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How To Turn Off Windows 10 Settings Header Banner

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🕑 3 minutes de lecture

Some Windows 10 folks have noticed a new top bar or header in the Settings app, and honestly, it’s kind of weird. The banner shows your user account name and email (if you’re signed in with a Microsoft account), plus icons for Your Phone, Windows Update, Rewards, and OneDrive. Clicking an icon takes you straight to that section in Settings. It’s not visible to everyone yet, since Microsoft seems to be rolling this out gradually—some people see it, others don’t, and it might take a few weeks to reach your machine.

This header has been floating around in Insider builds for over two years, but now it’s rolling out everywhere for Windows 10 version 2004 and higher. Some users love the quick access, but others just see it as clutter. If the banner bugs you or you’d rather hide it, there’s a workaround using a third-party tool called Mach2. Keep in mind—Microsoft doesn’t officially support fun like this, so create a system restore point before messing around, just in case. Also, some folks report that on certain setups, the changes don’t stick immediately or require a reboot to work.

How to Disable the Settings App Header Banner in Windows 10

Get Mach2 utility from the official GitHub

  • Download Mach2 from this link. They have separate downloads for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 10. If you’re not sure what your system is running, check out a guide on how to find out if your Windows 10 is 32-bit or 64-bit. Because of course, Windows has to make this harder than necessary.

Extract and open Command Prompt as admin

  • Extract that ZIP you downloaded to somewhere easy to access—like your Desktop. Then, open Command Prompt as administrator. Usually, that’s by typing cmd in the search bar, right-clicking it, and choosing Run as administrator. Confirm the User Account Control prompt. Because if you don’t run it as admin, nothing’s gonna happen.

Navigate to the folder with mach2.exe

  • In the command prompt, type cd PathToMach2. Replace PathToMach2 with the actual folder path. For example, if your file is on the Desktop at E:\Users\YourName\Desktop, then type: cd E:\Users\YourName\Desktop. It’s kind of annoying to switch directories—basically, you tell the terminal where the executable lives.

Disable or enable the header and icons

  • To disable the entire header, run: mach2 disable 18299130. This should hide that top banner completely.
  • If you just want to hide individual icons like OneDrive or Rewards, use these commands:
    • mach2 disable 19638738 — disables only the OneDrive icon
    • mach2 disable 19638787 — disables only the Rewards icon

After running these, log out and back in or restart the PC. The header should be gone—sometimes it takes a reboot for changes to take hold, especially on some setups where things are finicky.

Re-enable the Settings header if needed

  • If you want the header back, just execute: mach2 disable 18299130 again. Weirdly, “disable” in Mach2 actually toggles the state—so running the command again may revert it. Restart or log out/in afterward to see the change take effect. If something gets wonky, resetting the Settings app might help, but that’s a separate process.

This whole process is kind of a hack since Microsoft doesn’t officially support hiding that banner, but it works pretty reliably—on one setup it did, on another it needed a reboot. Worth trying if the new header’s just cluttering your view. Because honestly, those icons and banners can be distracting or just unnecessary, especially if you don’t use some of those services.

Summary

  • Got the header banner in Settings? It shows your user info and quick icons.
  • You can disable it using Mach2, but know it’s not an official fix.
  • Running commands like mach2 disable 18299130 hides everything, and you can selectively disable individual icons.
  • Re-activating involves running the command again and rebooting.

Wrap-up

All in all, hiding that banner isn’t totally straightforward but totally doable. Not sure why Microsoft insists on rolling out these features piece by piece without a toggle—kind of annoying, honestly. Still, if this helps to clear up your Settings view, then mission accomplished. Fingers crossed this helps someone save a few clicks or just makes Windows look cleaner.