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Author Topic: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista  (Read 22508 times)

Apathetic_Coding

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ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« on: January 10, 2010, 01:10 PM »
I hope I am posting this in the correct spot.

I did a search on the forum for some of my favorite freeware to let others in the community know about them.

The first I came across is “Tool Tip Fixer 2.0” by NeoSmart.
http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=10

If you use a version of windows lower than Vista, this could be of use to you.
Here is a quote from the site:

Ever since Microsoft invented the Windows Shell with explorer.exe back in the days of Windows 95, there's been a bug that's gone from one version of Windows to the next; and with each upgrade it became worse and worse - until Vista where it only rears its ugly head every once in a while instead: tooltips appear behind the taskbar, where you can't read them and they are of no use to you. And there's nothing you can do about it!
NST ToolTipFixer patches this bug for once and for all, doing what Microsoft hasn't been able to do in 13 years.

I have run this freeware for around a year now on XP SP3 with no adverse effects and have never had the annoying ToolTip problem since.
The app is very small with a working set of about 1200 k

It stays in my repository of freeware that I install on every reformat and my clients machines.

Screenshot - 1_10_2010 , 1_16_32 PM.png

mouser

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #1 on: January 10, 2010, 01:17 PM »
Oh wow i've had that problem before and never known about a fix.. sounds interesting; thanks for posting.

app103

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #2 on: January 10, 2010, 01:28 PM »
Is something that has to stay running in the background at all times?

I have an old slow WinME machine that has had a tooltip issue for many years, but not one of tooltips showing behind the taskbar. The issue I have had is tooltips failing to show at all, anywhere, in any app. They just suddenly stop working, then later start working again. I have never been able to figure out what is triggering it or how to fix it.

One of the apps I wrote even had a feature added to it specifically because of this problem. My clock application has the option to show the date in a dialog, for use when my tooltips stop working.

I wonder if this utility could help, but then again if it has to stay running in the background at all times, it wouldn't be too useful on that really low spec machine.

Josh

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2010, 01:34 PM »
What about the TTFH (ToolTip From Hell), aka the one that JUST WONT GO AWAY!!!! is there a fix for that?

Apathetic_Coding

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2010, 02:04 PM »
Is something that has to stay running in the background at all times?

I have an old slow WinME machine that has had a tooltip issue for many years, but not one of tooltips showing behind the taskbar. The issue I have had is tooltips failing to show at all, anywhere, in any app. They just suddenly stop working, then later start working again. I have never been able to figure out what is triggering it or how to fix it.

One of the apps I wrote even had a feature added to it specifically because of this problem. My clock application has the option to show the date in a dialog, for use when my tooltips stop working.

I wonder if this utility could help, but then again if it has to stay running in the background at all times, it wouldn't be too useful on that really low spec machine.

the app stays running and registers as a service but the working set memory is very low, around 1200k with virtually no file reads or writes. I wouldn't think you would experience any performance degradation, but if you do the app is very easy to uninstall.

rnlduke

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2010, 02:09 PM »
 :Thmbsup: Great Find!

Seems to work great, installs as a service. Around a meg of memory and doesn't seem to be a resource hog. No visible change in resource fluctuations when pointing the mouse on a tool tip. Used Process Explorer to verify this.

app103

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2010, 02:18 PM »
What about the TTFH (ToolTip From Hell), aka the one that JUST WONT GO AWAY!!!! is there a fix for that?

Oh, I hate when that happens. That's about the only good thing about the problem I have on the WinME machine. It gets rid of those too.  ;D

the app stays running and registers as a service but the working set memory is very low, around 1200k with virtually no file reads or writes. I wouldn't think you would experience any performance degradation, but if you do the app is very easy to uninstall.
-Apathetic_Coding (January 10, 2010, 02:04 PM)

It's a 9x machine, there are no services like you have with an NT based version of Windows. And it only has 64mb of RAM, which is why I asked if it had to run in the background. Even small apps that don't use much* can be a real strain when you have enough of them, so I don't like to run anything unnecessary.

*"Not much" is relative to what you have. When you have "not much" to begin with, then it can be a bigger chunk of resources when compared with a system that has specs that would be considered normal, by today's standards.

yksyks

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2010, 02:58 AM »
As this happens only occasionally on my machine, I'm using just the simple nircmd command:

nircmd win settopmost class "tooltips_class32" 1

(found here)

Besides, beware of .NET requirement of ToolTipFixer.

