How to get rid of the Get Started help stickers in Windows 8.1

The upgrade to 8.1 has been very disappointing. Quite how they managed to pack so little into the 3.5GB download I don't know; I'm sure all of the changes could have been accomplished with a small patch.

Never the less having done it, and using the fabulous Classic Shell V4.x no harm has been done... except...

Although I steer clear of the Metro interface I do use the Calendar and Contacts apps occasionally for convenience - even though they are not very good. Sadly since the upgrade they have been blighted with helpful 'stickers' which won't go away until you have proved you have understood them by doing what they say and even more sadly, its impossible to do some of the things without a touch screen. The result is valuable screen space is hogged by these annoying messages and there is not much you can do about it.

I managed to find a cure on a helpful web page and it involves using the registry editor so - WARNING- YOU COULD DAMAGE YOUR COMPUTER - if you are not happy doing that best buy a touch screen.

Launch your favourite registry editor.

go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows

in the edit menu do 'New Key' and name it 'EdgeUI'

go into this new key you have created and in the edit menu do 'New 32bit D-word'

name it DisableHelpSticker and give it a value of 1

reboot and there your go.

If you feel unhappy with any of the above don't go ahead. you can break your computer with the registry editor.