Stop the Annoying "There are unused icons on your desktop" Popup Balloon
One of the most irritating "features" in Windows XP is the popup balloon dialog that tells you to clean your desktop. I booted up an old virtual machine a few minutes ago and encountered it again, so I decided to write up how to turn it off.
Annoying…
Right-click on the desktop and choose Properties, and then the Desktop tab, and then the Customize Desktop icon.
Now just uncheck the box for "Run Annoying Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days"
Just one example of a balloon I don't want in my perfectly windy sky.
The Geek is the founder of How-To Geek and a geek enthusiast. When he's not coming up with great how-to articles, he's probably writing at his personal blog. This article was written on 01/28/08 and tagged with: Windows
But mine didn't say "annoying", do I still uncheck? JUST KIDDING.:)
Thanks very much, this really is such an annoying "feature", am glad to have turned it off now!
Wow that's so easy - thanks! That has to be one of the most annoying things in XP.
Wow, thanks. That's been buggin me for years and I just never had the time to look up how to turn it off. How about something to turn off "This Device Could Run Faster" every time I stick my thumb drive in?
Thank YOU!
@TJ
Send me an email with a screenshot of that one, if you could… I'm not sure which error you are talking about, but I'd be happy to look into it.
Thank you so much, that was so annoying and now I am rid of it. It is funny how something so annoying can be so simple to avoid. I am forwarding your page to the rest of my friends.
Keep up the great how to's!
Thanks alot !!!
The simplest thing brings the simplest joy. And damn the ballon is so annoying.
Hey Now HTG,
I am so thankful for this post. I didn't know that existed. That is a great post.
Thx 4 the info,
Catto
I am happy with my unused icons Mr.Windows, stop nagging me!
Thank you for the information. That has been annoying for years.
This is not an option if you've permanently disabled desktop themes in XP. Themes? Ick!
The only available display properties tabs are: screen saver, appearance, settings.
Thank you so much. I can't believe I never found that on my own.
Hello, while I was viewing a webpage, which I think it was youtube, I was asked to download a program to be able to view the video, it took me to an antivirus website offering me to buy their product, and ever since than my homepage is that antivirus webside, and every 5 to 10 minutes that website pops-up, how can I fix this problem, it is driving me insane. Thank you
Hello, while I was viewing a webpage, which I think it was youtube, I was asked to download a program to be able to view the video, it took me to an antivirus website offering me to buy their product, and ever since than my homepage is that antivirus webside, and every 5 to 10 minutes that website pops-up, how can I fix this problem, it is driving me insane. Thank you
Neat tip. Now that I shut it off, XP SP2 is better than ever. I don't know why it needs to bother me about such a small thing.
Thanks! Never understood why Microsoft has to torture us with these things but not give any choice about how to disable them.
You know, for a computer geek myself, I have looked for how to turn that off several times. Never occured to me it would be that simple!
Thanks man! I was getting so sick of that stupid popup balloon! Makes me wish Engineers would take an active marketing role and find out from US (the end users of products) what is is WE want instead of making that determination for us!