What is the Show Desktop Button?
In Windows 10, Microsoft placed a tiny, almost invisible, vertical sliver of a button at the absolute far-right corner of the taskbar, right next to the notification center icon. If you click this tiny sliver, all of your open windows will instantly minimize, revealing your desktop wallpaper. If you click it again, all the windows will maximize back to their original positions.
While useful, its placement is highly problematic. Because it is located at the extreme edge of the screen, users trying to quickly flick their mouse to click the “X” to close a maximized window, or trying to click the notification bell, often overshoot and accidentally click the “Show Desktop” button instead. Having all your work suddenly vanish because of a tiny mouse movement is incredibly jarring. You can disable this corner button completely.
How to Disable the Far-Right Show Desktop Button
You can turn off this corner functionality in the Windows Taskbar settings.
- Look down at the bottom of your screen to the Windows Taskbar.
- Find any completely empty, blank space on the taskbar.
- Right-click on that empty space. A context menu will appear.
- Click on Taskbar settings at the very bottom of the menu.
- A new Settings window will open. Scroll down slightly until you see the toggle switch labelled: Use Peek to preview the desktop when you move your mouse to the Show desktop button at the end of the taskbar.
- Toggle the switch to the Off position.
While this toggle specifically mentions the “hover to peek” feature, on many Windows 10 builds, it completely neuters the button. If you still find yourself accidentally clicking it and minimizing windows, the absolute best solution is to simply learn the keyboard shortcut: press Windows Key + D whenever you actually want to see your desktop, and ignore the corner entirely.