I’ve been forced to update one of my boxen to WinXP.  Welcome to Hell.  There will be a number of hacks appearing here giving details on how to make XP a little less friendly.

Turn off auto-expanding trees in Windows Explorer
1) close Windows Explorer if it’s running

2) go Start -> Run, then type “regedit”

3) Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced

4) Change the value of “FriendlyTree” to 0

5) close regedit, and start up Windows Explorer. Auto-expanding menus are now off

Turn off Notification Area Balloon Tips

[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced
Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s)
Data Type: REG_DWORD [Dword Value] // Value Name: EnableBalloonTips
Setting for Value Data: [0 = Balloon Tips Disabled / 1 = Balloon Tips Enabled]
Exit Registry and Reboot