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.

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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.

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Applying the 'Windows Classic' visual style to the Windows XP Classic logon screen

WARNING: This tip requires editing of Windows XP registry.

To open the Registry Editor in Windows XP:

Start > Run > type "regedit" - without the quotes.

Navigate to the following keys, make the relevant changes and restart your system.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ThemeManager

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ThemeManager

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ThemeManager

The key is called ThemeActive, and by default it's value is 1. To apply the 'Windows Classic' visual style at the logon screen, all you need to do is change this value to 0 so NO visual style is applied to the logon screen.

OR

Alternatively, you can use TweakUI.

To change the logon visual style to 'Windows Classic' in TweakUI:

Open TweakUI.

Logon > Settings.

Check all the checkboxes and click 'Copy Now'.

You're done.

Download the Windows Classic Theme (Windows XP)

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Optimize your BSNL DataOne Broadband connection

As with anything related to computers, your Internet connection too can be tweak to get that extra bit of speed that can enhance your broadband experience.

SG TCP Optimizer is a useful program to tweak TCP and IP related parameters in Windows Registry to speed up Internet speed.

No matter what type of Internet connection you have, whether it’s cable modem connection, DSL connection, lease line or dial up connection (28.8/56k), this program will improve your connection performance after the tweaking.

It takes into account all related RFCs, the Microsoft TCP/IP implementation oddities, verifies all Registry locations for the same TCP/IP parameters (ICS Sharing, AOL protocol MTU, etc) and only adds the necessary Registry parameters during tweaking process.

It does support Windows 9x, ME, 2000, XP, XP SP2 and 2003. Most likely you can find it to support Vista soon.

Download Page:
http://www.speedguide.net/downloads.php
Direct Link:
http://www.speedguide.net/files/TCPOptimizer.exe

Before you use the program, you need to find out your connection speed. Use the SG Speed Test to find your true connection speed. Please use the closet mirror to your location to do the test; this will ensure that you will get optimum results in the end.

The test should give you 2 figures in it's test results: Download speed and Upload speed, both in Kbps. As a thumb rule, your connection speed is the closet Kbps/Mbps of the download speed.

For eg: In the above screenshot, the download speed is 359 Kbps. So in SG TCP Optimizer we're going to select 256 Kbps as our connection speed.

If your connection speed is in Mbps, then just multiply 1000 to the figure you get from the download speed test results to make it as Kbps. For example, 1 Mbps is 1000 Kbps and 3 Mbps is 3000 Kbps.

Now that we know our connection speed, start SG TCP Optimizer and set the connection speed slider to that matches your connection speed.

Proceed to tick Modify All Network Adapters, and then select Optimal settings to tweak to optimal settings automatically. Finally click Apply changes.

Tick the Backup option to backup existing registry settings and click OK, after that reboot the computer.

Note: Before applying the changes, you can always go to File and select backup current settings, so that you can have options to restore backup settings or Restore Windows Default settings later.

Thats it. You're done.

Note: If you don’t feel satisfied about the result by using Optimal settings, you can always select custom settings to do manual tweaking. Read this TCP Optimizer Help to understand more about TCP/IP settings and other program features you can play with before doing manual tweaking.

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