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PC users don't agree on much, but they're close to unanimous in their low opinion of Vista's performance. There are plenty of manual tweaks you can make to grease Vista's skids--I ran down five of them a couple of weeks ago. You can also use one of the many Vista utilities to optimize the operating system. I described the free Ultimate Windows Tweaker and $29.95 Vista Smoker Pro in a post last week.
Two other commercial Vista system tools are Stardock's $19.95 TweakVista and System Mechanic from Iolo Technologies, which costs $39.95 for the first year as part of a limited-time promotion ($49.95 is the regular price) and $29.95 per year thereafter. Unfortunately, TweakVista does little to automate Vista system-tuning, and while System Mechanic provides a range of Vista tune-up and customization options, casual PC users may find the program's price tough to justify.
Vista tweaker's trial version is pretty worthless
Several years ago, I discovered Stardock's $19.95 WindowBlinds utility that customizes the appearance of Windows XP (there's also a version for Vista). Based on my experience with that program, I had high hopes for the company's TweakVista utility, but using TweakVista was a big letdown.
The first unpleasant surprise was that many--if not most--of the program's features are unavailable in the trial version. My impression of TweakVista didn't improve much once I got the full-function release. The program displays plenty of system information, but it lacks the one-click performance and maintenance tools found in similar utilities.
For example, the Assessment Overview screen shows the same information as Vista's Performance and Information Tools applet in Control Panel. Likewise, the start-up screen's Programs tab merely lists your start-up apps. I expected to see more information about each entry when I clicked its question-mark icon, but instead I saw a pop-up indicating that no information about the program was available.
The Profile tab on TweakVista's Services screen lets you select from a handful of preconfigured user types, including games, media center, or server. However, the various options don't give you any information about the configuration beyond one descriptive phrase.
TweakVista's Services screen lists options for tweaking system performance but lacks details on what each choice does.
(Credit: Stardock)
You get more customization options under the Features tab of TweakVista's Services window.
(Credit: Stardock)While TweakVista puts plenty of system information in one place, the shortage of information about the program's options and the lack of clearly defined one-click fixes limit the utility's usefulness. Vista Smoker Pro does a much better job in both areas for just $10 more.
A wealth of system tools at a high price
System Mechanic's lineup of performance and maintenance helpers is impressive, and the program's single-click tuneup options are real time-savers. Even with these useful tools, the program's big price tag makes it difficult to recommend for your average, everyday Vista user. Still, anyone looking for the full complement of system tools in a single package will be pleased with this utility's breadth and depth.
I started by using System Mechanic's one-click repair option, which reported that my Registry had 221 "problems." Since I had recently tuned up my test system, the high number of Registry orphans surprised me. The scan also pointed out 14 security vulnerabilities, multimegabytes of system clutter, and three unnecessary start-up items.
System Mechanic's one-click repair tool identified security, Registry, start-up, and other problems.
(Credit: Iolo Technologies)You get more granular control over the program's cleanup tools by choosing one of the Automated Tasks in the ActiveCare section. These include disk cleanup, Registry scrubbing, start-up optimization, disk defragging, and Internet-connection tweaks. I was particularly impressed with System Mechanic's disk defragger, which completed the defrag in just a few minutes and shows its progress in a multicolored graph.
You get plenty of feedback via the graph used by System Mechanic's disk defragmenter.
(Credit: Iolo Technologies)Browsing the tools and system information offered by System Mechanic made me wish Vista had the same fast and easy-to-use system tools. As helpful and informative as the program can be, its initial license--even with the $10 discount--and the subsequent $30-per-year fee make System Mechanic an extravagance for most PC users.
If you're a demanding aesthete who insists on stamping your imprimatur all over your computer's interface, TweakXPlorer might be just what you've been looking for. If you're looking for a serious Explorer performance-enhancing drug, you're probably going to want to look elsewhere.
(Credit:
Seth Rosenblatt/CNET Networks)
TweakXPlorer is a simple utility that lets you slap an image in Explorer's background, change font colors, and adjust background settings for the Explorer toolbar. Simple buttons with clean icons will help you navigate through the three main interface tabs.
