Taskbar and Classic Shell Time Tweakage

[NoelC]

In another thread a discussion about Windows 8 taskbar animations got me to thinking about something I've done that I like very much.

 

I like my desktop to feel as quick and responsive as possible (who doesn't?), so I've tweaked a number of things to be faster than the default speeds.  As a result, menus pop open instantly, Taskbar Live Previews pop open immediately, etc.  I don't spend a lot of time waiting on animations.

 

Here are some ideas for things to tweak if you'd like to try some of these same tweaks...  The steps are written as though you have a Start menu replacement, but that's not a necessity.

 

Taskbar Speed Improvements

 

The Taskbar Live Previews when you hover over buttons on the Taskbar can be made to show immediately.

• Click Start, type regedit into the search box, then press Enter. 
    
• Add a new DWORD value to reduce the hover time to 50 milliseconds. This is the amount of time you have to hover over an icon or button in the Taskbar before the system puts up the Taskbar Live Preview.
   
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced] 
   
  ExtendedUIHoverTime REG_DWORD 0x00000032 (50) 
   
• You can simply remove this value to return the timing to default.

 

Menu Speed Improvements

 

Menus system-wide can be set to open more quickly.

• Click Start, type regedit into the search box, then press Enter.
     
• Reduce the menu show delay time string from the default of 400 to 40 milliseconds. This is the amount of time the system waits when you hover over a menu item before it brings up the menu item contents.  Note that this is a REG_SZ string, not a binary value. 
   
  [HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop]
   
• MenuShowDelay REG_SZ 40
   
• You can set this value back to 400 to restore the default.

  

Classic Shell Menu Speed Improvements

 

Menus in Classic Shell can be set to open more quickly.  Items to change:

• Click Start, choose Settings > Classic Start Menu.
   
• Go to the General Behavior tab: 
   
  Menu delay: 40
   
• Menu Look tab: 
   
  Main menu animation speed: 40
  Sub-menu animation speed: 40
  Fade speed: 40
   
• You can set these values back to 400 to restore the defaults.

 

 

If you have comments or suggestions for other things to tweak to improve UI responsiveness, please contribute!

 

-Noel

Edited July 23, 2014 by NoelC

[osRe]

Submenu hover delay is a classic thing that's needed tweaking since 9x.

 

I disabled the minimize/restore animation. There is some coolness factor to it, and I had it enabled for a while, but in some cases it just looked messy; like when my image viewer switches from fullscreen to restored and this animation triggered for that reason or another.