How To Have Faster Thumbnails View In Windows 7 Taskbar

The taskbar in Windows 7 includes a thumbnail view whenever windows are grouped into one taskbar button. It has been explained in detail that the standard way taskbar behaves regarding to grouping applications buttons can be changed according to user needs and tastes, in this hub.

This time we will mention how the reaction speed of this thumbnail view can be changed, so that the thumbnails will appear faster or even immediately and the user will be able to determine without delays which windows he wants to restore.

The change can be achieved by editing the Windows registry; risking to sound repetitive, I will mention once again that registry is the place where all settings and application/operating system information are stored; as a result, wandering in registry and changing random values can cause your system to malfunction due to operating system failure. Even though following a detailed guide is safer, you still need to be very cautious with anything you change through registry editor.

1. Click on Start and type regedit. This will open up the registry editor.
2. At the left side tree view, expand the category HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
3. Right click at the central pane and choose New > DWORD [32-bit] Value.
4. Rename the new entry to ExtendedUIHoverTime and change its value to 1 [Decimal].

You might need to restart your system in order for changes to take effect. Note here that you can adjust this value in different ways; the value you set is in milliseconds. This means if you want a delay of 2 seconds before the thumbnails show up, set the value at 2000.