Disable Animate Windows when Minimizing and Maximizing in Windows 10

How to Enable or Disable Animate Windows when Minimizing and Maximizing in Windows 10

Like all previous Windows versions, Windows 10 comes with a built-in option to disable the animations for minimizing and maximizing windows. Here is how to turn off the animations if you don't like them.

By default, Windows 10 animates windows when you minimize and maximize them. When minimized to the taskbar, or restored from it, a window has a fade effect as it shrinks or grows.

https://winaero.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Window-animations.mp4?_=1

While the animation is well optimized, and doesn't consume plenty of system resources, some of users do not like it. When the animations are disabled, Windows 10 will instantly minimize and maximize app windows. The animations can be disabled (or enabled) using the GUI, or with a Registry tweak.

To Enable or Disable Animate Windows when Minimizing and Maximizing in Windows 10

1. Press Win + R shortcut keys together on your keyboard. The Run dialog will appear on the screen.
   Tip: See the ultimate list of all Windows keyboard shortcuts with Win keys.
2. Type the following in the Run box: SystemPropertiesAdvanced
3. Press Enter. This will open the Advanced System Properties window directly.
4. Click the Settings button under the Performance section. The Performance Options dialog will open.
5. Uncheck (disable)  the option Animate windows when minimizing and maximizing. It is (checked) enabled by default.

You are done. The change affects the current user account only.

Alternatively, you can apply a Registry tweak.

Disable Window Animations when Minimizing and Maximizing in Registry

1. Open the Registry Editor app.
2. Go to the following Registry key.
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
   See how to go to a Registry key with one click.
3. On the right, modify or create a new string (REG_SZ) value MinAnimate.
4. Set its value to 0 to disable animations.
5. A value data of 1 will enable animations.
6. To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account. Alternatively, you can restart the Explorer shell.

To save your time, you can download the following ready-to-use Registry files:

Download Registry Files

The undo tweak is included.

That's it

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