X-Setup Pro can be installed or used as a portable edition. Both programs provide the same functionality and are linked to from the homepage.

The program starts with a welcome screen that can be used to launch the tweaker, restore changes that have been previously made or use the seek and tweak option to make changes directly to the system.

x-setup pro

The welcome window links to additional helper applications and Window system tools as well. Selecting Classic or Classic in User Mode will launch the actual tweaking window (the first shows all settings that can be modified while the second only those that affect the current user).

X-Setup Pro uses a plugin based system. All available plugins are loaded on startup and displayed in the left column sorted into categories like Network, Internet or Common Annoyances. Selecting one of the options usually displays multiple subcategories or entries that can be used to manipulate system settings.

The appearance category for instance displays multiple subcategories including notification area, explorer or desktop which either show subcategories on their own or the items that can be changed.

windows tweaker

Each item is displayed in the right half of the window. The top contains the items that can be changed while the lower half information about the functionality of the item. Making changes to the checkboxes provided and selecting Apply Changes – or pressing F9 – will make the change to the system.

Users looking for a specific item can use the search form provided at the top of the screen. Another user or computer registry can be loaded into the program to manipulate settings for other user accounts or PCs.

Users can change way over 1900 different settings of the Windows operating system with this tool.

The sheer number of categories and settings can be confusing at times, especially for inexperienced users. Another downside of using X-Setup Pro is that it will not be developed any further and that the developers will not provide program support anymore.

The program is on the other hand a comprehensive Windows tweaker.

In this article I will show you how to install Ubuntu Tweak and how easy it is to tweak your Ubuntu desktop to your hearts content.

Installation

You might be tempted to install the version included in Synaptic. Be warned, that version is older than the latest stable version on the web site. I highly recommend you download the latest version and install from that. Just click the Download button on the front page, which will open up the GDebi installation tool. Okay that installation, enter your password, and Ubuntu Tweak will install. Simple as that.

Of course, if you prefer, you can add the repos to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. Before you do this add the repository key with the command: sudo apt-key adv –recv-keys –keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com FE85409EEAB40ECCB65740816AF0E1940624A220 and then add the repo with the command sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa. Once you have done that enter the following commands:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

You are now ready to start tweaking.

Features

Ubuntu Tweak offers the following features:

• Basic System Information(Distribution, Kernel, CPU, Memory, etc.)
• GNOME Session Control
• Easy addition of Auto Start Programs
• Quick installation of popular applications
• Third-party sources for keeping applications up-to-date
• Package and cache clean up (to free disk space)
• Show/Hide/Edit Splash screen
• Show/Hide desktop icons or Mounted Volumes
• Show/Hide/Rename Computer, Home, Trash or Network icon
• Tweak Metacity Window Manager’s style and behaviour
• Compiz Fusion settings
• Screen Edge Settings
• Window Effect Settings
• Menu Effect Settings
• Quicker access your favourite applications
• GNOME Panel Settings
• Nautilus Settings
• Advanced Power Management Settings
• System Security Settings
• And other tweaks in the works!

That’s quite a number of tweaks. Now let’s take a look at how the tweaks are handled.

Usage

Figure 1

When you fire up Ubuntu Tweak you will be treated to a nice, simple user interface (see Figure 1).  If you don’t want to be treated to the Welcome screen every time you open the tool, you can click on Preferences and select which “tweak” you would like to set as your “welcome” window.

Ubuntu Tweak is set up so that some configurations happen in real time (So when you click a check box or select from a drop down, the configuration is immediately applied), whereas some require the click on an

Figure 2

Apply button.  In Figure 2 I have the Nautilus Settings window open. This was a good configuration to illustrate some options that aren’t easy to find. Here you can see the ability to open Nautilus with root privileges. Not something you would want to use carelessly (or in an insecure setting), but it’s still a feature not easily found.  There is no actual configuration setting for this. In order to open Nautilus as the root user you would have to open it using the command sudo nautilus. Of course, I don’t really recommend setting this option as it can be a security risk (if the wrong person gets their fingers on your machine). This was just to illustrate what Ubuntu Tweak can do.

Final thoughts

Spend some time going through Ubuntu Tweak. You will find TONS of handy configurations that would take quite a bit longer to track down without this tool.

Each tab displays a huge list of settings and options that change a tremendous amount of things in Windows Vista. The Security tab alone for instance displays 33 check boxes which allow you to hide drives, hide or disable settings in Internet Explorer or disable the ability to write to flash and USB drives.

The options available are numerous and it can sometimes be confusing for novice users. It can be used to turn on and off Aero as well which has previously lead to some confusion. I would say users can access more than 100 options and settings that change the behavior of Windows Vista.

Some of the optimization that I made can be found in Klines articles as well. If you are new to Vista or just would like to read what others are doing to speed up Windows Vista it is definitely worth a read. I would not recommend some of the tips that he is giving but most make sense.

What I really recommend are the tips 2,6,7 and 8. Those are ‘Disable Aero’, ‘Get rid of the sidebar’, ‘Defender has a use?’ and ‘Tweak your services’. Why don’t you head right over and check it out.

Read More:

10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Windows Vista

If you are not using a program that needs the timestamp you can easily edit the registry key in vista to speed up your system. Hit Windows + R, type regedit and press enter.  Navigate to the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem

Right-click the key NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate and change the value of it to 1. While you are there you could also disable the creation of files in Dos format (8+3) by altering the value of the key NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation to 1 as well.

EasyBCD is a tool that is able to tweak the Vista bootloader. I only suggest you install and download the tool if you need to work with the bootloader because you have a multiboot environment for instance. Once installed you should start by creating either a system restore point or so called snapshots of various settings to be able to revoke changes that have been made.

The tool offers five different sections that contain information and tweaks, those are: System Information and Tweaks, Miscellaneous Tweaks, Visual Tweaks, Internet Tweaks and Utilities. If you click on one of the options all available options of that category are displayed. Some are not accessible in the free version and you receive information about subscribing to their service to be able to use them.

Each so called plugin opens a new page with many tweaks and information that can be accessed. If you click on Internet Explorer Tweaks for example a new window pops up with three tabs and more than one hundred settings combined.

I like Tweak Vi but it really needs some time before you have the needed overview. Beginners will have troubles with all the settings and options. There is no right-click help or explanation next to the settings. It is also highly confusing that you have to click on the X of a plugin window to be able to exit it and see the main window again.

This tips might also be useful to those users who use an old computer with Windows Vista. My Vista installation is using about 430 megabytes of Ram in default state with only one instance of Internet Explorer 7 running as well. The following paragraphs contain a list of changes that I made and their effect on the system.

• Disabling the Sidebar
• Changing the Design to Windows Classic
• Changing the Background image to one color
• Disabling the Windows Firewall and Bitdefender

Those changes alone dropped the ram usage by 60 megabytes to 370 with one Internet Explorer window open. There are many settings that can still be tweaked to gain even more performance, for instance removing unnecessary services and indexing. I will take a look at those in the coming days.

The question of course remains why you would like to change to Vista if you disable everything “new” that Vista offers. I personally think that it introduces lots of gimmicks that freeware on XP offered for years. And if it is security that you want you should take a look at Linux instead.