Customise Windows XP with TweakUI
One of the best tools for fine-tuning Windows XP is the free TweakUI PowerToy utility from Microsoft. TweakUI digs deep into Windows’ settings and can customise its behaviour in dozens of ways, from how many icons appear on the Alt-Tab dialog to Explorer context menu choices to what your program shortcuts look like. TweakUI’s been around forever and we’ve mentioned it here and there throughout the years at Lifehacker, but it’s high time we gave it the full walkthrough it deserves. After the jump, take a gander at 15 useful adjustments you can make to your XP system with TweakUI.
Fifteen Useful TweakUI Settings
Repair broken icons (and more)
Set screensaver password prompt grace period
Tweak Welcome screen unread email count settings
Automatically log on any user (with an encrypted password)
Add and Delete “New File” templates
Edit CD autoplay options and handlers
Tweak taskbar window grouping settings
Disable taskbar balloon tips and notifications
Customize the Open/Save dialog Places bar
Resize Explorer image thumbnails
Disable/customize shortcut icon arrows
Disable “Shortcut to” text and add Encrypt to context menu
Set how many lines your mousewheel scrolls
Customize the Alt-Tab dialog
Stop focus thieves and flashing taskbars
Download TweakUI here. (Sadly, TweakUI is only available for Windows XP, not Vista.)
What’s your favourite use for TweakUI? Let us know in the comments.
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I agree its a great utility but would be nice to have the settings made automatically – do you have any suggestions as to how this can be done? My particular nasty is some piece of unknown software has set my mouse as xmouse & I have to open the utility every time I start my machine to disable that function (which I hate). Suggestions welcome