Taskbar hiding smart tags

[Guest]

The smart tags (if that's the right name for the little yellow names that pop
up when you rest your mouse on an icon on the taskbar) are often (yet
inconsistently) hidden behind my taskbar. I cannot see the date or names of
the programs in my system tray or on the quick launch, or even on the taskbar
itself, etc. I tried turning off the "auto hide" and that didn't work. I
can just barely see the tops of the tags as I move along the taskbar. Any
suggestions, please? Thanks!

 

[Wesley Vogel]

They're called Balloon tips.

This is a well known windows problem.

You can reboot or kill and restart explorer.exe. Then the problem will
reappear again after a while anyway.

To kill explorer and restart it.

Open the Task Manager...
Ctrl + Shift + Escape | Click on the Processes tab | Locate and highlight
explorer.exe | Right click explorer.exe | Click End Process | Click
Yes to the Task Manager Warning that pops up | Click File on the Toolbar |
Click New Task (Run...) | Type in: explorer | Click OK

End Process on explorer.exe will make your Desktop and all programs
disappear. This can be startling. Restarting explorer will bring
everything back.

This can fix/restore/reinitialize/refresh a lot of things.


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Guest]

Mr. Vogel, thanks for your notes and instruction. I didn't realize that it
was a common issue. somehow that helps to just know. I will keep your
instructions handy for when it becomes so frustrating that it is worth all of
that. And I'll remember "balloon tips".

Thanks again so much. Have a great year-end! V-ger

 

[Wesley Vogel]

It seems helpful just to know that you aren't the only one with a particular
problem. ;-)

Keep having fun.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In

 

[Maurizio]

Still no solution to this ancient problem? In Windows XP SP2 with all
installed updates Taskbar Balloon tips goes under the bar very quickly after
Explorer reset!

 

[Mrosen7542]

Hi. A free program called ToolTip Fix.exe will fix the problem permanently. Here is the download link:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/how-to-fix-system-tray-tooltips-not-displaying-in-windows-xp/

 

[Bob I]

Just click Start, Programs, r-click on the listing and pick "Sort by
Name", the z-order is then reset for you.

 

[Bob I]

Actually it causes it own set of problems. So, it's the devil you know,
or the devil you don't.

 

[Maurizio]

The workaround suggested in 307499 worked for me. Don't know how long it wiil
solve the problem. Fading effects "adieau!".

 

[DavidSain]

Well, I found another way also. I downloaded nircmd.zip which allows a lot
of things to be done from the command prompt. This I unzipped into a common
directory. Then I created a file called tooltipfix.cmd and it's contents are

nircmd win settopmost class "tooltips_class32" 1

Or just type the above line at a command prompt with nircmd in your path.

I also created an entry in my registry
(HKLM-Software-microsoft-windows-currentbersion-run) so the cmd file is
processed with each reboot so the z-order is corrected each time. One never
knows when an update from usoft will break something like this. And now when
I reboot it really does get fixed. Just like usoft says.

I looked at ToolTipFixer some more, and it's great for those folks who
aren't savvy with computers. It uses .net and is a tsr (it's always running
in background). I suppose it checks every so often to see where the tool
tips are or checks a value when they are used and resets it if it's
incorrect. I try to eliminate as much as possible from running, so I'll do
it the manual way w/nircmd.

D

The workaround suggested in 307499 worked for me. Don't know how long it wiil
solve the problem. Fading effects "adieau!".

....