Dynamic Pen Feedback in Windows 7, can't turn off

Question

Okay, thank you microsoft for windows 7, it's fantastic, i love it, and intend on buying, but for now I'm having an annoying issue on the RC.

I have a wacom tablet, there was some driver issues at first but got everything hammered out, working perfectly the way i want it to except one thing. I primarily use the tablet for drawing, not handwritting, and the dynamic feedback annoys the ____ out of me. In case you don't know what i'm referring to, it's the water droplet like effects whenever your pen touches and in vista, you could easily turn it off under the pen and input devices options.

See: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IE/windows-vista/Turn-visual-feedback-on-or-off-on-a-Tablet-PC

But what I thought would be an issue easily solved with a quick google search has now been bugging me for the last few hours. So, any ideas out there? I don't care if it's a registry hack, patch, or whatever, but you must be able to change it somehow, is there simply some options menu i was overlooking or missed?

All answers appreciated, Thanks.

Answer 1

1. Open Local Group Policy Editor: Run... gpedit.msc
2. Navigate to User Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Tablet PC - Cursor
3. Enable the Turn off pen feedback setting.

Answer 2

1. Open Local Group Policy Editor: Run... gpedit.msc
2. Navigate to User Configuration - Administrative Templates - Windows Components - Tablet PC - Cursor
3. Enable the Turn off pen feedback setting.

Thanks, I've been waiting for this for months! With the recent Wacom driver updates as well, I now how Windows 7 + Wacom working nicely. It don't understand why it isn't like it was in Vista still, which gave you more control over what feedback you wanted to see.

Answer 3

I just got my new wacom tablet today and immediately ran into this issue.

Downloading the latest drivers from the wacom website fixes this by disabling the windows ink features in most graphics applications.

Hope that helps

Answer 4

I found the registry locations responsible for these animations and a number of other ugly little controls: it's all controlled by WISP, the Windows Inking Services Platform, and there is a section which enumerates WISP settings which is mirrored in these three locations across the registry:

HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Pen\SysEventParameters

HKUS\**\Software\Microsoft\Wisp\Pen\SysEventParameters

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wisp\Pen\SysEventParameters

Concerning this topic, I think the only values that control the splash and other animations are Splash and UIFeedbackMode, which you should set to (decimal) 0. If you have UAC on it's going to give you fits, as usual, and likely one of those branches is going to tell you you don't have permission in any case, so you'll need to give yourself permission for that key.

Also interesting is how many other awful things the default WISP settings impart to pen functionality. I went through and set almost everything in those keys to 0, because on the desktop I never use handwriting input or Flicks and I sure don't need these settings confounding the rather delicate setup I impart through the Wacom driver and some applications like Painter which add yet another level of fine tweaking to the whole process.

Take a look at the (mostly) self-explanatory value names under those keys and you might notice that things like WaitTime and HoldMode may also be impacting the responsiveness of your tablet pen in various applications.

Also, I've noticed that by default (under \Wisp\MultiTouch) Windows 7 just assumes that you're using multitouch capabilities when you enable tablet functionality, which could ____ things up royally for multiple-tool users.

Answer 5

You're prolly right, now that i know it's not just me then we narrow it down to a registry option. So the hunt begins! I'm set on sticking with windows 7, using the RC now and already preordered ultimate. I do like it a whole lot, it's just this one issue bothering me. I'll post if I find it, thanks for the input!