Acer S7-392 Charms Bar Removal

I've searched all over the place for an answer to this and from I can gather there is none. The Charms Bar constantly shows up when I'm workng. I've gone through all the steps to disable it, including registry hacks, but it continues to annoy. I read in another Acer thread regarding a different model that it's possible to roll back the Synaptics driver in order to bring back the "Enable Edge Swipes" option and uncheck it (this option isn't available with my Synaptics 16.3.12.34 driver). But I've been unable to find an older Synaptics driver that works. Any help with this issue would be greatly appreciated.

The constant interruptions by the Charms Bar are not a minor nuisance. This a major issue that needs to be addressed by Acer and/or Synaptics (and I imagine Microsoft as well). I put Acer first on the list because obviously they are the ones responsible for the final end product. And I've seen this issue resolved on other manufacturer's machines, but for some reason on Acer machines it continues. People are writing about this all over the web, but there still doesn't seem to be a fix for it. The only fix that seems to work for some people is putting tape over the right side of the touchpad. Imagine spending $1300 on a computer and then having to put tape on it to fix it. Ridiculous.

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-Justin

dan72,

Unfortunately, if the option is not present in the Synaptics mouse options there isn't a way to add that feature. I know that option is available with the Elan drivers, I'm surprised it's not listed with the Synaptics honestly. The only unit here I can get my hands on has the Elan drivers, you can always try to uninstall the touchpad drivers and use just generic Microsoft ones to see if that resolves it, or you can try to download the Elan drivers and see if that works.

dan72

I tried both the generic Microsoft drivers and the Elan drivers and neither worked.

I installed Elan driver version 11.6.22.201, which seems to be the most recent one available, and I don't see any option to disable the edge swipes. Yet you said "I know that option is available with the Elan drivers." Perhaps I'm missing it? Please tell me where it can be found.

Justin, I honestly don't understand your responses to me. Perhaps you can enlighten me a bit. You said "The only unit here I can get my hands on has the Elan drivers." You are an Acer technician and you are only able to "get your hands on" one machine that's comparable to mine?

Am I safe in even assuming it's comparabl to mine? I need to ask, because you go on to say "you can always try to uninstall the touchpad drivers and use just generic Microsoft ones to see if that resolves it." Why, if you "know that option is available with the Elan drivers" would you even suggest I try the generic Microsoft drivers? (which don't work, as I mentioned above).

You then go on to say "or you can try to download the Elan drivers and see if that works." See if that works? You just told me that it worked for you. Why wouldn't it work for me? I mean, I can go out and do a prayer dance under the stars and maybe that will work too.

So, neither the generic Microsoft drivers, nor the Elan drivers, work. Ditto the prayer dance. What's next? What is Acer going to do about this issue?

-Justin

dan72,

Sorry for any confusion, let me see if I can explain it a little better for you.

When I state that I was able to get my hands on a unit that means it is the only unit that I am unable to get my hands on. I do not have access to get a unit in my hands for every unit that we manufacturer at any minutes notice, we do not have the storage space for that unfortuntely where I am located. The unit that I was do have access to is the same model as yours, different SKU (specific model), and it has the ELAN drivers for the touchpad, not synaptics.

By suggesting you try the generic Microsoft drivers and the ELAN drivers to see if that feature presented itself, it was just to see if it would work, I have no way to test it because the unit I have access to has ELAN and the feature is there and it was not going to damage the unit to try.

If you have tried both and the feature does not present itself, then that feature is not available for your specific model unfortunately.

dan72

Hi Justin,

Thank you for your response. The Elan drivers that you suggested do not have the option to disable the Charms bar.

This issue is not resolved.

I understand that you don't have the same model Acer that I do, so you are ultimately unable to solve this problem.

Please direct me to an Acer technician who is able to help me.

The statement "If you have tried both and the feature does not present itself, then that feature is not available for your specific model unfortunately" is not a satisfactory answer.

There must be a way to create a driver or software fix for this. It is incumbent upon Acer, as the seller of this rather expensive piece of machinery, to work with its vendors to fix this.

Again, this issue is not resolved.

Dan

-Justin

dan72,

Just to make sure we are on the same page, the touchpad drivers do not disable Windows features. You can disable features for the hardware itself, in this case edge swiping that brings up the charm bar.

The only suggestion I can think of is posting a request in our ideas section about adding that feature to the Synaptics software for this unit.

Paulie68000

Hi Dan,

This charms bar thing has been driving me mad too - its the one fly in the ointment with the S7-392.

I think however I've finally fixed it...

I downlaoded and installed the latest generic Synaptics driver from Synaptics website (not the one on the Acer site):

(Synaptics_v17_0_19_C_XP32_Vista32_Win7-32_XP64_Vista64_Win7-64_Acme_Inc)

Whilst this sill doesn't have the edge swipe checkbox, it can be overridden in the registry: Open Regedit

Find the registry key Synaptics->SynTPEnh->ZoneConfig->TouchPadPS2->Right Edge Pull->ActionType and change the value of ActionType from 2 to 0. Close RegEdit, reboot your S7 and the charms no longer appear if you swipe on the touchpad!

Huzzah!!

(PS If you need to enable two finger click/tap as a right click, you need to edit the registry Synaptics->SynTP->TouchPadPS2->2FingerTapAction from 0 to 2 - as this User Interface doesn't seem to have two fingered secondary clicks)

- Paulie.

Booklets

Hey, I know charms bar is a really terrible feature from Windows 8.1 that for some reason microsoft didn't give an option to remove it.

Solution: http://blog.jtbworld.com/2013/10/how-to-disable-edge-swipe-by-showing.html

That should give the options on your touchpada, just run the registry and it will give the option to disable side swiping. Additionally, if you have classic start menu shell , under settings, windows 8.1 settings, under Disable Active Corners select "All"

Good luck, let me know if this solves your problem.

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