SHCC WYSIWYG Article from October 2000

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This article was written by Jack Vander-Schrier for his monthly column, "Jack's Place".  This article appeared in the October 2000 WYSIWYG newsletter.

TweakUI

by Jack Vander-Schrier

The topic for this month's column is a program called TweakUI. It is for Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98 or Windows 95. This program can be downloaded for free at http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.as. The reason you want to download this program is that it allows you to make several changes to your system. These will help you adjust your menu speed, window animation and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

After downloading the program into a folder such as c:\tweakui, click on start and then run, and type "c:\tweakui\tweakui.exe". This is a self extracting exe file. Make sure you extract it to c:\tweakui. Then open up my computer and look for your Tweakui folder in your C drive. When you find a file called tweakui.inf do a right click on this file and click on install. Once the system is installed, go to your start button, then settings, then control panel. You will see a new box there called Tweakui. Open this box and start checking out the changes you can make. You will be able to make changes to your Desktop, My Computer, Control Panel, Logon, the New menu, Add/Remove programs you can't get rid of, Repair, Open files, Mouse speed and double clicks, Windows explorer, and Internet Explorer.

There are several changes that are must changes, at least for me.

In the IE section you can clear all documents, runs, and typed URLS and history upon exit. It will also put your Control Panel into your start Menu. Do you have programs on your Add/Remove list that you know are gone but they are still listed? Click on Add/Remove and they will be gone for good. There are extensive repair facilities in case you mess up things like file associations and the like. If you go to the Paranoia section you can turn on the Faultlog which will keep track of any Windows faults, so that you will be able to describe the problem to a technician. You can also clear any or all of your history files upon closing down your computer. If you click on Desktop you will be able to eliminate those pesky folders on your main screen that you might never use, such as Network Neighborhood.

Do you have novices using your machine and don't want them to mess around with your control panel? Go into Control Panel and hide all the scary stuff like ODBC Panels, or Power Management. If you use the Windows password, click on logon and the program will log you in automatically when your computer starts.

This program is probably the best program for tweaking your windows settings.

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