[Review] Windows 10 Settings App Header or Banner, Should You Try to Enable or Disable It?

Yesterday when I tried to open Settings app in Windows 10 using my favorite WIN+I keyboard shortcut, I was surprised to see the long awaited Header or Banner section UI at the top in Settings app homepage or main page.

Microsoft introduced the Header section UI (some people prefer to say it banner ad) in Windows 10 Settings app homepage long time back but it was not activated or enabled for all users. First Header section was introduced in Windows 10 19H1 builds (check here). Later Microsoft removed the Headers section from Windows 10 20H1 build 18908. Again Microsoft re-added Headers section in Windows 10 20H1 build 18922 (check here).

Following screenshot shows the new Header section added to Windows 10 Settings app:

Your current username and profile picture is displayed at the left of the Header and a few other icons such as Windows Update, etc are displayed at the right of the Header.

Currently only one icon “Windows Update” is showing in my Windows 10 device. I think icons in Headers section are added based on users activities such as which apps and settings they use frequently. Or it might be a server side change. Microsoft may use the Header section to promote its own services and apps such as OneDrive, Bing Rewards, Microsoft Edge, etc.

Following screenshot shows Windows 10 Settings Header in Dark or Night Mode activated:

I would like to clear one thing! I didn’t make any changes to the device to activate or enable the Header pane in Windows 10 Settings. I didn’t apply any Registry tweak, I didn’t install any 3rd party software. In fact I didn’t reboot the system. It was added automatically. It’s a server side change and it seems Microsoft is rolling out the Header to all Windows 10 devices in batches.

This new Header takes some noticeable space in Settings window and I observed that when we open Settings app, the user account icon or avatar appears after a second delay which doesn’t look good and makes you feel that Settings app has become slower.

Unfortunately there is no option or setting to disable, remove or hide the Header or Banner section in Windows 10 Settings app. Once it’s activated on your device, you can’t get rid of it.

Now the question comes should you try to forcefully or manually enable or disable the Header in Windows 10 Settings app?

Actually there are some tools available to manually activate and enable Headers section in Windows 10 Settings. These tools modify Windows to force it to activate the features. Personally I have not tried these tools yet as there might be side effects in modifying Windows code and shell.

These tools require running commands and these commands can be used to enable as well as disable certain features in Windows 10.

There is also a command available in these tools to enable Header section in Windows 10 Settings app and the same command can be used to disable Headers section in Windows 10 Settings. The parameters will be different obviously.

But many readers have reported that the command has stopped working in newer versions of Windows 10. It might be possible that Microsoft changed or modified the code responsible behind showing Headers section in Settings app and that’s why old commands are no longer working in Windows 10 devices.

So what’s your opinion? Do you want to enable or disable this new Header section in Windows 10 Settings app? Do you like this new addition? Do you find the new Headers section useful? Feel free to share your review or feedback in comments section.

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