Are you frustrated and annoyed when your tool tips inexplicably begin displaying behind  the task bar? I know I was. This bothered me so much that I decided to write a program that would silently prevent this from ever happening again!

In addition to keeping your tool tips “on top of things,” Tool Tip Manager™ gives you full control over the delay times as well as the appearance of the tool tips.

You can even do away with them altogether if you like.

Each tool tip group (start/clock, quick launch, running applications, and system tray) may be configured separately or you can configure one group and apply those settings to the others.

The tip for the start button is not particularly useful and you have the option of hiding it while still displaying the clock tip which is quite handy.

I use the task bar clock's date tip all the time so I like to make the text large and set the automatic hide delay time to a leisurely 32 seconds (the default is a scant few seconds).

Tip: To make a date tip that has been automatically hidden reappear, move the mouse pointer over the start button and then back to the clock.

Note that this is the normal behavior of the Windows® shell and not related to the Tool Tip Manager™

Example customized tool tips

To access the Tool Tip Manager™ settings, right-clicking the task bar and choose Tool Tip Manager properties:

Another way to access the properties page is to open the control panel and click Other Control Panel Options (shown to the left). Right-click on the Tool Tip Manager link and select Properties (shown below).

Tool Tip Manager™ supports Windows XP, Windows XP 64-bit, Windows 2000, or Windows 2003 server.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does it work? — Tool Tip Manager™ is loaded by Windows Explorer (also known as the shell or desktop) as a name space extension dynamic link library (DLL). Once loaded, the program subclasses various task bar related windows in order to “see” their window messages. When a tool tip message is processed, the program checks to see if the tool tip window has been corrupted and automatically restores it if needed.

Will my system’s performance be negatively impacted? — The simple answer is “no.” Because of the design of the program, CPU usage is insignificant. In fact, the only time the program does any processing at all is when a tool tip message is displayed and even then it only executes a few additional machine instructions! Beware of other products that require a constantly running process to periodically examine thousands of windows on your computer!

Testimonials

This program is available for immediate download and is covered by an unconditional, 100% money back guarantee if not completely satisfied.

Thank you,

Nick Acquaviva

P. S.
Please let me know if you have ideas for new features.