I remember the first time I downloaded TweakUI for Windows 95 twelve years ago. Ok, I don’t really remember much about it, but I do remember being all giddy and excited to be able to tweak lots of little system configurations via a simple, all-in-one-place utility. Tweak toys generally don’t enable users to do anything they couldn’t already do, via some type of registry or config file editing, but a good power toy utility brings lots of customization options into one easy-to-use GUI interface. Essentially, a good operating system tweak utility brings geekiness to the masses.

Luckily, all major operating systems have some version of TweakUI available to them and I thought I would list the ones I’m aware of. Feel free to let us know of any I’ve missed. All the ones I’ve listed are free, or have a free version available.

Linux (Ubuntu and Fedora):

Ubuntu-Tweak (with versions for either Ubuntu or Fedora) has the following features:

• View of Basic System Information(Distribution, Kernel, CPU, Memory, etc.)
• GNOME Session Control
• Auto Start Program Control
• Show/Hide and Change Splash screen
• Show/Hide desktop icons or Mounted Volumes
• Show/Hide/Rename Computer, Home, Trash icon or Network icon
• Tweak Metacity Window Manager’s Style and Behavior
• Compiz Fusion settings, Screen Edge Settings, Window Effects Settings, Menu Effect Settings
• GNOME Panel Settings
• Nautilus Settings
• Advanced Power Management Settings
• System Security Settings

Mac OS X:

TinkerTool is an app that lets you access to additional preference settings in Apple’s Mac OS X, activating hidden features in both the OS and in some of the applications as well. Check the link for a full list of features, but here are a few:

• Finder options and animation effections
• Dock options
• Screenshot options
• Application crash options
• iTunes options
• Font options
• Startup options
• Safari options

Windows XP:

PowerToys is the upgraded version of the original TweakUI, which now includes TweakUI as just one component of many within the entire PowerToys set of utilities. In addition to the TweakUI interface (which lets you tweak mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings and more), PowerToys also includes:

• Color Control Panel Applet
• SyncToy
• Raw Image Thumbnailer and Viewer
• ClearType Tuner
• HTML Slideshow Wizard
• Open Command Window Here
• Alt-Tab Replacement
• Power Calculator
• Image Resizer
• CD Slideshow Generator
• Virtual Desktop Manager
• Taskbar Magnifier
• Webcam Timershot

Some of these toys are really excellent additions, and if you are still running XP, you should check out the details in the link above.

Windows Vista:

Microsoft hasn’t released any official Powertoys for Vista, but that hasn’t stopped others from releasing their own versions of TweakUI for Vista. Here are two.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker offers over 130 tweaks in seven different categories including:

• Personalization
• User Accounts & UAC
• System & Performance
• Security
• Internet Explorer (IE7 / IE8)
• Network Optimization

You can see the details of each of the tweaks available on the detail page here.

TweakVI for Vista comes in several versions, but the basic version is free and includes hundreds of tweaks. It contains the following features:

• Desktop tweaks
• Start menu tweaks
• Internet Explorer tweaks
• Firefox tweaks
• Hardware tweaks
• System Information
• Virtual desktops
• System folder tweaks
• Mouse tweaks
• Outlook tweaks
• Shutdown shortcuts

If you’re a tweak geek, or even a wanna-be, there’s likely a power toy / tweak utility available for your operating system. Tweak on!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.