 8/8.1/Windows 10 but it consumes Internet bandwidth to update previews and notifications. Also many times this live tile feature may annoy and disturb users when they are looking for something on Start Screen and suddenly a live tile changes its preview to update social updates, etc.
Windows allows you to disable Live tile preview feature for a particular tile. You can right-click on a tile and select “Turn live tile off” option to immediately disable its live preview feature.
But sometimes users want to completely disable Live tile preview feature for all apps in Windows. Recently one AskVG reader “Jake” contacted us regarding same problem:
Hi VG. Is there a way to disable ALL live tiles using a Registry tweak? I know in Group Policy Editor, there is a setting you can change, but I’m using Windows 8 Core at the moment. Thanks.
Today in this tutorial, we are going to tell you ways to permanently turn off live tiles feature in Windows 8 and later Windows versions such as Windows 8.1, Windows 10, etc.
So if you also want to disable all live tiles preview feature on Start Screen, check out following simple methods:
- METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
- METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
So without wasting time lets start the tutorial:
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METHOD 1: Using Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
1. Type gpedit.msc in RUN or Start search box and press Enter. It’ll open Group Policy Editor.
2. Now go to:
User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Start Menu and Taskbar -> Notifications
3. In right-side pane, look for “Turn off tile notifications” option.
4. The option would be set to Not Configured. Double-click on it and set it to Enabled.
That’s it. Apply changes and it’ll immediately disable live tiles feature for all apps on Start Screen.
METHOD 2: Using Registry Editor (regedit.exe)
If you are using Home edition of Windows OS, 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. Type regedit in RUN or Start search box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
3. Create a new key under CurrentVersion key and set its name as PushNotifications
So the final key path would be:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PushNotifications
4. Now select PushNotifications key and in right-side pane create a new DWORD NoTileApplicationNotification and set its value to 1
5. Close Registry Editor and restart, log off or restart Explorer as given here to take effect.
It’ll permanently disable Live tiles feature for all apps in Windows 8 and later.
IMP NOTE:
Once you disable live tiles feature, you may notice that some apps still show live previews on their tiles. It happens because those apps have stored those old live previews in cache. After disabling live tiles feature, all apps will stop downloading and updating live previews but they may show previously downloaded previews on their tiles.
To delete these cached live previews as well, you can follow these simple steps:
1. Go to Start Screen and press Win+C keys together to show Charms Bar.
2. Now click on Settings and then click on Tiles option.
3. Now you’ll see an option “Clear personal info from my tiles“. Click on Clear button given below the option and it’ll clear live tiles cache files.
That’s it. Now you have successfully turned off Live tiles feature for all apps on Start Screen in Windows 8 and later.
Doing this Registry hack will also reveal a hidden message/option toggle under the Tiles Charm Bar menu. It says:
“Data used for tile updates
After you reach the limit, your apps will let you know when there’s new info waiting, but your tiles won’t update.”
A drop-down menu will follow with options to set the limit for tile updates.
#menu1 { display : 50MB }
#menu2 { display : 100MB }
#menu3 { display : 200MB }
#menu4 { display : 300MB }
#menu5 { display : 400MB }
#menu6 { display : Unlimited }
A:link {color:black; text-decoration:none}
A:hover {color:blue; text-decoration:underline}
^^whoops. terrible HTML code execution there. sorry, my first time writing HTML in blogs. 😛
both method doesn’t work on windows 8.1
method 1 – there’s no Notifications folder
method 2 – PushNotifications already exist
Nice tip. I prefer to turn off due to bandwidth limitations. Thank you
I made this registry change on a Windows 8.1 machine, and it does not work.
I appreciate someone trying to provide helpful, actionable information on
how to remove this awful “billboard” that Microsoft has put at startup on
my new laptop, but the registry change suggested here did not work, despite
me using the Administrator account to make the change.
As both John and Duane have indicated, THIS DOES NOT WORK.
I really want the stupid Flipboard garbage turned off. It is an abomination.
Why would Microsoft assault it’s users with such a stupid, annoying piece
of garbage? It is beyond belieff stupid… like putting a billboard on the
window of your car, while you are driving! When I determine how to kill
this annoyance, I will try to remember to post the info here. – Rus
Ok, as promised, here it is. At least, I think so. I implemented the registry changes suggested here on my new ASUS laptop, running Windows 8.1, but when I shut down and restarted and logged into Administrator account, I still got the stupid active billboard of adverts. What you have to do is to clear the Flipboard/billboard garbage from cache, using the right-hand setup, which is not the same as the setup menu that is invoked by the little gear icon. Move the mouse into the top left corner, and then drag it down. (This must be some bs they copied from Apple. Idiotically stupid.) As you drag the mouse down on the right side of the screen, a special right-hand sidebar menu opens up, with another gear icon, labeled “Settings”. Click this settings. It opens up a bigger right-hand sidebar menu, with options “Start Personalize Tiles Help”. Click “Tiles” option, and the bottom option is: “Clear personal info from my tiles”. You must CLICK THIS OPTION, otherwise, you will get an endless loop of pre-loaded garbage active billboard junk spewing on your main-screen at startup. (Like the pre-programmed phone-calls that come to that poor guy alone on Mars, in Bradbury’s “Martian Chronicles”). Pressing “Clear” removes the junk-loop of cached crap, and next time you log in, you will not get any active “spew” on your tiles.
Hint: Make sure to run thru the “Privacy” settings, invoked by the other “Gear” icon, mainscreen, left-side centre. If your are a normal human being, you will probably want to disable most of what Microsoft has enabled. Hope this helps someone bang their head on the table just a bit less, when using CurrentVersion modern Windows!
There are another way to disable Live Tile (it works on Windows 10, not sure if works on 8.1 and 8). First, right-click on tile which you want to disable, then More, and then Turn Life Tile off. Do that on all other tiles, and you will be free from that stuff. If you want to enable it, do the same thing. Hope this was helpful 🙂