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.
This article was originally written on 01/28/08
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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!
THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Thanks, but this is not all that “geek”. Couldn’t you give us the way to modify the registry so that we don’t see this again for any new user on the machine? Thanks.
thanks so much, that bubble really annoys me, along with a few other Windows quirks.
Is there a definitive list of annoying Windows quirks anywhere?
Ahhh…. what relief. This annoying POS has always bothered me. Thanks loads
Dude!
You got my vote for Nobel Prize in Computer Engineering or something like that!
Thank you!
another way to do this:
start-run gpedit.msc
user config –> admin templates –> desktop –> remove the desktop cleanup wizard –> enabled
Thanks, t0fu.
I wonder if there’s a way to not disable the wizard but toggle the default state of the wizard to “off”. That way, when you clone a bunch of workstations, you haven’t disabled the wizard, but you’ve made it an option folks can turn on if they like that sort of nonsense. (This is another lame innovation like the “personalized menus” in MS Office ‘03 and on the start menu.
“Just one example of a balloon I don’t want in my perfectly windy sky.”
A Tori Amos reference! Awesome!
@Roy
Congrats on being the first person to notice that =) I’ve been a huge fan for years…
In case anyone is interested in the registry setting. This is the one for the local machine:
User Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\CleanupWiz]
Value Name: NoRun
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (1)
Thanks for the simple solution!
That “feature” in WinXP has been annoying me for years…I finally decided to google it, and voila! your solution. I wonder how much Microsoft paid a guy to design that annoying feature?
Thanks for this great tip. You should write a book. Something like “Get BG to leave us alone so we can get something done already”
Best Regards…
there are unused icon on your desktop
the desktop cleanup wiard can help u clean up your desktop. click this balloon to start the wizard
Me too. Excellent / thanks.
Long live XP.
Thanks. P.S. Where can I get the localization files that make it say “Run Annoying Desktop Cleanup Wizard every 60 days”?
This has been just what I was looking for. I was so tired of that thing nagging me. Thanks
yep… just another annoying microsoftisms…. But I think the worst one is still the one that appears after Windows has just downloaded an update. Then a message reminding you to update will appear every 10 f… minutes! There’s gotta be some pretty pervert people working at Microsoft to design things like that. I know what I am talking about: I am a software engineer. Anyway, I am so glad I don’t work for MS!
Finally I got rid of this annoying nonsense. Thank you so much
thanks to you and to google to find your useful help
Thanks for keeping the “How to get rid of unused icon balloon” posted.
Thanks. I was about to change to a Mac. Gates may be the richest man in the world but he is not the smartest. Microsoft has a bunch of sadists on staff.
Thanks. It’s annoyed me for years. I finally decided to do something about it.