Aero Peek lives on in Home windows 11 by way of this app

In the event you’ve upgraded your PC from Home windows 10 to 11, you then may’ve observed that within the course of, a small-yet-useful system software inexplicably dissipated into the ether. This software is Aero Peek, and its elimination definitely hasn’t gone unnoticed by some tech lovers.

Home windows Aero Peek permits you to rapidly look at your desktop with out instantly minimizing or closing your app home windows — its confirmed to be a useful gizmo to some, and an absolute nuisance to others.

With Windows 10 support coming to an end on October 14 of this yr, 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 useful characteristic makes glancing at your desktop a breeze

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

When in a desktop surroundings crowded by open home windows and working apps, a fast slide of your mouse onto the underside show area triggers a glanceable quick-view of your desktop, briefly 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.

Associated

These 12 apps have me excited for the future of Windows 11

Trendy Home windows apps might be thoughtfully designed, similar to their iOS and Android counterparts – listed below are 12 good examples.

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 may all the time depend on group modders and Home windows lovers to supply up third-party instruments and workarounds.

Windhawk is a customization market for Home windows that permits you to plug in varied ‘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 fascinated about at present.

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

1. Obtain and set up the Windhawk app onto your pc.
2. Click on or faucet on the Discover button > sort Taskbar Show Desktop Button Aero Peek into the search area.
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 hassle getting the software up and working, and I’ve but to come across any stability points or OS crashes.

I’ll say that whereas the characteristic works as meant, 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 — doubtless throughout Microsoft’s change from Aero theming to Home windows 8’s Metro design language — Aero Peek’s visible prospers were gutted from the OS. This Windhawk mod answer is straight to the purpose, and it lacks any fancy animations or transition results.

Associated

These 5 things are holding Windows 11 back from greatness

Home windows 11 is a strong and feature-rich working system, but it surely’s being held again from greatness in a number of key methods.

Will Microsoft ever carry again Aero Peek?

Home windows 11 improvement 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 varied shell elements with trendy code is a step in the correct path for the Home windows platform as a complete, however the firm did not port over most of the options that had been beforehand staples of the near-forty-year-old OS within the course of.

Fortunately, Microsoft has been enhancing 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 fashionable 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 over time.

The truth is, many customers initially complained that Aero Peek was a hindrance to their workflow — its use of Fitts’s Law definitely 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 concerning the characteristic.

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

Associated

Microsoft has a Windows 10 problem, and the clock is about to strike midnight

Home windows 10 can be sundown as of October 14, 2025, and Microsoft actually desires you to hop on the Home windows 11 bandwagon.