Josh

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2010, 04:06 AM »
Not to sidetrack here, but can I ask what exactly the big deal is with .NET? Why does everyone hate it so? I have yet to find a single reasonable explanation as to why it is so horrible.

Curt

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2010, 05:10 AM »
Is something that has to stay running in the background at all times?

..., but then again if it has to stay running in the background at all times, it wouldn't be too useful on that really low spec machine.

the app stays running and registers as a service but the working set memory is very low, around 1200k with virtually no file reads or writes. I wouldn't think you would experience any performance degradation, but if you do the app is very easy to uninstall.
-Apathetic_Coding (January 10, 2010, 02:04 PM)

The user makes the choice at installation whether to install the program as a service or as a stand-alone manually-activated-only program.

yksyks

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2010, 06:46 AM »
To Josh:

No deal with me, I'm not one of the .NET haters, but I know here are some, so I just wanted to post an alternate solution, which I'm actually using.

The user makes the choice at installation whether to install the program as a service or as a stand-alone manually-activated-only program.
-Curt

That's good to know for lucky people (like me) who meet this issue only once in a while. I didn't see it for months now, so there's no need to install a service.

Josh

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2010, 07:07 AM »
Yeah, please do not take my posting as an attack at you. It is just something that urks me. I see lots of people complain about .net dependencies but none of them provide rationale as to why.

yksyks

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2010, 07:15 AM »
Not at all. In fact, it urks me, too (I just learned a new word, thanks!). I'm sure someone will explain.

app103

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #13 on: January 11, 2010, 09:04 AM »
Yeah, please do not take my posting as an attack at you. It is just something that urks me. I see lots of people complain about .net dependencies but none of them provide rationale as to why.

This is actually very relevant information that could have an impact on whether I can run it or not.

Unless it's an older version of .NET it probably isn't supported on a 9x machine. And on a really low spec machine like my snail, one has to run any .NET apps right after a fresh reboot, before running anything else, otherwise it takes forever to load and may not load properly. Once they are loaded, however, they usually aren't that bad. (much better than Java apps)

Lashiec

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #14 on: January 11, 2010, 01:52 PM »
Supposedly Microsoft acknowledged and fixed this problem in the latest Service Packs for the currently supported Window releases. A while ago we had another thread about this problem, with several solutions suggested, and while I used one of them for a time (an AHK script), after upgrading to SP3, I noticed the tooltip was always shown correctly. Sounds like the odds of this bug nagging your system is something left to randomness, then.

jaden

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #15 on: January 11, 2010, 04:27 PM »
I was going to post a link to what I wrote on my blog about that issue, but yksyks beat me to it.

Thanks yksyks  ;D

nosh

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #16 on: January 11, 2010, 11:29 PM »
The nircmd method worked really well for about two minutes and then the tooltips were hidden once again.
It sucks that a memory resident program is needed for something like this but I'm going to give ToolTipFixer a try.

SKA

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #17 on: January 11, 2010, 11:42 PM »
On XP-SP3 latest updates with IE8 I fixed it with this(found longback from DC) :
copy into notepad , save it as a .reg file. double click it to add it to registry. Reboot and it should be sorted.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VisualEffects\TooltipAnimation]

“SetWindowPos”=”HwndInsertAfter, Hwnd_Top”
“SetForegroundWindow”=dword:00000001

SKA
« Last Edit: January 11, 2010, 11:58 PM by SKA »

Innuendo

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #18 on: January 12, 2010, 10:55 AM »
Not to sidetrack here, but can I ask what exactly the big deal is with .NET? Why does everyone hate it so? I have yet to find a single reasonable explanation as to why it is so horrible.

I think the original reason for all the .NET hate was you had a 1.5 MB program that required .NET so you had to go download the 20+ MB framework so it would work. This was back in the days before broadband was commonplace so a 20 MB download would take up a good portion of your time and bandwidth.

Nowadays, a 20 MB download is a trivial affair for most people & .NET ships with most versions of Windows, but those .NET haters just can't let go of a grudge even when the reasons are moot these days.

Curt

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Re: ToolTipFixer 2.0 for Windows < Vista
« Reply #19 on: January 13, 2010, 04:30 AM »
The user makes the choice at installation whether to install the program as a service or as a stand-alone manually-activated-only program.
-Curt

That's good to know for lucky people (like me) who meet this issue only once in a while. I didn't see it for months now, so there's no need to install a service.


The initial mentioning of this program said, "before Vista". However, I ran it once on my Vista, and it cured the problem I had with a menu hiding behind the task bar.