How do you get the old task view back?

Question

When Microsoft introduced timeline in Windows 10 version 1803 they rewrote task view. It was a very sloppy job and they evidently haven't ever opened it themselves. I could go on and on about it. Disabling timeline doesn't bring back the old task view.

I am aware that you can disable the new keyboard (introduced in v1709) to get the old one by creating a DWORD called "DisableNewKeyboardExperience" set to 1 in Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TabletTip\1.7 in registry editor. Is there a similar such registry tweak to bring back the old timeline?

I'm currently on version 1909.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered May 13 '20 at 14:19

Negative answer : Not possible.

The Task View feature is built into Explorer, and at the moment there is no known registry setting that can control it.

To show that it's built-into Explorer, execute the following command to invoke it:

explorer shell:::{3080F90E-D7AD-11D9-BD98-0000947B0257}

I went as far as tracing the execution of showing the Task View, and found that Windows doesn't even load a DLL to execute it.

I also searched the registry for anything that contains the string "taskview", and only found the well-known registry key Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced with its item of ShowTaskViewButton.

Your only solution is to stay forever on an older version of Windows 10, which is of course absolutely not a good idea, or wait for this function to be externalized by Microsoft (which could perhaps never happen).

How do you get the old task view back?

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