There's TweakFolder for folder changes, TweakToolbar for toolbar adjustments, and TweakThumbnail to change thumbnail resolution and size. Importing an image into the toolbar automatically resizes it for the toolbar's rectangular dimensions, and the app makes use of sliders to avoid becoming visually stale.
It's portable, although the reasoning behind that decision is not exactly clear. Portable Firefox is something I understand, but for TweakXPlorer it just added several tedious steps before I could test it out.
You'll have to locate your images through the program's file browser, since drag and drop doesn't work here. Other than that, the biggest limitation the program faces is that it's kind of pointless beyond the skinning. If the visual customizations could be coupled with actual improvements for XP's Explorer, I'd be more willing to recommend the program enthusiastically.
UPDATED: There are 12 categories in WinSecret, not eight.
Novice users get a helping hand with this freeware tool for easily tweaking Windows. WinSecret's simple multimenu interface logically arranges the program's many tweaks into 12 categories. The Help file spends more time explaining installation than program operation, but the tweaks presented are organized better than in many similar applications.
Each of the categories includes tabs for general tweaks and extra tabs for tweaks that restrict functions and tools. Keeping the restrictions separate should forestall users from accidentally disabling needed functions. Most tweaks merely need a check to implement the item. The application lists the Windows default option for most tweaks, but does not show items that have been altered with TweakNow WinSecret. However, the application includes a fail-safe Restore Now function to undo any changes made with the application.
No tweak program does it all, but WinSecret is a good collection for novice to intermediate users. Most expert users will probably find that most of the included tweaks are long-standing adjustments that they either implemented or rejected.
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Mac OS X looks great and runs smoothly right out of the box. But if you wanted to make minor tweaks to the interface or automate specific maintenance tasks, in the past you had to know how to use the command line. Fortunately, some savvy developers have made it possible to perform once-difficult tasks through the use of an easy-to-understand interface. We have a couple of freshly-reviewed programs this week that make tweaks and useful maintenance tasks in Mac OS X much easier for the regular user.
Cocktail's Pilot feature lets you set up routine maintenance tasks.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Cocktail (Leopard or Tiger) is perfect for those who like to tinker with their Macs. With Cocktail you can help with routine maintenance and customization across your disks, system, files, network, and even your interface. You'll be able to perform other tasks, such as clearing out your cache for speedier computing and adjusting the appearance of your Dock and Finder. Cocktail's Pilot feature makes it possible to set up a schedule for regular maintenance, so you can rest assured your Mac is running at peak performance. One of the best things about the application is the extensive help manual, which will guide you through even the most complex of Cocktail's tasks. All this functionality isn't free ($14.95), but the 10-use trial lets you take a look at all the Cocktail has to offer.
Simply check the boxes and let OnyX do the dirty work.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Onyx (Leopard or Tiger) offers a set of tools similar to Cocktail's, with some minor differences. OnyX can help you with everything from checking S.M.A.R.T. status on your disks to configuring the Dock, Finder, Dashboard, and Expose. One of my favorite tweaks with OnyX is the ability to have an animated desktop background. You won't get the scheduled, routine maintenance that comes with Cocktail's Pilot feature, but you may be able to look past it, because, well, OnyX is free.
Even though Mac OS X is a great experience from its first launch, sometimes people like to get under the hood and make customizations of their own. Thankfully, there are programs like OnyX and Cocktail to keep the guesswork out of small tweaks and routine maintenance, making it possible for people like you and me to make tweaks of our own.
When a new program asks you if you'd like to create a system restore point before you finish installing it, there's only one reasonable conclusion: something bad could happen to the computer, the programmers know this, and so they're offering you a bit of Teflon for protection.
In TweakVI, the Windows Vista settings utility, it's a mighty fine idea to take the advice and create the restore point. It's not that the program hosed my computer when I installed it, but it's definitely a buggy program and the current version, at least, should be avoided for now.
There's no shortage of options in TweakVI.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The installation itself raised the most red flags out of anything I did with it. Twice it froze on me during two different installation cycles, only to unfreeze nearly five minutes later. Since I regularly install and uninstall programs, and haven't encountered that quirk with any other applications, I'm fairly confident that it's a TweakVI bug.
