The utilities listed below are some of my favorite tools for making
Windows do what you want it to. Want to speed up boot time?
How about backing up those pesky DUN connections? Maybe, just maybe,
you want to change the appearance of the system clock. Check back
often if this is your cuppa tea. There are always new and
interesting things to make a PC bend to your will!
Optimizes the Windows XP boot process, which is already
pretty fast - who ever heard of a PC booting to a useable screen in 30
to 45 seconds? Folks, that is fast. Bootvis can make it even
faster.
Very nifty tool. Corrects a few bugs in the
Internet Explorer cache and makes it work the way that it should.
Read more about it at the
author's homepage.
From
PCWorld.com, this isn't the most user-friendly tool in the world,
but to my knowledge is one of very few that will allow you to modify the
context (right-click) menus in Windows with any ease. If you are
seeing options when you right-click on something that you never use,
this will allow you to get rid of them - among the many other tricks it
performs.
Backs up your dial-up networking connections. You
can opt to save modem information along with it. Slick!
Sadly, it looks as though the author's homepage is down for the count,
but should it come back to life, I will post a link here.
Official Microsoft Download (You must uninstall the older versions
first!!)
The latest and greatest powertoys for Windows XP. The top link
here is the first version of the Power Toys, which has since been
modified. The Microsoft download site allows you to pick only the
ones that you want - and I make no guarantees as to my site's
availability. [grin]
The original Microsoft tweaking utility for Windows.
Still reliable, and still pretty doggone good. This is a
self-extracting ZIP file; extract the four files where you can find them
and right-click on the INF file to install.
The smallest, most efficient and bug-free tool I have
ever used. The Windows clock the way it should be. It looks
strange in XP, but it works. This is NOT the skinnable geek toy
TClock!!
Here are the basic settings that I use - feel free to copy and paste
them into TClockEx:
Clock Format
dddd, MMMM d, yyyy ('Week' w)|h:mm:ss tt 'Free Memory:' R 'MB'
Tooltip Format
'Today is day #'D' of 'yyyy'. Memory load:' L'%'
This is what TweakUI always longed to be when it grew
up. Every setting you can think of in Windows - if you can change
it, X-Setup can do it. X=Setup has a ton of options, but can be a
bit daunting. Still - if you want a utility that works with all versions
of Windows and can change settings that aren't easily accessible (read:
annoying things) this is the ultimate tool.
This download will create a useful bootable floppy disk
when run. It enables CD-ROM support so you can install Windows
again, and leaves out the RAMDRIVE and all the crap that is on the one
WIndows 98 creates. Windows XP will also create startup disks, but
they will not allow you access to your CD-ROM drive.