Windows – Stopping Windows from showing “ripple” effect when clicking with digitizer pen

graphics-tabletvisual-effectswindows 7

I have a Wacom digitizer with pen and Windows 7. Whenever I push down with the pen on the digitizer plate to click, Windows shows a "ripple" effect (an expanding, semi-transparent circle) where I click. It's terribly annoying and I can't find anywhere to turn it off.

Places I have looked:

  • Mouse control panel
  • Pen & Touch control panel
  • Tablet PC control panel
  • Ease of Access Center
  • Wacom's Tablet Settings application
  • System control panel > Advanced > Performance > Visual Effects

Is there really no way to get rid of that effect?

For the record, I have a desktop PC with a regular (non-touch, non-tablet-input) display. The only tablet/pen input I have is an old-fashioned digitizer tablet.

Best Answer

Apparently getting rid of those ripples requires two non-obvious things:

  • First, the Tablet PC Components need to be enabled (in Turn Windows Features On/Off)
  • Second, the setting is not exposed in the UI, but must be switched by registry or group policy editing.

The setting is located in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\TabletPC\, a DWORD value named TurnOffPenFeedback which should be set to 1 (0x00000001).

As an alternative to direct registry editing, use gpedit.msc tool to edit the group policy for your machine. The setting is located under Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Tablet PC > Cursors. (Group Policy is only available in Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate editions.)

But still the most important part: The setting is only honoured if the Tablet PC Components are installed, so if you (like me) removed them in the hope of just having a normal PC with tablet input, you have to re-install them (and then proceed to disable all the features that are unhelpful and get in the way on non-tablet computers.)

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