Windows tweaking and other small tips

PC users are willing to do almost anything to optimize and get every bit of performance and speed enhancements from their system as that they can.

Tweaking is one of the most important functions that help to improve performance and speed, be it software tweaks or hardware tweaks. For the Windows OS, there are 2 such programs:

Tweak UI - a powertoy released by Microsoft.

X-Setup Pro - a professional registry tuning utility. It allows you to change over 2,000 settings that are normally hidden deeply in Windows fast and easily. There are many hidden settings in Windows as well as in a lot of other programs and normally you can't change them.

If you want to edit the registry manually, you should visit the Windows Registry Guide. The site is a database of settings and options for all current version of Microsoft Windows. It contains information and settings for all of the PC's hardware, software, users, and preferences. Whenever a user makes changes to the control panel settings, file associations, system policies, or installed software, the changes are reflected and stored in the registry. The site has over 2000 tweaks, a complete registry tutorial for beginners and links to relevant resources on the Internet.

A while back, when PC Tools were called WinGuides, they used to provide a free ebook called Windows Registry Guide. It was the most comprehensive guide to the Windows Registry and the best part was - it was searchable. Unfortunately when WinGuides became PC Tools, they discontinued the guide. If you want to download the guide, click here. Please note that this is not an up-to-date version, but has over 1000 tweaks, the complete registry tutorial for beginners and links to relevant resources on the Internet.

---

Copy text from any popup error message

Just drag select the text in the popup error message as you do any text and press Ctrl + C. The text will get copied to the clipboard.

Error deleting a file or folder

Use a program called Unlocker.

Unlocker is a Windows Explorer extension allowing you with a simple right-click on a file or folder to get rid of error message such as error deleting file or folder, cannot delete folder: it's being used by another person or program. Simply right-click the folder or file and select Unlocker. If the folder or file is locked, a window listing of lockers will appear. Select the lockers and click Unlock and you are done.

No To All when overwriting files

When overwriting files in the Windows Explorer, there is an option for Yes To All.
This would overwrite any files you would normally be prompted for.

To have No To All, simply hold down the Shift key while you click on the No option.

Share |