Aero Peek lives on in Home windows 11 by this app

If you happen to’ve upgraded your PC from Home windows 10 to 11, then you definitely would possibly’ve observed that within the course of, a small-yet-useful system device inexplicably dissipated into the ether. This device is Aero Peek, and its removing actually hasn’t gone unnoticed by some tech fans.

Home windows Aero Peek permits you to shortly look at your desktop with out immediately minimizing or closing your app home windows — its confirmed to be a great tool to some, and an absolute nuisance to others.

With Windows 10 support coming to an end on October 14 of this 12 months, and with no indicators of Microsoft porting the characteristic over to Windows 11 anytime quickly, it comes at no shock to me {that a} new third-party Aero Peek mod for the latter OS has hit the scene.

What’s Home windows Aero Peek?

This helpful characteristic makes glancing at your desktop a breeze

Microsoft first launched Aero Peek in 2009’s Home windows 7 launch. The characteristic offers fast entry to your desktop by way of a small button positioned within the right-hand nook of the OS’s taskbar.

When in a desktop setting crowded by open home windows and operating apps, a fast slide of your mouse onto the underside show area triggers a glanceable quick-view of your desktop, quickly eradicating home windows and different obfuscations till you progress your mouse cursor off of the button once more.

The same ‘present desktop’ button existed previous to Home windows 7, however Aero Peek mounted the button in a extra accessible location, and added within the helpful ‘hover to peek’ habits.

Microsoft rebranded the characteristic from ‘Aero Peek’ to ‘Peek to preview the desktop’ in Home windows 10, after which removed the feature entirely when it rebuilt its taskbar code from scratch in Home windows 11.

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How do I add Aero Peek to my Home windows 11 PC?

The Windhawk program is your gateway to Aero Peek revival

Microsoft might have turned its again on Aero Peek, however you possibly can at all times depend on neighborhood modders and Home windows fans to supply up third-party instruments and workarounds.

Windhawk is a customization market for Home windows that permits you to plug in numerous ‘mods,’ every of which performs a given obligation. There are a ton of choices to select from, however the freshly-minted Taskbar Present Desktop Button Aero Peek mod is the one we’re enthusiastic about at this time.

To arrange Aero Peek in your Home windows 11 PC by way of the Windhawk program, comply with these steps:

1. Obtain and set up the Windhawk app onto your laptop.
2. Click on or faucet on the Discover button > kind Taskbar Show Desktop Button Aero Peek into the search subject.
3. From right here, obtain and set up the Windhawk mod.
4. Restart your PC for the mod to take impact.

In my expertise, the Taskbar Present Desktop Button Aero Peek Windhawk mod works as marketed. I had no bother getting the device up and operating, and I’ve but to come across any stability points or OS crashes.

I’ll say that whereas the characteristic works as supposed, it lacks the visible polish that I keep in mind so fondly from the Home windows 7 days. When peeking at your desktop in Home windows 7, a visually pleasing god ray impact shows on-screen, in addition to a delicate define of all of your open home windows.

Someplace alongside the way in which — possible throughout Microsoft’s change from Aero theming to Home windows 8’s Metro design language — Aero Peek’s visible thrives were gutted from the OS. This Windhawk mod resolution is straight to the purpose, and it lacks any fancy animations or transition results.

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Will Microsoft ever carry again Aero Peek?

Home windows 11 growth continues to trek ahead, however I would not count on the return of Aero Peek anytime quickly

Microsoft / Pocket-lint

When Home windows 11 launched in 2021, it in some ways felt underbaked. Microsoft’s rebuilding of assorted shell parts with trendy code is a step in the appropriate route for the Home windows platform as an entire, however the firm didn’t port over lots of the options that had been beforehand staples of the near-forty-year-old OS within the course of.

Fortunately, Microsoft has been bettering on the porting-old-features entrance, and Home windows 11’s taskbar now boasts the return of such options as displaying seconds on the system tray clock, labeling and ungrouping apps, and extra. We’re nonetheless ready for the reintroduction of taskbar resizing and repositioning, however there’s evidence to suggest that that is additionally on Microsoft’s radar.

Sadly, nonetheless, I would not count on the return of Aero Peek anytime quickly. Whereas the present desktop button stays a core a part of the trendy Home windows 11 expertise, Aero Peek itself has by no means loved the identical stage of enthusiasm or fanfare that another taskbar instruments have obtained through the years.

In actual fact, many customers initially complained that Aero Peek was a hindrance to their workflow — its use of Fitts’s Law actually made the characteristic simply accessible and inside attain, however this got here on the expense of triggering it on accident — a irritating ocurrance for these not in-the-know in regards to the characteristic.

In any case, if you end up lacking this once-notable Home windows operate, or in case you merely need to expertise a fast blast from the previous, then Windhawk is at the moment one of the best ways to graft Peek Aero onto your Home windows 11 PC.

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