Sunday, May 02, 2010

Disable and Enable Tool-Tips in Windows

To disable tooltips in Windows and on the Task bar, paste the following into a text file called, e.g. disableToolTips.reg:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"ShowInfoTip"=dword:00000000
"EnableBalloonTips"=dword:00000000

Save the file, and run it. Accept the dialog message and reboot.

To Enable the tooltips, paste the following into a text file called, e.g. enableToolTips.reg:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced]
"ShowInfoTip"=dword:00000001
"EnableBalloonTips"=dword:00000001

Save the file, and run it. Accept the dialog message and reboot.

Device Manager on Windows

I wanted an icon with a direct link to the system's Device Manager.
Using Process Explorer I found the correct command line:

"C:\WINDOWS\system32\mmc.exe" C:\WINDOWS\system32\devmgmt.msc /s

Now just add a "New Shortcut..." to the desktop and paste this line as the command, and voila!