It displays the following categories that all have several entries that can be tweaked: General, Services, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, Usability and Delete Files. The general and servies categories seem to be the most interesting ones. You can disable automatic windows updates, time synchronization and services like this there.

I don’t want to go over all of the dozens of settings that can be changed but want to point out some deficits of the software. The current version is not designed for beginners unfortunately. There is no online help and no balloon tip explaining what a setting does which means that you either have to know what you are doing or research the setting on the Internet before you change it.

There are however a few things that I like as well. It is a lightweight program not using lots of system resources and not that bloated like other Vista tweaking tools that I tested. I recommend Vispa to anyone who wants to change several settings in a short time.

A great feature of xpy is that it is able to check the settings of similar tools like xp-antispy and display them in xpy. You can control the settings of both tools without the fear to disable a feature you changed already. The open source software xpy allows you to make changes to seven different categories like services, usability and delete files.

Some of the most useful changes are the following:

General: Disable Error Reporting, Disable Remote Assistance, Enable Fast Shutdown

Services: Disable Automatic Windows Updates, Disable Messenger Service, Disable Firewall / Connection Sharing

Windows Messenger: Remove Messenger from Outlook, Uninstall Windows Messenger

Usability: Disable Balloon Tips, Disable Thumbnail Caching,