Simple tweaker app

Optimizing toolboxes can be ranked according to the robustness of their tools, and the areas of a system they allow you to manipulate. This utility weighs in on the light side, as it essentially allows you to enable or disable various Windows features. There's no monkeying around with the Registry or CPU -- Easy Tweak mostly replicates built-in Windows' tools.

Easy Tweak launches an attractive, easy to navigate interface. Instead of tabs, it uses a row of icons at the bottom, similar to the row of quick-launch icons on a Mac screen. Each category of tweak--system info, desktop, drives, Explorer, hardware, and others--displays a series of check boxes associated with features to enable or disable. These features typically are linked to slowness of Windows launch, so disabling some of these items will kick up boot speed. It was easy to implement tweaks, but this level of optimization won't satisfy most experienced users.

This toolbox performed well in our tests. However, most of its features (some are disabled in the demo version) are already available among Windows' built-in features. Novices will appreciate having all these simple tweaks gathered in one easy-to-access spot, but they should buy knowing they're paying largely for what they already have.