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Customise Windows XP with TweakUI
Posted by Gina Trapani at 10:00 AM on October 12, 2007
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.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
David Barrera
Posted 1:52 PM 12/10/07
I mostly use TweakUI for redirecting My Documents path to a different partition where I store everything! so when I have to repair system or even reinstall Windows or a new Linux distro (which I do often, both oh them) I don't have to burn DVDs with all my data...
David Barrera
brandonjp
Posted 1:42 PM 12/10/07
I've used and loved this for a long while. There were a few things I couldn't easily achieve (don't remember what now) but for those I also grew to love Tweak FX.
brandonjp
bsankr
Posted 8:26 AM 12/10/07
i'm interested in seeing this show up for vista some time soon. i have the same issue bobly has w/ my external and there are a few other little tweaks i'd like to fix...
bsankr
2kreative
Posted 6:45 AM 12/10/07
@bnosach: I use it to remove shortcut arrows completely
@Bobly: I've used it since Win95 - it was in the addon/bonus folder on the CD
2kreative
Rich Bradshaw
Posted 2:23 AM 12/10/07
This has been around for ages, but still useful for anyone who didn't notice!
Rich Bradshaw
jackquack
Posted 9:41 PM 11/10/07
Preventing applications from stealing focus does not always work. I have a VPN dialer that my school uses to connect to its wireless that sometimes comes up when I'm connected to my home wireless.
jackquack
bnosach
Posted 8:41 PM 11/10/07
How about the separate post dedicated to PowerToys soft? Almost all of those applications are useful as for me.
bnosach
LordDaMan
Posted 4:58 PM 12/10/07
@bnosach:
I'm with you. Some are pretty crappy, but others are just as usefull as tweakUI
LordDaMan
BackDoorAngel
Posted 1:50 PM 12/10/07
this makes XP pretend it's KDE
BackDoorAngel
engtech
Posted 10:51 AM 12/10/07
FYI, I actually managed to screw up my computer and make it unbootable with TweakUI hacking.
It's a talent. :)
engtech
Bobly
Posted 6:09 AM 12/10/07
Great app, though it has been around for a while :P
I personally use it to disable auto-play on all drives. I have a 500GB external hard drive divided into 5 partitions, there's nothing worse than having to wait for the autoplay to scan everything before it stops annoying me and lets me get on with what I'm doing.
On top of that I don't need everything I plug in to pop up in my face 20 seconds later by which time I've moved on to something and decided to get back to what I just plugged in in a bit. When I'm ready, I'll go open it myself ^^
Bobly
magista
Posted 12:20 AM 12/10/07
Hellooooo 2003.
magista
Proud Texan
Posted 9:25 PM 11/10/07
Makes you wonder why Microsoft didn't include this with Windows XP in the first place...oh wait, they gave us the Registry. <_< At least this install is light and uninstrusive.
Regardless, I love this little app. One tweak of mention is changing the shortcut overlay (you know, that little arrow) from the oldie-Windows arrow to the transparent Vista look. Very shiny, and very big, too.
Proud Texan
Topher
Posted 5:35 AM 13/10/07
My favourite one, as you have already pointed out is auto log in. Usually I don't have a password for my home computer (no security risk) but when I started wanting to use Remote Desktop Connection it told me that I needed to have a password. My computer is one of those 24/7 types so if it does turn off (power failure, frozen etc) it just boots up and everything opens that needs to be (*cough*mIRC MSN FTPRush*Cough*) it became a real pain in the arse to have to log in, or when other family members needed my computer (printer, scanner, tv shows) but didn't know what to do and if anything went wrong they now can just restart it, and it will be fine.
There are lots of others that i use in the policy section such as telling it to install updates without restarting, and when it needs to be restarted only warning once every few hours rather then every 10 mins. Plus there is lots of other things which would be handy if I had a computer used publicly.
One thing That I wish there was a tick box for enabling 'browse' in the right click/send to menu. I know there is a way to do it, I just can't remember how.
Topher