TweakUI XP 2.10

Out of all the operating systems that the Redmond-based software giant Microsoft released, and I still recall Windows 98 SE with fondness, Windows XP has proven to be on top in terms of popularity. It was a properly good OS (operating system) when it was released, and with Vista being a huge flop, people felt there was no need to move on and stuck with XP. Tweak UI is a free software tool that comes to complement the Windows XP OS by letting the user by letting him play with the inner workings of the OS.

Tweak UI does something that many XP users will love: it provides a simple to use graphical user interface where numerous OS customization options are put together. These are all options you could access yourself, but in order to do so you would have to access and edit the Windows registry – and that’s a real bother, especially when you have something like Tweak UI. Just download it, free of charge, and seamlessly customize your Windows-based operating system.

A word of warning for the inexperienced user: if you do not feel confident enough to play with the Windows registry, then pay extra attention to how you use Tweak UI. Because that is what it does; it modifies the registry from a handy graphic UI. Open your eyes real wide and don’t click anything unless you really want to apply that change. It won’t cause your system to crash, as most changes are visual, but still, you wouldn’t want to end up with a Windows OS that you don’t even want to look at.

And yet another word of warning that applies to experienced user as well as novice users. Tweak UI comes part of the PowerToys set of programs developed by Microsoft. Even though the programs are developed by the same team that came up with the Windows operating system you are currently running, they did not test them as rigorously as the OS. Consequently Microsoft does not provide technical support for Tweak UI or any of the other programs that PowerToys encompasses.

As long as you understand these risks, then by all means use Tweak UI to customize your OS. You will pleasantly find out that you can change things you thought could never be modified - but then again you will also find it prefroms some very basic tweaks. The UI of Tweak UI (the pun is intentional) comes with a tree-like structure that presents all the elements you can modify: mouse, explorer, common dialogs, taskbar and start menu, logon, and many others. So that you don’t modify something that you don’t want to, a detailed explanation for each element is provided.

Pros
Comes free of charge
Numerous customization options
Simple to understand and use
Tips feature

Cons
No “Undo” button
No tech support

TweakUI XP has been reviewed by George Norman on 16 Sep 2009. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated TweakUI XP 5 out of 5 stars, naming it Essential