If you're running the
Windows 7 RC, chances are good that you're the kind of user that likes to monkey around with settings and tweak your OS. While you can go the DIY route and hack your registry and run your mouse ragged clicking through various control panel screens, there are a number of good, free apps available designed to simplify tweaking.
Pro tip: if you run one of these apps, use their built-in checkpoint creator before committing changes or create a system restore point yourself - just in case something goes awry.
Here are five - go ahead and add your picks in the comments if you don't see your favorite listed!
EnhanceMySe7en (pictured above) - One strike against EM7 is that you must install it. On the plus side, it's 32 and 64-bit (native). On the minus side, it uses 65Mb memory when running. On the plus side, it comes with a free frogurt!
Joking aside, EM7 is absolutely packed with options. Apart from tweaks covering every nook and cranny in Windows 7, the program also includes CCleaner-like registry and disk cleaning tools, a shortcut creator, fast access to many built-in Windows utilities, and much, much more. It's a beast.
Little Tweaker - Lightweight, portable, and focused on common adjustments, Little Tweaker is a good option for those of you who want an uncomplicated way to manipulate the context menu, disk space warnings, and the like. it failed to run on x64, telling me that I needed to have Windows 7 Ultimate installed (which I do).
Ultimate Windows Tweaker [
post] - It's impressive what the crew at WinVistaClub is able to cram into less than 200Kb. Ultimate was built for Vista, but it works just fine with Windows 7 as well. Loads of options cover everything from accounts and UAC to the taskbar and start menu and beyond. UWT is totally portable.
XDN Tweaker [
post] - This one falls somewhere in between Little Tweaker and Ultimate. It's a good choice for the average user - not quite the overwhelming number of choices of EM7 or Ultimate, but more than just basic interface tweaks. XDn is available as both a portable and installable app.
Windows 7 Manager - As the name implies, this one boasts non-tweaking features as well. System cleanup, privacy tools, process monitoring, an uninstaller, a duplicate file finder, and a handy repair center are all included. On the tweaking side, everything from UI customization to network and IE settings is easy to monkey with. This one's available in 32 and 64-bit flavors as an installer only.
TweakNow Power Pack 2009 - Like EM7, TweakNow is much more than a tweaking tool. It also sports registry cleaning and tuning tools, a disk usage analyzer, history cleaner, startup manager, and more. The interface is well-organized, and if you can't find a setting you want to tweak with PowerPack it might not exist.
TweakNow is install-only, but it's worth doing for the additional built-in utilities (if you need them, of course). One big gripe: once I heard my fan spin up to tornado speed, I called up task manager. 48% CPU use. Ouch!
by Lee Mathews May 29th 2009 at 12:00PM
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So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Cosmin said 12:33PM on 5-29-2009
I've tried EnhanceMySe7en (on Windows 7RC x64). it installs fine, searches for what ever you ask, but when its time to clean.. just hung. (had to kill the process).
XdN Tweaker is not as complex, but works well
Reply
superhobo said 1:09PM on 5-29-2009
Pfft. Might as well have titled it "7 utilities for Windows noobs"
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Lee Mathews said 1:09PM on 5-29-2009
Right...Because clearly, no one except a person with zero experience wants a tweaking app. Like all the WinVistaClub users that run Ultimate...?
iGate said 8:15PM on 5-29-2009
don't wory, Lee. just excuse his behavior, after all he is a "super-hobo"
superhobo said 6:21AM on 5-30-2009
Gah, okay, it was a stupid comment.
AlbinoAsianDude said 9:51AM on 5-30-2009
hmm ... had a bit of problem with enhancemyse7en.
After applying a few tweaks "my computer" doesn't work properly.
1) The "my computer" link has dissapeared from the start meny
2) When I open my computer from the desktop I get no drives showing up
3) My computer has is no longer in the left pane of explorer (libraries and network etc are still there)
I made a system restore point before I made the changes,
then when I tried to restore it back, it says there were no points available ...
Thats wierd coz I've made 3 restore points over the last 3 days as I've been changin stuff
Any clues how to get it back?
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gunslingerz7 said 1:09AM on 7-04-2009
hey dude if u can uninstall tweek and reboot ur sys then reinstall tweek.if ur crashed totally when u reinstall ur os reinstall tweek too gunslingerz7@yahoo.com
HHUK said 5:27PM on 5-30-2009
I've had the same problem as AlbinoAsianDude, most of the EnhanceMySe7en tweaks cause some kind of upset.
Plus it seems to freeze quite often, I'll be giving it a miss and using a more lightweight tool.
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AlbinoAsianDude said 12:52AM on 5-31-2009
yes I would recommend people steer clear of EnhanceMySe7en it did more harm than good.
It made my shutdown button disappear, as well locked me from editing my start menu. And all other random changes.
Thankfully most of them were fixed by using XDN Tweaker or Ultimate Windows Tweaker. I had no problem with those two apps. Little Tweaker works great too.
There's still some things I haven't been able to fix because of EnhanceMySe7en like the "My computer" issue
volkan said 6:01PM on 5-31-2009
What's with the link to the youtube video for Little Tweaker? Grape Lady Fails? Was that intentional?
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deeromper said 12:42PM on 6-01-2009
can any one tell me why or how I can play pinochle on yahoo.games , it does just finr until the tables for the game starts ?
Reply
VoiD said 10:54AM on 7-05-2009
there are 6 tweakers (not 7) :)
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