[Osiris]

The Balloon Tips in Windows Vista look like the ones in Windows XP. While it was not a problem in XP Vista comes with a nicer more shiny interface that makes the balloon tips look out of place. Longhorn had transparent balloon tips for a while but Microsoft removed it for unknown reasons and the feature did not make it into Windows Vista. Glass Toast is a little freeware application that steps in and makes transparent balloon tips available again under Windows Vista. The application does not need to be installed at all and can be run from any location on your hard drive.
The left image shows one of the three possible transparency effects of Glass Toast. It surely looks much more in place than the normal solid balloon tips. Glass Toast intercepts all balloon tips and replaces them with a transparent version while keeping the same functionality as the solid balloon tips. This means that you can still click on a balloon tip if the option is given there, everything else remains untouched.

Glass Toast should work under Windows Vista and Windows XP, make sure you download the right version. The first is for 32-bit editions, the second for 64-bit editions. It supports styles which means that you can create your own effects and apply them to the balloon tips.