Ian Tearle

is finding it hard to find inspiration.

Updated 4 days, 18 hours, 34 minutes ago

General Ramblings

MSN and the Orange Phantom

by Ian Tearle 11:40am Tuesday, Apr 22


If you have ever been annoyed by the constant Orange Flashing when recieving a message from within MSN then fear not. Here is the solution to be rid of the phantom once and for all.

The issue is when Windows wants to get your attention to something when the application is out of focus. The next steps are going to guide you through RegEdit in Windows XP. Please don't proceed if you are not comfortable.

open up HKEY_CURRENT_USER/ControlPanel/Desktop

Click on the Desktop option and then look down the list on the right for the following:

foregroundlocktimeout

The right hand list is divided into three sections - Name Type and data.
Look in the Data section and check that the following is present:

0x00030d40 (200000)

If this data is present then the Prevent applications from stealing focus option is enabled.
If you have something different then proceed as follows:
Right click on the ForegroundLockTimeout option and select Modify
The Edit DWORD value box opens
Make sure there is a green dot next to the hexadecimal option in the Base box
Now in the Value data box type: 30d40 (that's thirty followed by d
then followed by 40)
Click the OK button
Your entry should now read:

ForegroundLockTimeout REG_DWORD 0x00030d40 (200000)

Now close regedit and reboot your machine.

Jared says:

Ian - my settings already were as you describe. And my MSN flashes orange when I receive a message. Is there a second step? I would love to get rid of that cursed flashing orange light!

Posted On: Wednesday, Jun 18 @ 8:45am

Ian Tearle says:

Hi Jared,
It is hit or miss, I managed to do the above steps on one PC and on another it did not work. Microsoft may change something in some updates.
Give www.mess.be/ a try, but be sure to backup your system first, although you can just uninstall Messenger and reinstall if you mess up too much.

Posted On: Wednesday, Jun 18 @ 11:18am

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