ToolTips hides behind Taskbar

Tooltip appear when mouse cursor in hovered on to an item without clicking it. It is a very effective solution to provide helpful tips. But Windows has a bug where the tooltip hides behind the taskbar.

tooltip0005  tooltip0006

This bug had been there since Windows® 95 and has survived till Vista. This makes it the longest surviving bug, and Microsoft® only acknowledged it after the release of Windows® XP SP2. Their way to solve this is to Logout and Re-Login to the account or Reboot (What else !).

But now I have found a utility that can be simply be run whenever this problem occurs.

tooltip0007 

{Download ToolTipFixer}

It does not patches or permanently fixes it but at least you don't have to Logout-Login OR reboot your PC. Saves a lot of time for those who really want their tooltips to show correctly. Thanks to BikeMike who used AutoHotKey to create this.

 

For those who are a little enthusiastic do the following to create your own fixer:-

  1. Download AutoHotKey and Install.
  2. Now goto Start=>Programs=>AutoHotKey=>AutoScriptWriter
  3. Copy & Paste the following code given below.
  4. Then save this code (shown below).
  5. Now again Open Start=>Programs=>AutoHotKey=>Convert .ahk to .exe
  6. Now choose your .ahk file you saved earlier and convert to exe file.
  7. DO THIS ONLY IF YOU ARE COMFORTABLE and CONFIDENT.

Source code... Thanks to BikeMike

#Persistent
Menu,Tray,Icon,Shell32.dll,173
Menu,Tray,NoStandard
Menu,Tray,Add,Fix ToolTips,Fix
Menu,Tray,Add,Exit,Exit
Menu,Tray,Default,Fix ToolTips
Menu,Tray,Tip,Fix the ToolTips so they display on top
GoSub,Fix
Exit

Fix:
WinSet,AlwaysOnTop,Off,ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
WinSet,AlwaysOnTop,On,ahk_class Shell_TrayWnd
TrayTip,,I fixed it :-)
Return

Exit:
ExitApp

{ Download ToolTipFixer }

{ Download AutoHotKey }

Comments

  1. I looked at the solutions you mentioned, but I ended up using a little utility program called "Tool Tip Manager". Besides fixing the tool tip problem, it allows you to change the font and colors for task bar tool tips and make the auto-hide time-out longer. Plus it automatically prevents the problem and does not require a separate process to be running all the time. You can get it here tooltipmanager.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Jasen Daniels
    thanks for pointing to a good utility that does a lot more than what I have mentioned. But my aim was to write about a freeware that could do the job. Plus the added thrill (for some) is to be able to write (actually copy & paste) the code and make the utility themselves.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Comment for encouragement

Popular posts from this blog

Configure D-Link 2750U Wi-Fi Router for Airtel

Aspire theme Problems

How to write in Hindi on Facebook