Windows XP may be one of the more stable and developed operating systems (Vista is like a beta right now). But there are many irritating aspects in Windows XP.
If you are on Windows Vista, see how to disable Windows Security Center popups too.
Windows has a really stupid popup system, which pops up for every unnecessary thing imaginable. For example, there is a popup to warn that disk space is low on the system drive (usually C:). Also, there is a popup for alerting you that a new program installed. As if you didn’t know that you’ve installed a program!
There is an easy registry hack to get rid of all these popups. Do not be appalled by a registry edit – this is really simple.
Open up the registry editor – go to Run, type regedit and click OK. Backing up the registry before a hack is always a good idea, so click File > Export, choose a location and click save. Then, proceed to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
Right click on the right-hand pane, make New> DWORD Value and name it EnableBalloonTips. Set the value to 0 to disable balloon tips, and set it back to 1 to enable balloon tips.
This hack disables most balloo ntips. In order to eliminate all popups, some more work is required. In each of the following locations, change the values to 0 to disable balloon tips.
- Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
- Change the value of FolderContentsInfoTip to 0
- Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
- Change the value of ShowInfoTip to 0.
- Location: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorertipsShow
- Change the value of Show to 0
If anything goes wrong, restore the registry file that you had explored before and settings will be restored.
Related reading
- How to disable hibernation in Windows Vista
- How to disable annoying Vista Security Center popups
- How to disable / uninstall / remove Adobe Flash Player
- Disable / turn off post revisions in WordPress
I prefer to have the pop up warnings, this gives an idea about the system condition because I’m running a Vista and not a Leopard.
@Nirmal: But don’t you feel irritated by a popup, for example when you’re writing a good post and ideas are flowing out? I hate popups then, and popups may even disrupt my flow of writing.
Pop-ups can be informative sometimes. Anyway I have never find Vista’s pop-ups to be too irritating.
A suggestion for your blog, try to modify your template to include the number of comments below each post on the home page.
@Manas: You’re the second person to tell me popups are not irritating. Maybe I’m the only one irritated by it?
I’d included number of comments initially, but lower number of comments showing up is worse than not showing it. I hope you understand.
That’s pretty neat. I didn’t realize that you could disable the Windows popups.
Though I must say that I don’t find the popups annoying unless they are happening pretty frequently. In fact, I’d rather appreciate a warning that my C drive is getting low on disk space. I’d notice eventually, but that gives me a chance to clean things out before it becomes an issue.
If I’m writing a good post and a popup comes up (it’s only happened twice in the past couple of months), I just check to see whether it is important. If not, I close it. If so, I make a note to act on later, and then I close it. This doesn’t really interrupt the flow of my writing at all.
I agree with Manas, Vista popups are not irritating at all.
@Nirmal: Maybe you’re not irritated, but not at all? I hate it when it says you’ve a new program installed, or that disk space is less -which are things you’d know anyway. And if you don’t solve the issues, the popups are repeated -which is the worst part.
I agree that some pop-ups are ok, but some pop-ups are very annoying. For example, I have a small laptop, and each time I click start->All Programs, it pops up a warning that not all the programs are shown. Some of the annoying can be eliminated via certain settings. You give a good way to turn off more. Microsoft needs to stop these kind of stupid practice. Linux is catching up.
Did the above. Changed all four values, no joy.
I also find popups/info-bars very irretating. Specially when I am downloading some .exe/.msi etc. from browser and it blocks the same displaying a warning message. There is no simple way to disable that rather than digging up the registry… eh!
Thanks for the info, but the name “EnableBallonTips” is misspelled. it should read “EnableBalloonTips”
I have to admit that I don’t find most windows popups to irritating, but I have reason for them to be disabled. I’m running a pc as an arcade emulator, so I need to to load up smooth, but everytime I start I get a popup telling me I could have me screen resolution set higher and that I don’t have a virus program installed. I have a low resolution because I am using an old tv as a monitor, and I don’t have a virus program because that computer won’t be going online. So this should help me out a lot. Thanks!
I too don’t usually mind most popups in XP (apart from the Securite Centre popups, which are easily disabled), but I too have a reason for them to be disabled – I am using XP workstations to drive large TV’s that are used as information terminals.
Normally I’d use Debian’s netinst install but the boss requires that the information be updated by less IT-literate users (e.g. canteen staff), so Windows software is used for this.
Nothing says “lol” like a big display broadcasting a “This computer might not be secure” message. I’ve even seen it on an ATM before…
I hate those pop-ups so much!
maybe because I’m a mac user, and use pcs at work.
they slows my work flow.
But I see some of the pop-ups are helpful.
I hope there is a way not to disable everything but
list them up somewhere and users can check the list whenever he or she wants to check them.
I’m astonished that people don’t find the pop-ups in recent versions of Windows annoying. I have a year-old laptop that tells me whenever I’ve plugged in the audio jack.
The old version of XP didn’t do this, and I really don’t see why it’s necessary. Thanks for writing this tip.