Skip to main content

How to turn off the Charms menu in Windows 8.1

Windows 8.1’s user base is small, especially when compared to the now-ancient Windows XP, and Windows 7, which is approaching five years of age.

Part of the reason for this is due to the introduction of features like the Charms menu, which turned a lot of Windows devotees off when it debuted with Windows 8 in 2012. Many of the Charms menu’s detractors feel that it was an unnecessary addition that just made Windows 8 and 8.1 a bigger headache to use.

Recommended Videos

Related: How to change the Start screen background in Windows 8 and 8.1

Thankfully, with the use of a simple program, there’s a way to disable the Charms menu once and for all.

By the way, if you think the site/author may be iffy, don’t worry. We scanned the folder and the app’s execute-able with Malwarebytes. They both came out clean.

How to turn off the Charms menu in Windows 8.1

Step 1. Click here and download the Winaero Charms Bar Killer by clicking the gray button labeled “download.”

Turn off Charms (3)
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 2. Install the program once you finish downloading it. It should take less than a second to download, considering it’s less than a megabyte.

Turn off Charms (4)
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 3. Once you install the Winaero Charms Bar Killer, it will take up residence in your System Tray. Find the green icon, and right-click on it.

Turn off Charms (5)
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 4. Click “Kill Charms Bar” when you right-click on the bar killer’s system tray icon. Also, click “Run at startup.”

Turn off Charms 7
Image used with permission by copyright holder

That’s it! From here on out, the Charms menu should not pop up again.

Konrad Krawczyk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Konrad covers desktops, laptops, tablets, sports tech and subjects in between for Digital Trends. Prior to joining DT, he…
Windows 11 is creating an ‘undeletable’ 8.63GB cache
The Surface Pro 11 on a white table in front of a window.

The recent Windows 11 24H2 update is reportedly flawed with a new issue where it creates 8.63GB of undeletable update cache. This cache is made during the update process and seems to remain on the system, despite attempts to remove it using traditional methods like Disk Cleanup, Storage Sense, or even manually deleting system folders like Windows.old​.

The issue appears to be linked to checkpoint updates, a new feature in Windows 11 designed to streamline and shrink update sizes by downloading smaller patches rather than full updates.

Read more
The best Snapdragon X Windows laptops you can buy right now
The Surface Laptop 7 on a table in front of a window.

Microsoft's Copilot+ PC initiative was ushered in by a wave of new laptops running Windows on Arm and powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X chipsets. While the new platform is aimed at leveraging the latest generative AI technologies with faster on-board Neural Processing Engines (NPUs), the Qualcomm chipset's most significant promise revolves around great performance and significantly better efficiency.

So far, the results have been mostly positive. The first crop of Snapdragon X laptops have had better battery life than previous generations of Windows machines, and they're just as fast, if not faster. They're among the best laptops you can buy right now, and even compete strongly against Apple's MacBook Air M3, which is probably their most important target.

Read more
How to password-protect an Excel file on Windows and Mac
A person using a laptop while lounging on a couch.

If you use a computer, you probably have some Microsoft Excel documents on your Mac or PC that you wouldn’t want other people to find and read.

After all, Excel serves not only the average person, but also businesses, government institutions, and millions of other folks worldwide. Whatever you’re using Microsoft Excel for, the best way to keep that information safe is to learn how to password-protect an Excel file.

Read more