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PowerToys for Windows XP & TweakUI

Microsoft's overhaul of Windows may have given most people everything they need to personalize their computing experience, but what about those of us who want to delve deeper under the hood? PowerToys for Windows XP is a suite of separately offered tools that lets you do things like view images burned to a CD as a slide show and create a Web-ready slide show of your digital pictures. The useful Alt-Tab Replacement displays the icon of the application window you are switching to, as well as a preview of the page. This is particularly helpful when multiple windows of an application are open. You can also take pictures at specified time intervals from a Webcam connected to your computer and save them to a location that you designate.

Another tool, Tweak UI, gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default interface, including settings for the mouse, Explorer, the taskbar, and more. Other tools let you resize images with a right-click, manage four virtual desktops, and switch users without going through the log-on screen.

This suite also lets you magnify parts of the screen from the taskbar, and to open a command window (cmd.exe) by pointing to a selected folder. The Power Calculator can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform conversions.  For more information on all of the PowerToys check out the info on Microsoft's site.

Note: Microsoft has tested PowerToys for WinXP, but does not offer technical support on them.   Click here to download the PowerToys suite.

If you are not running Windows XP you can still get the TweakUI subset of tools.  With them you can adjust menu speed and window animation.  Move the StartUp folder up the Explorer hierachy, or move the My Documents folder to another drive.  If you get the "No Help topic is associated with this item" message when you access the help menu, Tweak UI may have answers. The tool set also offers quick fixes for adding and removing items to your right-click New menu.  And you may get a second chance at recovering lost uninstall options (but only if you've installed the program while the original uninstall list in Control Panel is intact).

Note: Because these tools are not part of Windows, they are not supported by Microsoft, and Microsoft's technical support team is unable to answer any questions about them.  To download Tweak UI v1.33 for Windows go to Microsoft's Download site.

Which Background Programs Can I Close?

All sorts of programs run in the background on your PC.  Closing unessential ones is sometimes a good idea, because doing so can increase your system's speed and can help keep software installations trouble-free.  Identifying which apps are essential and which are not takes some detective work, however.

Pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete in Windows 95, 98 and Me opens the Close Program dialog box, which lets you select an app and click End Task.  In Windows 2000 and XP, this key combination brings up the more complicated Task Manager (in Windows 2000, you also have to click the Task Manager button after you press Ctrl-Alt-Delete).  But fear not: You need to be concerned with only two of the Task Manager's tabs: Applications and Processes (see ).

Under the Applications tab of Win2k and WinXP it's easy to figure out what to close because most of the names are easy to recognize, such as Quicken and Microsoft Word.  Determining which processes you can safely stop is trickier. Click Processes to see a long list of open executable files.  When you select one and click End Process, you're warned that this may crash your system.  It probably won't, but save any open documents to disk before you try this just the same.

If you don't recognize a specific process listed in either Close Program or Task Manager, search your hard drive for the file name.  That should give you a clue as to which program launched the process.  Write the name down, and then click Cancel to exit Close Program. Select Start, Find, Files and Folders (in Windows 98), Start, Search, For Files and Folders (in Me and 2000), or Start, Search (in XP).

In Windows 98, enter the file's name in the Named field.  In Windows Me and 2000, type the name in the 'Search for files or folders named' field.  In Windows XP, enter the name in the field labeled 'All or part of a file name'.  Select Local hard drives from the 'Look in' drop-down menu.  Click Search Now, Find Now, or Search, and locate the file among those listed in the results pane to the right.

If that doesn't help identify the mystery process or application, try Paul Collins Pacman's Portal for one of the most exhaustive listings of programs that launch at Start-up.  The Greatis Startup Application Database is also an excellent resource for determining which of those Startup Programs are Necessary, those that are Useless, those that are Dangerous and those you can close at Your Option.

For other programs that could appear in Task Manager or the Close Program dialog try Task List Programs from AnswersThatWork.  I use this one a lot when troubleshooting computers.

Some common processes listed in the Task Manager's Processes tab under
Windows 2000 and XP follow.
Explorer.exe, LSASS.EXE, services.exe, system, and WINLOGON.EXE These necessary parts of Windows must keep running.
Iexplore.exe Ending this Internet Explorer executable file will cause all of your IE browser windows to close.
Taskmgr.exe This is the executable file for the Task Manager program itself.
Svchost.exe Often more than one copy of this host process for .dll files will be running. Though closing one of them probably would not cause any major harm, it could crash an application.
Msmsgs.exe If you don't use Microsoft Messenger (not to be confused with Windows Messenger), you can close this program without problems.
Spoolsv.exe This is your print spooler, so Windows probably won't let you close it, lest your printer starve for data.

 

Here are some of the programs that may mystify you when you bring up the
Windows 95/98/Me Close Program window.
Explorer and systray Keep these basic Windows components open at all times.
Rnaap This program loads when you use dial-up networking, and it stays in memory until you close Windows. Close it; Windows will reload it if necessary.
Ctfmon.exe Microsoft claims that closing this Office XP utility for voice recognition and other text-entry alternatives may make Office unstable. The program stops loading when you uninstall Office's Alternative User Input feature.

Need More PC Tweaks?

Booting faster is good, sure, but there are other ways to make your PC perform better.  Following is three of the best articles on how to pound your system into shape.

Writers Robert Luhn and Kirk Steers came up with "20 Tools for Trouble-Free Computing." Most valuable for me: "Diagnose PC Problems"; "Sort Your Files" (pay attention to PowerDesk 5.0); and "Classic Utilities: Tools That Have Passed the Test of Time," with Steve Gibson's must-have SpinRite 5.

Got BIOS problems? Get help from "Hardware Tips: Tweak Your PC's BIOS Settings the Safe Way." Here, Kirk goes through each part of the BIOS, explains what you see on screen, and recommends settings. Figure out how he got screen shots of the BIOS and you'll win a lunch with my boss. (Staff attorneys from Dewey, Chetum, and Howe insist I disclose that the previous sentence was a mere attempt at humor; it does not constitute a real contest.)

Finally, Lincoln Spector (yes, that's still his real name) has a really practical Answer Line item that answers the question, "What Do You Do When Windows Doesn't Boot?" But just as beneficial is "Crazy Error Messages," an item later in the column that explains what to do if you get an error when running ScanDisk.

     
  

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