If you've used Windows 2000 yet, you'll have seen the way the new menus and select lists appear and disappear: they do a fadein/fadeout effect straight out of a bad special effects demo reel. Sure it looks pretty cool - the first time you see it. Then you want it to go the fuck away so you can do WORK with the damn system (or play Half-Life, whatever's on your plate).
Call me puritanical, but graphical user interfaces are not to be oohed and aahed at; they are to enhance the functionality and increase the user's power over the computer.
So anyway, follow these steps to kill the effect:
- Open Settings->Control Panel->Display.
- Click on the Effects tab.
- Uncheck the box next to "Use transition effects for menus and tooltips".
- Click OK.
- Revel in the slight bit of power you have wielded in the name of usability.
- Learn bash so you never have to use another GUI again.