Info Bubbles

[JimL]

A recent trial of a speed-up program left me with an odd condition. Every
my dialer connects I get this big onscreen bubble saying something like
"Whoopee - it connected at X speed!" The bubble doesn't go away and
clicking it away triggers a pop-up of the dialer's status window.

I have neither installed nor downloaded any ISP or dialer related software
in years.

Does anybody know of a system process that is doing this? If so, how do I
knock it in the head?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

A recent trial of a speed-up program left me with an odd condition. Every
my dialer connects I get this big onscreen bubble saying something like
"Whoopee - it connected at X speed!" The bubble doesn't go away and
clicking it away triggers a pop-up of the dialer's status window.

I have neither installed nor downloaded any ISP or dialer related software
in years.

Does anybody know of a system process that is doing this? If so, how do I
knock it in the head?

What "speed-up" program is this? Just about all of them should be
strongly avoided. The best such programs essentially do nothing. And
worse, several of them install malware on your computer.

 

[JimL]

What "speed-up" program is this? Just about all of them should be
strongly avoided. The best such programs essentially do nothing. And

Years ago when I was young and foolish (62) I ran one that installed no
malware but screwed with my system settings hellaciously. (For one simple
thing I was running XP Pro in Classic mode and it switched it to standard
mode, without asking. Also it reset my folder scheme.)

worse, several of them install malware on your computer.

Advanced SystemCare Free (v 3.3.4) by IOBit, a recommended download at Cnet
where I got it. Has Cnet turned rogue?

It is also a recommended download at Major Geeks.

And it has a 5 cow editor's rating, a +15 -5 user rating and 99% popularity
rating at Tucows.

I was cautiously optimistic.

But is this info bubble a system thing or not?

 

[JimL]

Perhaps I should add that this info bubble has shown up on more than just
the dialer since I first posted. It has poppeed up announcing stuff that I
always take for granted. Like "FireFox has successfully Started," etc.
Well, la-de-da! I never would have known! Their persistence makes them a
real pain in the south forty.

Is This a System Feature I Can Get Shed Of??

 

[W****n S***********g]

Perhaps I should add that this info bubble has shown up on more than just
the dialer since I first posted. It has poppeed up announcing stuff that
I always take for granted. Like "FireFox has successfully Started," etc.
Well, la-de-da! I never would have known! Their persistence makes them a
real pain in the south forty.

Is This a System Feature I Can Get Shed Of??

I have mentioned software with NONE of the symptons you are having.

 

[JimL]

I have mentioned software with NONE of the symptons you are having.

Well, well, well. After several hours of Googling today I got my answer.
It IS a system setting - in the registry. I found a lot of people looking
for a way to turn them off, but finfing the how-to was harder. Here's what
I found and how I got rid of the bubbles.

Disable Balloon Tips - Start/Run/Regedit

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.
Modify or create, "EnableBalloonTips" and set the Value to 0. To restore set
the Value to 1.

My screen is now blissfully free of the infernal things. It escapes me why
some programmer decided to turn these idiotic things on without asking - to
speed up a system. Cussing them always takes extra time.

I found this and A LOT of other tips at:

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm