How do I disable or hide the big picture mode option on steam?

The steam big picture mode is really annoying on my desktop. Because of its location (right below the useful min/max/close buttons), and right above the "Friends" item in the right click menu, sometimes I accidentally enable it.

The problem is, every time I exit big picture mode it causes my steam to crash and I have to relaunch the application.

Since I will never use it on my desktop, is there a way I can disable the option completely?

It doesn't look like it - although quite a few people are asking for it. If you use the default skin for Steam, you can download this tweaked clone of that skin which moves the button away from the minimise/maximise buttons, and makes it smaller. For the time being though, Valve haven't given us the option to get rid of this new feature.

Go to the top of Steam and click View>Small Mode

Not the most aesthetically pleasing view in my opinion, but it will solve your problem of accidentally clicking the Big Picture Mode button.