Little tag is following my cursor around and won't go away

[Guest]

I am having a problem with a small tag of information that follows my mouse
cursor around and when I try to click on something, for example, an email
message in outlook, or a file in the windows explorer, the tag is in the way
of the mouse, and stops the mouse click from being registered. as I move the
mouse, the tag follows it. Why do the tags come up, when they simply repeat
the information that is on the screen anyway? I don't want these information
tags, they are nothing but a nuisance. They clutter the screen, stop the
mouse from functioning properly and serve no useful purpose whatsoever. As
an example, when I move the mouse cursor over the box in which I am writing
this information, a tag comes up saying "Enter your message". This tag stays
on the screen, even after I move the mouse away. Sometimes, several tags sit
on my screen. At other times, when I am browsing a list of files, the tag
comes up, simply restating the information that is already on the screen,
then it follows my mouse cursor around, preventing mouse clicks from being
registered. this seems redundant to say the least.

I don't know what these tags are called, there is probably a name for them.

My question is, how can I make them go away forever?

 

[Kelly]

Hi Alan,

These are those that can be disabled for XP:

How To: Turn off the Balloon Tooltips and Pop-ups

Windows Explorer/Tools/Folder Options/View/Advanced/Uncheck Popup
Descriptions for Folder and Desktop Items.

TweakUI/Taskbar/Uncheck Enable Balloon Tips
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Or use this automated edit:

Disable Balloon Tips or Disable All (Row 11)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Disable All includes: Balloon Tips, Folder Contents Info Tips, Explorer
Pop-Ups, Show Info Tips, Start Menu and Notification Area.

To use the Regedit: Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it
and answer yes to the import prompt. REG files can be viewed in Notepad by
right clicking on the file and selecting Edit.

Related Registry entries:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
"FolderContentsInfoTip"=dword:00000000. Double click FolderContentsInfoTip
and change the Value data to 0.

To turn off Windows Explorer pop-ups:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\tips
"Show"=dword:00000001. Double click Show and change the value data to 0.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
In the right pane double click "ShowInfoTip"=dword:00000001 and change the
ending (1) to (0).

How To: Turn off Tooltips

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\StartButtonBalloonTip
- values are from "2" to "1" or "0".

Show Pop-up Descriptions for Explorer and Desktop Items

This setting controls whether pop-up tool tip information and descriptions
are shown when the mouse is hovered over desktop and explorer items. This
edit excludes the Start Button.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

Create a new DWORD value, or modify the existing value, called 'ShowInfoTip'
and edit the value according to (0 = Disabled, 1 = Show Tool Tips).

Exit your registry, you may need to restart or log out of Windows for the
change to take effect.

How to Disable Notification Area Balloon Tips (Q307729):
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q307/7/29.ASP


--
Happy New Year,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com