How to remove Windows 7 Send Feedback, Watermark text

Windows 7 Beta may be available as a free download, and it may run pretty well right now. But it's still beta software. And that means that:

1. Microsoft wants to remind users that they're looking at beta software.
2. The company is hoping to solicit feedback to make the operating system better before the final version is released.

To that end, the company puts a watermark in the bottom right corner of the desktop that reads "Windows 7 For testing purposes only." And almost every system application has a link in the upper right corner that says "Send Feedback."

If you have valuable feedback to send Microsoft, you should totally click that button. But you can also send feedback by clicking the "Send Feedback" button that Windows 7 automatically installs on your desktop, or you can just type "feedback" into the Windows search box.

So if you don't need the constant reminder, or if you have no intention of sending feedback, read on to find out how to disable the link. And we'll tell you how to get rid of the "For testing purposes only" watermark while we're at it.
First up, let's get rid of that watermark. All you need to do is download and run a utility called Remove Watermark. You can find the download links at My Digital Life. Once you download the file, just unzip it, and right click the executable program and select "run as administrator." Make sure you choose the 32 bit version if you're using the 32 bit edition of Windows 7 and the 64 bit version for, well, the 64 bit version.

To get rid of the Send Feedback link, you'll want have to edit a Windows registry value:

1. Open up the Start Menu
2. Type "regedit.exe" (without quotes) into the search box and hit enter
   
3. Navigate to "HKEY_Current_User\Control Panel\Desktop
4. Locate the key on the right side that says FeedbackToolEnabled
5. Double Click on FeedBackToolEnabled
6. Change the value from 3 to 0

Once you reboot your system, the watermark and feedback links should be gone. If you want to re-enable the feedback link, just repeat the process and change the value from 0 back to 3 again.

If you don't feel like plodding through the Windows registry on your own, you can also download a registry file from The How To Geek which will let you remove the feedback link with just a few clicks and a reboot.

When all is said and done, your system should look less like the image above, and more like this:

Tags: beta, osupdates, remove-watermark, send-feedback, watermark, windows-7, windows-7-beta