Change Balloon popup time

[pmol]

Hi,

I need to rollout some applications on Windows 2000 (with SMS), but the IT Manager says the balloon popup is not showing up long enough, I timed it and it stays about 13 seconds. In Windows XP the balloon stays allways until you close it,
Is there some kind of registry key to edit which keeps the popup stay longer ?

 

[bcastner]

Win2k and XP follow the same notification tray rules for baloon tips.

The Shell_NotifyIcon function is used to do various things, among them, displaying a balloon tip to the user. As discussed in the documentation for the NOTIFYICONDATA structure, the uTimeout member specifies how long the balloon should be displayed.

But what if the user is not at the computer when you display your balloon? After 30 seconds, the balloon will time out, and the user will have missed your important message!

Never fear. The taskbar keeps track of whether the user is using the computer (with the help of the GetLastInputInfo function) and doesn't "run the clock" if it appears that the user isn't there. You will get your 30 seconds of "face time" with the user.

And what if you want your message to stay on the screen longer than 30 seconds?

You can't. The notification area enforces a 30 second limit for any single balloon. Because if they user hasn't done anything about it for 30 seconds, they probably aren't interested. If your message is so critical that the user shouldn't be allowed to ignore it, then don't use a notification balloon. Notification balloons are for non-critical transient messages to the user.

Any balloon that comes from a notification icon follows the rules enforced by the notification area.

Raymond Chen, Microsoft,

http://weblogs.asp.net/oldnewthing/archive/2005/01/10/349894.aspx

uTimeout
Union with uVersion. The timeout value, in milliseconds, for a balloon ToolTip. The system enforces minimum and maximum timeout values. uTimeout values that are too large are set to the maximum value and values that are too small default to the minimum value. The system minimum and maximum timeout values are currently set at 10 seconds and 30 seconds, respectively.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...shell/reference/structures/notifyicondata.asp

 

[bcastner]

I should also note:

. Raymond Chen likely wrote the routine in question;

. He does not believe there is a behavioral difference between the notifcation tray rules between Win2k and XP. Albeit, some newer XP baloons offer an "x" to close option, they are a shortcut and not mandatory. The rules above still apply.

 

[pmol]

Ok, thanks for your answers.

I have already tested the situation I mentioned on 2000 and xp and there really is a difference. I am advertising applications with SMS 2003 and test the advertisement on both 2000 and XP, the balloon popup on 2000 stays only for 13 seconds (not 30!!), the XP machine show the balloon all the time until you click it away on the cross.

It is a wish from the company to leave the balloon popup on 2000 for a longer time, but i guess reading the information above it is not possible to change it.

 

[bcastner]

the balloon popup on 2000 stays only for 13 seconds (not 30!!)"

I did not state that all baloon notifications had a setting of 30. Rewrite the application to set the values as you desire:

uTimeout
Union with uVersion. The timeout value, in milliseconds, for a balloon ToolTip. The system enforces minimum and maximum timeout values. uTimeout values that are too large are set to the maximum value and values that are too small default to the minimum value. The system minimum and maximum timeout values are currently set at 10 seconds and 30 seconds, respectively.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...shell/reference/structures/notifyicondata.asp

You completely misrepresented a carefully written response on my part. You completely ignored the fact that Raymond Chen wrote that part of the GUI.

Furthermore, you ignore the "x" to close issue under XP. XP permits customizations of the activity status of an icon, Win2k does not. An "x" message is not a baloon notification event under XP, it is a notification icon controlled event and user customizable under Taskbar properties.

To flat out deny that this is how notification baloons work is just incredible to me.