Depending on your configuration, when you hover your mouse over items on your Windows XP desktop such as "My Computer", descriptor text may appear such as "Shows the disk drives and hardware connected to this computer".

Also, if you hover your mouse cursor over a folder, Windows XP may calculate the size of the files contained in the folder as well as a sample file name or two.

Many people may find these popup items useful. They explain what functions various desktop items perform, and they let you peek inside the contents of a folder without having to open it up.

Other users, however, tire of Windows XP popping up information wherever they move their mouse cursor on the desktop and inside Explorer folders. Plus, peeking inside each folder may take time, and calculating the size of files inside extremely large folders may require extra CPU and hard disk usage.

To enable or disable this popup information feature:

1. Double-click "My Computer" if visible on your desktop, or open up virtually any other folder window in Explorer.

2. Choose "Tools" - "Folder Options".

3. When the "Folder Options" multi-tabbed dialog box appears, click the "View" tab.

4. Underneath "Advanced settings", Scroll down to "Show pop-up description for folder and desktop items" and check or uncheck the option as desired.

5. Click "OK" to close the dialog box, and then close the folder window (if desired).

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