We're big fans of little applications that let you tweak your Windows system settings without mucking around in the registry. Stardock's TweakVista has a pretty comprehensive set of registry hacks, but only some are available in the free version. And it's kind of nice to have a tiny file that works with no installation required.

While XdN Tweaker doesn't offer as many options as the free Vispa, XdN Tweaker weighs in at just 516KB. It supports Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Vista and has a handful of tweaks including:

• Enable or disable the User Account Control for different users
• Enable or disable right-click Windows Media Player context menus
• Restore the file menu in Internet Explorer 7
• Change the default number of folder views (personalized settings for how to view folders) that Windows remembers
• Add a "take ownership" option to Vista right-click menus that lets you change files that read "you need permission to perform this action."

As with any of these tweaking programs, it's possible to achieve most of the same results with a few registry hacks. But XdN Tweaker is a lot more user-friendly than the Windows registry. And more importantly, most of the hacks can be undone from within the program's interface.

[via gHacks]