Telegram Desktop has a bug and needs a tweak

None of my attempts to get support from Telegram Desktop elicit any response, so I'm trying generalised forums like this one instead. I have two issues with Telegram Desktop - one is a mal-function, and another is a serious inconvenience. I will deal with the malfunction first :

Generally I can paste images from the Windows Clipboard without any fuss, but at times Telegram stubbornly turns my 'photo' into a file - so I presume an 'attachment'. I'd like to know the cause of this so I can rectify it.

The inconvenience is related to the fact that the emojs/gifs/stickers 'popup' is hyper-sensitive to mouse cursor movements and prone to appear frequently, in the process obscuring the thread of the Chat; and because I do not use them AT ALL, I'd like to be able to disable that tool altogether.