[Windows 10 Tip] Remove “My People” Button and Pinned Contacts from Taskbar

In newer Windows 10 versions, Microsoft has implemented a new feature called “My People” which allows you to pin your favorite contacts to Taskbar and then you can chat with them using Skype or send them emails using Mail app without having to open these apps. You can also share files with the contacts by just dragging the selected files onto the pinned contact in Taskbar.

The pinned contact buttons also show unread messages counter in form of notification badges. If your pinned contacts send you an emoji, it directly displays and animates on the screen.

Just like Instant Messengers (IM), if a contact sends you a message or emoji, a sound is also played to notify you about the new message or emoji.

Many Windows 10 users may find this new feature useful and interesting but for some people it might be an annoying addition. If you don’t want to see your contacts pinned on Taskbar and don’t want to see animated emojis on your Desktop, this tutorial will help you in turning off the “My People” feature completely.

Today in this article, we’ll tell you:

• How to remove “My People” button/icon from Taskbar notification area (system tray)
• How to disable pinned contacts on Taskbar
• How to disable notification badges on pinned contacts on Taskbar
• How to disable sound notifications when a new message, emoji arrives

So without wasting time let’s start the tutorial:

If you want to remove the My People button and pinned contacts from Taskbar, right-click on Taskbar and uncheck “Show People button” option.

That’s it. It’ll immediately remove the My People button and all pinned contacts from Taskbar.

There is another way to disable My People feature and pinned contacts on Taskbar. Right-click on Taskbar and select “Taskbar Settings” option. It’ll open Settings app. Now scroll down to bottom and under “People” section, set the “Show contacts on the taskbar” toggle to OFF.

If you don’t want to disable My People and pinned contacts feature but want to disable notification badges shown on pinned contacts buttons, set the “Show My People notifications” toggle to OFF.

And if you want to keep the notifications enabled but don’t want to hear the sound whenever a new email, chat message or emoji arrives, set the “Play a sound when a My People notification arrives” toggle to OFF.

That’s it. Using these built-in options, you can customize the My People functionality in Windows 10 according to your requirements.

BONUS TIP:

By default, you can pin only 3 contacts to Taskbar but using following registry tweak, you can pin more than 3 contacts:

1. Press “WIN+R” key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

3. In right-side pane, create a new DWORD TaskbarCapacity and set its value to 10 (make sure to select Decimal as base). Restart Windows and you’ll be able to pin more contacts to Taskbar.

UPDATE:

Newer Windows 10 versions allow users to select how many contacts they want to show on Taskbar. Open Taskbar Settings, scroll down to bottom and under “People” section, you’ll find a new option “Choose how many contacts to show“. Select any desired number from the given drop-down box. You can select from 1 to 10 contacts to show on Taskbar.

Also Check:

• How to Remove Cortana Search Box, Task View and Touch Keyboard Buttons from Windows 10 Taskbar
• [Windows 10 Tip] Remove “Windows Defender Security Center” Icon from Taskbar Notification Area
• [Windows 10 Tip] Disable Number of Badge Notifications on Taskbar Buttons
• [Windows 10 Tip] Show / Hide Number of New Notifications on Action Center Icon in Taskbar