Fixing tooltip behind the Windows taskbar

[zakgj01]

If you are using Windows XP you'd should have noticed that sometimes, the tooltip appears behind the windows taskbar when you hover on the taskbar icons, such as the time (to get the date).

If you've encountered it before, you'd know what I mean. It's THAT annoying! So how do you go about fixing it?

You can download the fix here

http://atpeaz.placidthoughts.com/uploads/tooltipsfix.rar

You might also want to create a shortcut to this fix in the Start Menu and then assign a shortcut key to it. That way, fixing the tooltip problem when it occurs only takes a few combination of keys!

[jcarle]

I have no idea what causes this but I believe it's a mixup in the Z-order of windows...

[nickacquaviva]

This problem is caused by a bug in Windows that causes the taskbar tool-tips to lose their "topmost" window style and be covered up by the taskbar. Microsoft has acknowledged this problem exists (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912650), but has not yet fixed it.

Tool Tip Manager will to fix this annoying problem by processing taskbar window messages and resetting the "topmost" window style for tool-tips as needed, automatically. This program also allows you to customize the appearance of the task bar tool tips (font & color) and set the automatic hide timer value. This is the only program that actually prevents the problem from occuring and runs automatically without requiring a separate process.

Regards,

Nick Acquaviva

Edited August 28, 2007 by nickacquaviva
to remove comercial advertising

[lost_packet]

Nick, I'm sure your [advertised program] does the job well enough, but zakgj01's solution is free to download and use. As you are also a first poster advertising your business, your reply comes close to commercial spamming .

[advertised program] was written specifically to fix this annoying problem by processing taskbar window messages and resetting the "topmost" window style for tool-tips as needed, automatically. This program also allows you to customize the appearance of the task bar tool tips (font & color) and set the automatic hide timer value.

Regards,

Nick Acquaviva

Edited June 22, 2007 by Shark007
remove commercial advertising

[grzesiek]

Thanks zakgj01 for this fix. Now this tooltips appears like they shoud.

[Prelatur]

Thx a lot can confirm that the fix from zakgj01 also works on Windows 2003.

[spacesurfer]

Just curious. Does restarting XP solve the problem without a fix? It happened to me yesterday and I was going to try your fix. But then after a restart, the problem was solved and so I was like, I don't need to fix it.

I'm not sure if it will come back though; and I'm not sure what triggered it.

[lost_packet]

Thx a lot can confirm that the fix from zakgj01 also works on Windows 2003.

Yes, I'm using it on Windows 2003 (server-to-desktop adaptation) here as well. What is particularly interesting is that with a fresh install of the OS, the problem now shows itself MUCH more frequently than before, so zakgj01's help is even more useful.

[idesksoft]

Nice program.

[grzesiek]

Just curious. Does restarting XP solve the problem without a fix? It happened to me yesterday and I was going to try your fix. But then after a restart, the problem was solved and so I was like, I don't need to fix it.

Since I used this fix I don't have anymore problem with this tooltips so I think is better to use this fix once than restart computer every time when this problem occur.

[Griefage]

heres another program that does the same thing except it is constantly running, you don't need to make a shortcut to click when the tooltip bugs on ya.

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=10

[JuMz]

What exactly goes this executable do behind the scenes? Unload / reload dll? Regtweak? What? A little uncomfy with running executables that I know little about...

[grzesiek]

heres another program that does the same thing except it is constantly running, you don't need to make a shortcut to click when the tooltip bugs on ya.

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=10

In my opinion this program uses to much memory and it would be better to fix this problem without need to have some app always running.

What exactly goes this executable do behind the scenes? Unload / reload dll? Regtweak? What? A little uncomfy with running executables that I know little about...

I would like to know this too to maybe fix this problem without any program but I don't know is this possible. I checked and this program do nothing with registry. I hope in sp3 for winxp this problem will be finally fixed.

[spacesurfer]

Are we questioning the first posters program or the second posters program?

I would like to know what BOTH of them do. I have this problem on and off but I'm leary about running an executable that I don't know about.

Edited July 10, 2007 by spacesurfer

[glent]

This is very annoying bug that I have faced for months, thanks zakgj01