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One of the best ‘power toys’ that’s available for Windows XP is Microsoft’s TweakUI utility, which provides a user with a very wide range of ways in which they can customize XP so that it acts just the way they want.
It can even help deal with some of the XP issues that you might be having.
Tweak UI Main Screen
Clicking on each of the options in the sidebar on the left will open a number of options for that heading in the right hand pane. Most changes will take effect when you close the application, but some will require you to reboot your machine.
For example, if you don’t want to see the shortcut arrows overlaid on your desktop’s icons, click on ‘Explorer’ and ‘Shortcut’. Click the ‘None’ radio box, and you’ll never see the arrow again. This is one of the very first things that I change when start working on an XP machine.
You can also change the settings that determine which applications show up as ‘Frequently Used’ when you click on XP’s Start button. Applications that you never launch directly (ie, Acrobat Reader, which gets launched when you click on a PDF), can be removed from the list here if you wish.
Ever wondered what half the stuff in your Control Panel does, and why an application is there if you’re never going to use it? This is where you can toggle whether or not applications show up in the Control Panel. I’ll put up another post highlighting which apps are generally safe to remove in the near future, but this is one place where de-cluttering can really help.
Finally, if you’re tired of right clicking, selecting New, and getting a long list of options for new files to create for various applications, have a look at the rather shorter list that I’ve configured on my machine:
If you’re looking for a truly useful configuration tool for Windows XP, and one that’s free to boot, TweakUI is definitely worth a look.
Alas, Vista users don’t have the option of a free version (at least yet), but rest assured that one will probably be available before long.