Tag: TweakUI

Hide Drives In Windows XP and Vista

December 07, 2008 by Jason

Recently I received a comment from one of the reader asking how can he hide some specific drives on his computer hard disk so that no one can access that drive or partition.

It means like you want to hide specific partitions on your hard disk like C, D or E etc. This trick of hiding your drive is really useful when you have some private files on a particular drive which you don’t want others to see.

You can hide any of your drive in three different ways including you can easily hide your drives by using a free software called TweakUI, applying a registry hack to to hide drives and with simple commands through command prompt.

Let’s discuss all these three above mentioned methods to hide drives in windows.

Method 1: ( Easy Way ) Read More»

Posted in Windows Vista, Windows XP | 4 Comments »

A TweakUI for Vista

April 27, 2007 by Jason

TotalIdea’s TweakVI (free basic edition) makes up for the lack of a “TweakUI” for Vista.

TweakUI is a Microsoft “PowerToy” for Windows XP (not Vista). It allows you to change all kinds of settings for how the operating system works. See the “Hit Parade” below, to get an idea of the kinds of settings I’m talking about. (Note: Microsoft makes this tool available without any warranty or support. Use it at your own risk.)

Microsoft does not offer a TweakUI equivalent for Vista, but a company called TotalIdea comes to the rescue. Their TweakVI comes in three editions (basic, premium, and ultimate). The basic version is free and it is roughly the equivalent of TweakUI for XP. For XP users, TotalIdea also offers Tweak-XP Pro, which goes beyond what TweakUI can do. Tweak-XP Pro has a free trial that’s good for 30 executions. Perhaps the most interesting feature of Tweak-XP Pro are the cleanup functions (unnecessary registry entries and unnecessary files). Read More»

Posted in Software, Windows Vista | 2 Comments »

TweakUI for Vista (x64 too!)

February 26, 2007 by Jason

Many people online are wondering if Microsoft will be releasing a TweakUI for Windows Vista or not. While we cant answer that particular question, we can help get TweakUI running on Windows Vista – and suggest a decent, Vista-specific alternative along the way.

TweakUI is a popular system configuration utility made by Microsoft since late Windows 95, and it provides quick and easy access to configure certain features in Windows without resorting to reshacking, registry editing, or other more dangerous tactics. Its not the most brilliant piece of code ever created, but its a nifty tool to have. You can download it at these links for Windows XP/2k3 x64 and x86. Read More»

Posted in Windows Vista | 9 Comments »

Disk Swap to pc Performance

February 01, 2007 by Jason
  • Console-based OSs like DOS have only modest memory requirements. GUI-based operating systems like Windows needs lot of memory, much larger than the RAM that is usually installed on PCs. So, they use something called virtual memory. Here, a large file on the hard disk is used in conjunction with the RAM, which greatly expands the memory available to the OS. Only the data that is required at the given moment is loaded on the RAM; the rest is cached on the swap file. Just like any other file on a disk, the swap file can also get fragmented over time and OS might seem to slow down. To prevent the swap from breaking up, you can place it on a dedicated partition (just like in Linux). Set the size of this partition at about 2.5 times the size of your installed RAM and format it. Next, you need to make sure that the OS does not reserve space on this partition for deleted files because this partition is going to have only one file – the swap file. From the Recyle Bin context menu, choose Properties » Configure drives independently. Select the partition’s tab and select the Do not move files to the Recycle Bin. Remove files immediately when deleted option. Read More»

    • Posted in Computer, Hardware | 1 Comment »

    Hardware to pc performance

    January 31, 2007 by Jason

  • Choice of CPU: Because ordinary people do not know much about computers, they simply buy one that has an Intel processor. More discerning buyers get PCs with AMD processors. Benchmark tests by prominent computer magazines and websites have shown that AMD Athlon processors score over Intel Pentium processors. Unlike Intel CPUs, AMD processors natively support both 32-bit and 64-bit software. AMD processors consume less power and consequently generate less heat. Hence, they do not require huge noisy fans. AMD is also a much better consumer-friendly company. It has been contributing to the development of open standards, which results in cheaper PC components. Intel, on the contrary, had tried to impose proprietary products like the RD-RAM memory technology, which was developed by its subsidiary Rambus. The biggest argument for AMD processors is the cost. AMD CPUs are always cheaper than Intel’s. Remember, it is always the consumer who ultimately pays for the advertising and marketing expenses.

    • Read More»

    Posted in Hardware | 1 Comment »