BOOT CAMP 408 (24/01/06)

Tweak UI for XP, part 3

This week we are rounding off our short series on Tweak UI for XP, a handy free tool from Microsoft for configuring the parts of Windows that other controls cannot reach, or are not accessible without messing around with the Registry. For download and installation instructions and an overview of the other utilities that makes up the PowerToys suite -- of which Tweak UI is a part -- suite refer back to Boot Camps 406 and 407.

We’ve been working our way down the list of items that appear in the left hand pane of the Tweak UI window and the next stop is Common Dialogues. These are the familiar Save, Open, Save As etc. boxes used by most Windows applications, for navigating your way around the folders and files on your PC. This two-part menu opens with three ‘switches’ for ‘Auto Complete’, ‘Previously used file names’ and ‘Show/Hide back button’.  They are all set to ‘On’ by default and I see no reason to change them but some users are irritated by the way Windows tries to guess what you are typing in file and name boxes, in which case deselect the first two check boxes. The second item is Places Bar and this selects the folders that are displayed down the left hand side of Open/Save dialogue boxes. The options are the default list (My Computer My Documents and so on); you can Hide the list (my preference), or create your own custom list of folders.

If you want to get rid of those annoying ‘Balloon Tips’ that pop up whenever Windows thinks you need a helping hand then pay a visit to the Taskbar and Start Menu. This can be a real pain and should definitely be switched off, unless you are a complete novice. The right hand pane also has check boxes to hide your name on the Start menu, hide the System Tray icons (they’re the ones next to the clock) and disable the Low Disc Space warning message. In my view hiding System Tray icons is not a good idea. I like to know what’s going on and these icons represent programs that start automatically with Windows. Right-clicking on them usually brings up a Context Menu with control and configuration settings. There are also two sub menus in this section. The first is for Grouping taskbar icons, to prevent clutter when you have a lot of open applications and the second one decides which icons are displayed in the ‘Most frequently used’ list on the Start menu. I prefer to leave Grouping switched off as a taskbar full of icons serves as a useful reminder that I may have too many running applications, which slow the PC down and increase the likelihood of a freeze or crash.

The next heading is Desktop and this is for selecting which of the default Windows application icons are displayed on your desktop (Internet Explorer, My Computer, My Documents etc.), and whether My Computer or My Documents is the first item shown.

Below that is a similar set of options for deciding the contents of the My Computer folder and that’s followed by two sub-menus for choosing which icons are listed in Control Panel and setting application templates, when you click New on the File menu in Windows Explorer or My Computer. I am happy to live with the defaults but there’s no harm in having a fiddle and as with all Tweak UI settings changes are easily undone. 

The Internet Explorer menu opens with two check boxes for auto-correcting backslashes to forward slashes when entering web addresses -- it doesn’t sound like much but it’s an easy mistake to make and correcting typed entries can be time consuming, so if you use IE switch this one on. Including a Path Search in the Address Bar makes it easier to search files on your PC from Internet Explorer. Next on the list is an option that lets you set custom backgrounds for IE and the IE toolbar, set up an Address Bar search using a specific Search Engine, change the program used to view the source code in web pages, change the animated ‘busy’ icons and set the size of images displayed on the Image toolbar. Since I rarely use IE I haven’t bothered to change any of these settings but they are there if you need them.

Command Prompt is a fairly specialised set of controls for those who are familiar with the DOS type command line interface that appears when you type ‘cmd’ in Run on the Start menu. From here you can change the actions of the default characters used in commands and switches. Unless you know your way around the Command Prompt it’s probably best to leave these settings alone.

Finally we come to Logon and this is another area that most users probably won’t need to visit very often as most of the settings are geared towards system and network administrators. They include deciding whether or not the Remote Access Server (RAS) connection is closed when a user logs off, switching off the Autoexec.bat commands which are normally run at logon, check boxes to show or hide Administrator and user name accounts at logon and show or hide the user name on the Welcome screen. The Access Control sub menu contains a list of options that can be locked or restricted, such as File and Print Sharing, remote Registry Access, file and Print statistics and Performance Counters. The very last item is Repair and this is a list of commonly used folders and icons that can become corrupted or disorganised, with the option to reset the selected item to its default state.

NEXT WEEK - Upgrading your PC’s memory

JARGON FILTER

BALLOON TIPS

Small windows that automatically open, describing a particular item or feature when you hover or click on it with the mouse pointer

PATH

The location of a file or program on a hard disc, e.g. C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Winword.exe

SOURCE CODE

Hidden commands and instructions used to design and layout web pages

TOP TIP

In Part two (Boot Camp 407) we briefly mentioned that the first item on the Tweak UI menu contained more than 30 useful Windows XP Tips. Some of them you probably know but there are some real gems that you may not have come across before, like how to save a file with an extension other than the one a program wants to use, and how to quickly arrange two windows side by side. To save you the bother of searching through the Tweak UI Tips there is a complete list on the Coding Horror web site.  

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© R. Maybury 2006, 1101

Part 1, 2