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Over the years, I've written much about changing your Windows world. Apparently,
Microsoft programmers also feel the need for change, so years ago they came up
with a free utility program called Power Toys. This little suite of programs contains
many useful programs, including Tweak UI, which lets you access many elements
of the user interface (UI) without the need to edit the registry. Power Toys is
technically not supported by Microsoft, but a new updated version appears shortly
after each version of Windows is released. The current one for Windows XP is located
here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp
After you download the Tweak UI program, you just double-click the .exe file
to run the wizard that installs the program. Note that you do need to be running
Windows XP Service Pack 1 for the Power Toys to install correctly.
After you install Tweak UI and run it you see tree view along the left side
of the dialog box. The tree has expandable sections with that let you change
options relating to Windows Explorer, the Taskbar, My Computer, dialog boxes,
and other things. For example, under General, I clicked to remove the check
mark next to Beep on Errors. My hope is that this means the computer will be
silent, even if I do something it doesn't like. It's a small change, but I really
hate those startling beeps!
Before you go nuts making changes, remember that TweakUI is "unsupported"
software. What that means to you and me is that Microsoft takes no responsibility
if it goofs up your computer. So be careful and only change one or two options
at a time. If something goes wrong, change it back.
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