There's also a nag screen, and the well-designed main window opens a new window for whichever options you decide to explore. Both windows look good and are easy to use, but given the light volume of content in the main window this secondary one just seems gratuitous and time-consuming. Other bugs include: not saving some settings after a reboot and failing to revert other settings to default after uninstalling. If you do test TweakVI, test with caution.
TweakVI has a unnecessarily complicated and somewhat buggy installation process.
(Credit: CNET Networks)All of which is a shame, because the utility offers some great desktop enhancements. There's lightweight fare such as removing the arrows on shortcut icons and helpful tweaks like taskbar reboot/standby/shutdown buttons colored to resemble traffic lights. There is also plenty to appeal to power users, with tweaks for serious power management and system behavior changes that can for example, adjust your CPU cache.
There's also a paid version, which kills the nag screen and offers users more features such as RAM optimization. TweakVI has the potential to be a fantastic Vista tool, but only those dying of curiosity--or those wanting to flirt with headaches--should give this program a try.
There's no doubt that the freeware Tweak UI is a tool designed for people comfortable and confident with mucking about in the guts of their Windows XP installation. If that's not you, we strongly caution against using this program capriciously.
However, if you're the kind of person who likes to get your hands dirty with XP, read on. Tweak UI can alter most of the routine behaviors of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, but it also can affect some of the more advanced ones, too. The basic interface belies the features, from customizing the Alt-Tab program switcher to removing the white arrow that appears on shortcut icons, from killing the autoplay feature for specific drives to configuring file and print sharing settings. Tweak UI is a must-have.
So you've been having fun with Facebook's somewhat half-baked chat service for the last day now, but are you growing tired of having to first log-in, then pop-out the chat window? For those of you who want to chat without this two-step process, there's a nice little tweak discovered by Mozilla Links that lets you set Facebook chat to pop out in Firefox's side bar.
I'm not really a fan of sidebar driven applications (gDocsBar not included), but this implementation works out pretty well. It will load up your buddy list and work just like the pop-out version does--minus of course the actual pop-up.
I'm still waiting for Facebook to add away and invisible modes, and allow other chat applications, such as Pidgin, Meebo, and Trillian, to integrate it. In the meantime, this tweak makes it a little more bearable.
[via DownloadSquad]
Chat with your friends in Facebook without having to be on the page using a simple feature in Firefox.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
Who doesn't love to right-click, especially when browsing the Web? Whether saving images we like to our local drives, copying HTML links to send to friends, or scanning downloaded files for viruses, the right-click has become an essential part of most users' computing lives.
Yet how many times have you right-clicked on a file in Windows and then painfully scoured a long list to find the only option you need; sometimes it's the only one you ever use. Wouldn't life be much simpler to have only the items you want in your right-click menu? Well, for Windows Explorer, it's mostly possible, and the free utility FileMenu Tools makes it rather simple.
The problem with right-click menus (or "context menus," for all you semantic sticklers) is that there's no one place to edit them, even for something as integral as Windows Explorer. Your "Send To" shortcuts are generally editable in your "Documents and Settings" directory, e.g. "C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\SendTo," but menu items for applications like WinRAR or your favorite FTP program are likely only accessible via your Windows Registry. Editing the Registry can be a hassle--and sometimes downright dangerous--for casual PC users.
FileMenu Tools changes that. Not only can you remove almost all of the right-click menu items that you never use, but the program also offers more than 20 valuable context-menu items that you can choose to include, as well as the ability to create your own. Find and replace for multiple documents and batch-file renaming are only a few of the very cool features that FileMenu Tools can add to your right-click menu. In fact, those new features are worth an article of their own, so for today, I'll only focus on paring down the Windows Explorer context menu to the items that I want to include.
The FileMenu Tools context-menu options include very cool features.
(Credit: CNET Networks)When you first start FileMenu Tools, your standard Windows context menu will grow rather than shrink. That's because FileMenu Tools adds all of its optional items such as "Shred Files," "Change Time," and "Copy Content" to your right-click menu, along with a few new dividers.
