The-Online-Quest: Top 7 Tweaking Tools for Windows Vista

Looking for tools to get the most out of Windows Vista? Here are a few useful utilities to tweak up Windows Vista.

1. VistaTweaker - VistaTweaker is, as its name says, a reliable, smart and yet easy-to-use Windows Vista tweaking tool. The interface is nice and simple.Every tweak has its description so the user can see what each one does.Tweaks are organized into tabs, each tab is subdivided in sections by group boxes. This way it is easy to find the tweak the user is looking for.

2. XdN Tweaker - Tweaking program that supports Vista (and XP/Server 203). It doesn't have tons of tweaking options, but does focus on ones that most users may want to attend to. No installation required (but .NET is for XP/2003). Address areas with Vista UAC, Control Panel, Media Player, Right-Click context options, Files and Folder tweaks, File Associations, Start Menu, IE7, Outlook Express/Windows Mail, Misc. Tools, and System Settings. Pretty handy little utility.

3. Windows Sidebar - Allows some easy fine-tuning of the Windows Sidebar and provides extensions to the Windows Sidebar in Vista. Supports custom styles for resizing and customizing how it integrates with other elements. Still being refined but looks pretty handy.

4. EasyBCD - Hard-core NeoSmart tool that is definitely NOT for "average" Vista users. Allows advanced Vista users/tweakers to set up, configure, and tweak the Windows Vista bootloader.

5. TweakUAC - This utility allows folks running under an Administrator-level profile to easily turn off UAC (User Account Control), turn it back on, or keep it running, but suppress the UAC elevation prompt requests.

6. Tweak VI from Totalidea - The basic version is free and additional feature "plugins" can be purchased. It's a nice business model. The Basic version allows you to tweak desktop items, Start menu items, IE, Firefox, hardware settings, system info, virtual desktops, subsystem folders, mousing, and shutdown options.

7. Vispa - This tweak-tool uses a non-install executable and is a bare-bones Vista utility. Run it and you get a long list of check boxes organized by subjects. To apply a setting, activate the check box. Pro: simple interface. Con: simple interface. So unless you already know and understand the consequence of your choice, this might not be a utility for Vista noobies.

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