How to Enable or Disable Desktop Peek via Regedit

The “Peek at desktop” feature allows Windows users to preview the desktop by hovering their mouse over the far corner of the taskbar. This article identifies the specific Windows Registry values responsible for enabling or disabling the desktop peek hover behavior and provides step-by-step instructions to configure it directly in Regedit.

The Desktop Peek Registry Values

Windows manages the desktop peek functionality primarily through the Desktop Window Manager (DWM) and Windows Explorer registry paths:

• Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM
• Value Name: EnableAeroPeek
• Value Type: REG_DWORD (32-bit Value)
• Value Data:
  • 1 = Desktop Peek enabled on hover
  • 0 = Desktop Peek disabled

Additionally, Windows Explorer references the following secondary key to enforce the preference:

• Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
• Value Name: DisablePreviewDesktop
• Value Type: REG_DWORD (32-bit Value)
• Value Data:
  • 0 = Desktop Peek enabled
  • 1 = Desktop Peek disabled

Step-by-Step Configuration Guide

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter to open the Registry Editor.

2. Navigate to the DWM key:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\DWM

3. Locate the EnableAeroPeek value in the right pane. If it does not exist, right-click an empty area, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it EnableAeroPeek.

4. Double-click EnableAeroPeek and set the Value data to 1 to enable the peek preview or 0 to turn it off.

5. (Optional) Navigate to:

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

   Ensure DisablePreviewDesktop is set to 0 to allow the preview, or 1 to block it.

6. Restart the explorer.exe process via Task Manager or restart the computer to apply the changes.