Have no fear. The first tab of the main FileMenu Tools interface, called Commands of FileMenu Tools, displays all of those new context-menu options with check boxes next to each. To get rid of them all, simply unselect the check boxes, and then hit the green check mark in the upper-left corner to apply your changes. As I mentioned, there are some very cool features in those commands, but that's a subject for another day.
Next, take a look at the "Send To... " menu tab of FileMenu Tools. These are the commands that are also stored in your Documents and Settings directory. Again, simply uncheck the options that you don't want in your right-click menu, then click the green check mark to apply those changes. If you change your mind before applying, the red X will cancel all your changes.
Adding your own item to the Send To... menu is a snap
(Credit: CNET Networks)It's also fairly easy to add a new program or location to the "Send To..." submenu. In my example, I've added Mozilla Firefox, because I often browse directories as well as open files with it. To add it to my "Send To..." items, I used Edit -> Add Command, selected the "New Command" that was created, and then hit Edit -> Properties to enter in the name (Mozilla Firefox) and the target (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox2\firefox.exe). Voila. Now I can send any directory, folder, or file that I want to my default browser.
The Commands of other applications tab is where you can trim the most.
(Credit: CNET Networks)The third tab of the main FileMenu Tools interface is likely the most useful. This area lets you remove (or add) commands from applications on your PC, such as compression programs, FTP software, and other utilities. Most programs, such as the aforementioned WinRAR, are good about making it easy to customize context-menu items from their own interface. However, others aren't so nice, and if you've got a lot you want to disable at once, FileMenu Tools makes it much easier than searching around through the "Advanced Options" of individual applications.
The Commands of other applications tab is divided into a variety of areas that you likely use with Windows Explorer, such as "All file types," "Drives," and "Directories." The most commonly used context menu is for "All file types," so let's take a look at that one. In my example, I had 12 different commands for various applications or Windows actions in my default right-click menu, but I really only use two--VirusScan (currently McAfee) and WinRAR. So I unselect the check boxes for the rest, click the green apply check mark, and my list is quickly truncated, as you can see from the image below.
Take a look at my context menus before and after FileMenu Tools.
(Credit: CNET Networks)Now, as far as I can tell, FileMenu Tools can't get rid of all of the default Windows right-click menu items, such as Copy, Rename, or the never-used (in my case) Create Shortcut. To remove some of those options, you will need to roll up your sleeves and get down and dirty in the Windows Registry. Also, reordering right-click menu elements is extremely limited; it's easy to change the order of FileMenu tools commands or those you create your own, but many existing Windows commands can't be reordered. For removing unnecessary third-party applications and customizing, however, FileMenu Tools provides a simple, easy, and free way to clear away some of the clutter.
As I mentioned earlier, I'll take a look soon at all of the functionality you can add to Windows Explorer with FileMenu Tools. Tell me what you think of the app or ask any questions you have about it in the comments.
You might not believe me, but preparing paella is more complicated than using TweakVista.
Among the many criticisms of Windows Vista, one that even Microsoft's own engineers should agree upon, is that it's not easy to access essential system information. Stardock's TweakVista unifies all the bits and pieces that you might want to change under one circus tent, but TweakVista's interface is no chaotic circus.
... Read more
(Credit:
CNET Networks)
No, that's not a typo. The software is spelled Pitaschio, and it's not the only odd bit of English you'll find in the freeware utility. Initially developed in Japanese by a programmer known as ARA, Pitaschio was only recently released in English.
Pitaschio lets you tweak Windows XP or Windows 2000 in a variety of different ways to eliminate certain annoying functions, add keyboard or mouse shortcuts, customize your windows, and perform other similar system tricks.
Once you download the tiny 55K software and run it, a small "Pi" icon will appear in your Windows taskbar. To access Pitaschio's features, right-click on the icon to bring up a contextual menu. The features are split up rather randomly, with separate selections for managing your open windows, defining mouse shortcuts, accessing mouse and keyboard statistics, and using the generic "Tools" and "Settings" menus. ... Read more
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