The Ultimate Troubleshooter — Help


TUT menu problems

A handful of users sometimes experience a problem with the TUT menus whereby, when mousing over a drop down menu, the menu does drop down but when the user tries to move down through the choices (to choose one), the drop-down list disappears.

The cause of this problem is almost always the  Activation Follows Mouse (X-Mouse)  setting in the  "PowerToys for Windows XP".

While the  Activation Follows Mouse (X-Mouse)  setting works with some programs, it also causes a lot of problems in many other programs :

  • Erratic behaviour (random closing or opening) of the Input Panel on Tablet PCs. 

  • Disappearance of the ink on Tablet PCs (no text). 
  • Microsoft Encarta integration into Microsoft Office  does not work. 
  • Erratic behaviour when trying to enter Start and End times on appointments in Microsoft Outlook. 
  • Problems with  Show Report  in Intuit's Quicken. 
  • Drop-down menus in many programs disappear as the user attempts to choose an option. 
  • Plays havoc with some news alert programs where the alert is by means of a popup window.

Although they are supplied by Microsoft themselves, it is important to remember that the Microsoft PowerToys for XP are not officially supported by Microsoft.  Here is the relevant legalese :

"We take great care to ensure that PowerToys work as they should, but they are not part of Windows and are not supported by Microsoft. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about PowerToys."

The  Activation Follows Mouse (X-Mouse)  PowerToy, in particular, attempts to implement in Windows XP a non-supported non-Windows-standard mouse behaviour, the X-Windows standard from the Unix world.  It works with some Windows programs, and will simply not work with other Windows programs.  TUT is one program with which it will not work.

To disable  "Activation Follows Mouse (X-Mouse)",  do as follows :

—  Go to  "All Programs \ PowerToys for Windows XP".

—  Start  TweakUI.

—  Go to the  Mouse  section.

—  Choose the  X-Mouse  sub-section.

—  Clear  Activation Follows Mouse (X-Mouse).

—  Click  OK.

—  Reboot.

—  That's it.  You're Done.