March 27, 2024

Windows XP Hack — Passport

Too many people are tricked into believing that you need to sign up for a Passport account when you get Windows XP.

Wonderful job the marketing folks did, eh? Well, if you don’t want to sign up for an account, nobody is forcing you to.

At least, not yet. Are you tired of being reminded about signing up?

Fire up REGEDIT.EXE and find your way to HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Microsoft MessengerService.

You’ll see a “PassportBalloon” binary value in the right-hand pane. Double-click to open it.

Now, in the resulting “Edit Binary Value” dialog, press the Delete key and enter: “0a” (that’s a zero, sans quotes).

This will effectively set the reminder counter to 10 and you won’t be bothered with it again.

Don’t want the Windows Messenger to pop up when you launch Outlook Express?

M’kay, in the Registry, get to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE Microsoft Outlook Express

and either edit or add a DWORD Value: “Hide Messenger” (sans quotes). Set this to “2” and you’ll be good to go.

Thanks to X-Setup (XTEQ.COM) for providing an easier way to get this done. Within that program, you can right-click on a plug-in and select “Information” for details and script code.

Jason Benway

Christ follower, husband, father, IT geek, and Xbox gamer

View all posts by Jason Benway →

3 thoughts on “Windows XP Hack — Passport

    1. Click Start and then click the Run command.
    2. In the Run dialog box, type regedit in the Open text box and click OK.
    3. Navigate to:

      HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvanced

    4. Right click on an empty space in the right pane of the Registry Editor, point to New and click on DWORD Value.
    5. Type over New Value #1 and change it to EnableBalloonTips and press [ENTER]
  1. I am stupid or something but I cannot find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SOFTWARE for making changes with outlook express. i have installed outlook and its working great.

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