Windows 10: How to remove Chat in Windows 11 and hide the slider button from the Settings

A couple of weeks ago, we showed you how to uninstall Widgets in Windows 11. Some of you had asked how to remove Chat from the OS.



If you have just installed Windows 11, you may notice a couple of new icons on the Taskbar. One of these is for an instant messaging app called Teams. This isn't the Teams app that you may be used to in School or at Work. The original Teams app has a blue background tile, with a white T on it. The new Chat app has a camera icon it, and is essentially a personal version of the Teams app, that you can use to chat with your family and friends. You can actually download the main Teams program, and use them both together. Don't ask me why, this is how Microsoft explains it. This is kind of like what they did with Skype and Skype for Business.

The Chat icon is kind of weird, if you click it, it will launch the Teams app. But if you have uninstalled the messaging app, and click on the Chat icon, it redownloads the said app. Let's not discuss how atrocious this is, and instead focus on disabling the app.

The simplest way is to right-click the Taskbar, and select Taskbar Settings. Toggle the switch for the Chat option to hide the button. Click the Start button, type Chat or Teams, and uninstall the app, or you can use the Settings > Apps > Apps and Features screen. This doesn't disable it completely, so if the Chat icon somehow reappears, it will redownload the Teams app.

MyDigitalLife member, Zucrin, has shared a couple of registry edits that removes the Chat "feature" in Windows 11.

How to remove Chat in Windows 11


You must be logged in with an administrator account for this process.

1. Click the Start button, and type CMD. (or use PowerShell)

2. Select the "Run as Administrator" option.

3. Copy and paste the following code in the window.

>nul 2>&1 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /f /v TaskbarMn /t REG_DWORD /d 0
​

4. Press the Enter key.

This command hides the Chat button from view, and disables it from functioning.

How to hide the Chat slider in Windows 11


Assuming you still have the Command window open (if not, just follow step 1 and 2 from above). Paste this code in it and hit Enter.

>nul 2>&1 REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Chat" /f /v ChatIcon /t REG_DWORD /d 3
​

Say bye to the Chat slider.

You can also use the Group Policy Editor, gpedit.msc, to hide the buttons. But it didn't remove the slider on my computer, and toggling the switch allowed the app to work.

Enable the Chat app and the slider button


To get the slider back, change the value at the end of the command from 0 to 1, and 3 to 2 respectively.

How to hide the Widgets slider


To get rid of the Widgets slider, use the following code. Paste it in the command window, one line at a time

>nul 2>&1 REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced" /f /v TaskbarDa /t REG_DWORD /d 0

>nul 2>&1 REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Dsh" /f /v AllowNewsAndInterests /t REG_DWORD /d 0

>nul 2>&1 REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Feeds" /f /v EnableFeeds /t REG_DWORD /d 0

>nul powershell -noprofile -executionpolicy bypass -command "Get-AppxPackage -Name *WebExperience* | Foreach {Remove-AppxPackage $_.PackageFullName}"

>nul powershell -noprofile -executionpolicy bypass -command "Get-ProvisionedAppxPackage -Online | Where-Object { $_.PackageName -match 'WebExperience' } | ForEach-Object { Remove-ProvisionedAppxPackage -Online -PackageName $_.PackageName }"
​

Enable the Widgets app and its slider button

1. Re-install the Web Experience pack as mentioned in our previous article.

2. Paste the following code in a command window.

nul 2>&1 REG ADD "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Dsh" /f /v AllowNewsAndInterests /t REG_DWORD /d 1
​

This should bring the Widgets app and the button back to normal.

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post How to remove Chat in Windows 11 and hide the slider button from the Settings appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

read more...

 

Next Windows 10 let you hide Search and Task View buttons

Read more...


See also:

• How to Hide or Show Task View Button on Taskbar in Windows 10
• How to Hide or Show Search Button on Taskbar in Windows 10

 

Slider on Privacy tab of Internet Options of IE 11, not available

Hello,

I would like to let you know that the slider in Internet Options, Privacy tab is removed. It is by design and no changes can be made. I suggest you to provide a Feedback using the Feedback Hub App for any suggestions/feedback. Please refer the link below
for Internet Explorer Security and Privacy settings.

Change security and privacy settings for Internet Explorer 11

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-explorer-11-change-security-privacy-settings

Feel free to write to us for any other assistance with Windows, we'll be glad to assist you.

 

Win 10/IE 11 Java chat box does not scroll up/down with the web page

I log into an internet chat website and the chat room window is apparently run by Java. Using an older laptop running Win 8.0/IE 8 the chat window would move up and down as the web page was scrolled up and down, staying in the same relative position to the webpage text.

On a new laptop with Win 10 I have IE 11 and have installed Java, all latest OS, IE 11 and Java updates applied. In this config when that web page is scrolled up and down, the chat room window does not move, stays static on the display (still displays new messages). As the webpage is scrolled up/down the webpage text overlays/overwrites the Java chat box.

It appears the Java chat window is detached from the surrounding webpage.

The older laptop with Win8.0/IE 8 was with Win 8.1, IE 11 and Java updates. It then began exhibiting the same issue.

I have tried adding the webpage to the IE 11 compatibility view list but still have the same problem.

Thoughts/suggestions?

Thanks!