1. Open Opera Preferences Editor by typing “opera:config” (1) into address bar and pressing [ENTER] on your keyboard.
2. Search for “taskbar” (2) and uncheck “Use Windows 7 Taskbar Thumbnails” (3).
3. Press Save button (4) and restart Opera (5).

Turn off Windows 7 taskbar thumbnails in Opera 10.50

That’s really it! Simple, easy and working well. See you next time!

Unfortunately if you are browsing Opera’s menu in search of some “menu bar switch”, I have to disappoint your expectations. You need to create a new shortcut (I’ll use keyboard shortcut in this tutorial) using which you will be able to disable and again enable the menu bar.

So, go for it, it’s very simple!

1. In Opera menu bar go to Tools → Preferences.
2. On Advanced tab (A) choose “Shortcuts” from the list on the left side (B), then in section for keyboard shortcuts select “Opera Standard” (C) and press [Edit] button (D).
3. Edit Keyboard Setup window will appear. To add new shortcut select “Aplication” from the list (A) and press [New...] button (B).
4. New record will be added to shortcuts list. To set the shortcut to [ALT]+[M] you need to enter it in reversed order “m alt” to the first field (A) and after pressing [Enter] on the keyboard, write “Enable menu bar | Disable menu bar” in second field (B).
5. Press [OK] button (A) twice to confirm and finish editing of keyboard shortcuts.
6. After pressing [ALT]+[M] keys on keyboard, the Opera’s menu bar minimizes (pressing the key combination again will display full menu bar).