Balloon Pop Ups - Disable

Today's tip comes through JesusGeek.ifo and then The How To Geek. Yes this is a very geeky tip. If you are not comfortable when it comes to disable the pop balloon, then get your local computer geek to help you.

When balloon pop ups first were used in Windows XP everyone was looking to disable the annoying pop up. The pop up balloon is there as reminders that some portion of the computer maintenance needs your attention.

However, if you find the popup notifications annoying, you might be interested to know that you can completely disable them. You can even do this across the board with any balloon pop up.

Starting from the start Orb in Windows Vista you will need to left click in the Search box. Then type in regedit.exe. This will open the registry editing window. Then all you have to do is go down to the following location.

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

Right-click on the right-hand pane, and create a new 32-bit DWORD with the following values:

• Name: EnableBalloonTips
• Value: 0

You'll have to logoff and back on in order to see the change… or to be more correct, you won't see any popup balloons anymore.

Optimization of Vista - Save Energy

One of the major complains of Windows Vista is that it is a resource hog. The tools that turned on by default and are nice take up so much of its' memory.

I must admit Aero Glass affect looks cool. Even the side bar with the widget keep information I want at my finger tips. Then there is me having 6 programs open at the same time.

Did you know by just turning off Aero Glass and the Sidebar will reduce your memory usage by 70 plus megabytes. That is what those two extra features use. Other programs that run in the background that you don't need on a day to day basis can be switched from automatic to manual.

The way I look at it we all have to cut back in some place to save energy, do a little less at the same time. In doing so we will be more secure. Or you could upgrade your computer to be more powerful. Or you could switch back to Windows XP. For me I am looking for ways to be more efficient in my entire life. That include my work behind the computer.

NOTE: Did you know that the more efficient your computer run the less electricity it takes? High end video cards, CRT monitors, and super fast processor's all require more energy.

Compatibility Mode

Up until a couple of days ago, I have had almost no issues with installing programs on my Vista box computer. That was until I started to install a program that was not Vista compatible. The program was RSS Anouncer. It install just fine, but I kept getting errors when I tried to run it.

Then I remembered about Vista's Compatibility mode. So I right clicked on the program icon, then went down to Properties. I clicked on the Compatibility tab. After checking the the box Run this program in compatibility mode for:, I selected Windows XP (Service Pack 2).

I started to run the program, again. It start up and ran just fine. So I left clicked on the OK button and went on with my work.

Windows Help and How-to

I was looking at Windows Welcome Center. At the bottom of the top section was a link that read, "see other 13". I left clicked on the link. There opened up a lot more icons. Now I can just left click to reach a lot more tools.

I left clicked on the red, blue and green, box icon. That took me to a new level of Windows tutorials. In just a few clicks there were some links to short tutorial videos.

Now I have found some quick easy access tutorials that can help computer users with their learning curve Vista. These are some of the best quick tutorials I have ever seen. Especially from Microsoft.

I have listed the main topics covered in the Windows Help and How-to section below.

• Learn about computers
• Desktop fundamentals
• Programs files and folders
• Internet, email, and networking
• Pictures and games
• Help and support