How-To Geek
Disable All Notification Balloons in Windows 7 or Vista
If you find the popup notification balloons in the Windows system tray to be too annoying, you might be interested to know that you can completely disable them. This would be an extreme option, of course… typically you can just turn them off in any offending applications, but if you want to disable them across the board, this is the solution.
Note: This should work in any version of Windows.
Note: I’m not necessarily recommending that everybody do this… you should only bother with it if you need to solve this particular problem.
Manual Registry Hack
Open up regedit.exe through the start menu search or run box, and then browse down to the following key:
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.
Downloadable Registry Hack
Simply download, extract, and double-click on the DisableNotificationBalloons.reg file to enter the information into the registry. There’s also an included EnableNotificationBalloons file that will reverse the change.
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Comments (15)
Programmer by day, geek by night, The Geek, also known as Lowell Heddings, spends all his free time bringing you fresh geekery on a daily basis. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.
- Published 06/14/08
Thank you for disable Windows Security Center but disable notification balloons for all not good.
Separate no has, only Windows Security Center disable notification balloons.
I just turn it off in the security center but leave the little shield active.
Geek, do u kno how to stop the balloon over the start menu? bcos even with this registry hack i cant get rid of the start menu balloon
Can I simply delete the DWORD to revert my computer to its previous state?
This registry hack does not work, manually or with the download.
Thank you!
Tom is right this hack does not work. I still have the really annoying audio plug ballon come up to tell me what I just did, how stupid is that, thanks MS.
I could not get it to work either; what application is need to open it for vista windows
Heh, and I can’t get balloon tips TO work. I’m using AutoHotkey and I’ve got the EnableBalloonTips set to 1 (and of course have restarted a thousand times). I’ve got nothin!
By the way, for those that this isn’t working for, have you tried restarting at all? Just asking. By the sounds of it, that may be a requirement.
all too often I find the instructions assume that the reader is an expert and a mind reader eg, “create a 32bit D word” sounds good I`ll have two, my responce is a 4bit F word. the times I`ve followed these tips only to fail either there is no button/ect. to press/click on my screen or the instructions are so vague I worry about ending up with a broken computer. sorry. stefan
Eugh, even though this guy most probably won’t see this, but this needs to be said.
What the HELL are you doing in the registry if you can’t figure out something as simple as this? And what the hell would stop you from just running the .reg file that was provided?
This kind of stupidity annoys me to no end. “Hey, I don’t know the first thing about the internal combustion engine, but I’ll still go ahead and pop the hood of my car and then complain when I can’t find the component the tech told me to find! Furthermore I’m going to insult him because he didn’t assume I was a drooling idiot!”
You are right Onaka, the guy cannot even spell and punctuate at a third grade level. He’s probably just some spoiled brat, bithchin :)
If you ever get the feeling that you don’t completely have the full picture concerning what you are trying to do then either research it more (from a variety of sources), or simply don’t do it. However, don’t blame someone else for your own laziness. Of course one assumes others understand when they are asked to explain technical process & procedure. If you don’t understand then that’s due to the fact that you shouldn’t be touching things yet –your problem.
…do more research & then maybe you won’t complain as much.
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