7plus for Windows

7plus adds numerous tweak options to Windows 7, Vista, and XP; however, 7plus differentiates itself from its competitors with an in-depth array of how-to videos and a couple of feature surprises. There are far too many tweaks to document here, but suffice to say that the drab interface houses five tabs of customizations: two for Windows Explorer, one for non-Explorer tweaks, and the ever-present Miscellaneous tab. Oh, and the kicker: the FTP tab. 7plus lets you upload files from Windows Explorer to your FTP site at the touch of a hot key, which is an unusual but very welcome addition.

7plus is mainly built around hot keys, and as such is a keyboard fanatics dream. You can set hot keys for opening text or image files in an editor of your choosing, opening files, creating new folders, copy folder paths with file names, and append files to the clipboard instead of replacing what's currently there. 7plus can create "fast folders," which are specific folder paths accessible from the center wheel mouse button or the open/save places field. Outside of Explorer, users get an array of mouse-button and hot key features, including one-click options for keeping windows on top, toggling wallpaper, or "slide windows" for keeping windows open but off-screen.

There are many more features in the utility, not the least of which is one aimed at XBox and XBox 360 players who have a joystick or gamepad connected. They can use those peripherals to control the mouse when not in full-screen mode. Replete with useful features, 7plus only has two drawbacks. One is that the comes with the hot keys bound to their functions, so you can change them. The other is that there is so much the program can do, a slightly more visual interface could help users parse through the text-only options. Note that several features are limited to Vista and 7, or just Windows 7 alone, but this is a lightweight utility that any Windows user should check out.