Tag Archives: registry

Print Balloons Got You Down?

Do you share your printer to the network?  Do you see balloons remarking upon the print jobs for those using your shared printer?  Is that annoying or what?

As fortune would have it, it is possible to rid yourself of those superfluous messages.  To disable the network print notification balloon windows in Windows follow these three easy steps.

  1. Open the Registry Editor: Start —> Run —> regedit
  2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER —> Printers —> Settings
  3. Create a new key: right-click —> New —> DWORD

You can name the DWORD anything you’d like.  I prefer naming it something obvious like EnableBalloonNotificationsRemote.  By default the value of the new key should be 0 (zero meaning off or disable).

Alternatively you can paste this code into an empty text file and save it as a registry file (like noremoteprintballoons.reg).  Double-clicking that reg file will then add the key as described above.

[CODE=BASH]REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERPrintersSettings]
“EnableBalloonNotificationsRemote”=dword:00000000
[/CODE]

In order for this to take effect you can either stop and restart the (print) spooler service or simply reboot your machine.

It’s flexible enough.  You can presumably add the key under HKEY_USERS (rather than HKEY_CURRENT_USER) and thereby effect all users on that machine.  Or you could use Group Policy on your domain controller and effect all users on all machines.

I don’t know why anyone would want to see balloons for print jobs that honestly don’t involve them in any way, but that’s the default behavior.

There you have it.  Have fun with that.

Share

Nevermore Be Bothered by Desktop.ini

I get annoyed by the superfluous.  It’s just one of those traits I possess.  Maybe you have similar quirks. I wouldn’t know.  However, if you (like me) don’t see the point in cluttering up a perfectly good system with an ass-load of Desktop.ini files here is the basic solution.

You will see a lot of articles out there saying, essentially, “hide your hidden files”.  Not quite the same.  Especially if you don’t want to hide hidden files.

  1. Open the registry editor ( Start —> Run —> regedit )
  2. Locate or add the following DWORD key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE —> SOFTWARE —> Microsoft —> Windows —> CurrentVersion —> Policies —> Explorer —> “UseDesktopIniCache”
  3. Modify that key so that it’s Value is 0 (zero)

Admins, alternatively you can paste the following code into an empty text file and save it as a registry file (like nomoredesktopini.reg).  Double-clicking that reg file will then add the key as described above.

##

# Early Windows Version

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"UseDesktopIniCache"=dword:00000000

# Late Windows Version

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"UseDesktopIniCache"=dword:00000000

##

(Use the pointy-bracket button to get a clean copy/paste version of the code.)

For early versions of Windows try using the key which begins “REGEDIT4“; for later versions (certainly by Win8) you’ll want to use the “Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00” formulation.  If both of those fail you will have to make the registry edit manually (which will likely involve creating the registry key) as outlined above.

Windows will stop making them by default.  If you make a customization, I think Windows will create one for that; and you can always create your own Desktop.ini files if you are so inclined; this hack merely prevents the operating system from automatically creating them.

This fix should work from WinXP 32 bit through Win8.1 64 bit and all points in between.

Note: In the comments you will see some write of the key located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE —> SOFTWARE —> Wow6432Node. This should be automatically created if the location above is created. Adjust according to your experience.

Have fun with that.

Share