How to use TweakUI to...

There are quite a few adjustments you can make with TweakUI. Here are a few that I find interesting, keeping in mind my earlier comments about the trade-off between making Windows easier to use versus the irritation of finding that everyone's computer behaves differently.

Speed Up XP's Menus

Although XP's fading menus are nice, and perhaps easier on the eyes than the older instant-pop-up kind, I don't like waiting for them, and on some computers, they're too slow and jerky. You can eliminate all fades and UI animation from TweakUI's General page by unchecking Enable Combo Box Animation, Enable List Box Animation, Enable Menu Animation, Enable Menu Fading, and Enable Tooltip Fade. Leave Window Animation (that swoopy thing windows do when you minimize and reopen them) checked; it's too helpful to disable.

Set Mouse Sensitivity

On the Mouse and Mouse, Hover pages, I personally like to set the double-click speed as fast as possible, and keep the hover time low (about 10ms). If you have mobility limitations, you can increase the double-click time to give you more time between clicks. If you have difficulty keeping the mouse still, increase the hover sensitivity and hover time.

Set Scroll Wheel Sensitivity

You can modify the sensitivity of your mouse's scroll wheel, should it have one, on the General, Mouse page. If you often have to scroll through very long documents, you can make the scroll wheel scroll by whole pages rather than by lines.

Hide or Show Desktop Icons

You can use the standard desktop Display Properties dialog to hide or show icons for My Computer, My Documents, and so on, but TweakUI can also make the Recycle Bin disappear. I prefer to have a completely clean desktop and hide Recycle Bin, because I always press the Del key to delete files anyway. This is a per-user setting.

Hide or Show Document Templates

Document templates come into play when you right-click the desktop or a folder and select New. You can make this context menu more friendly by unchecking the document types you know you'll never use. You can also add new types, if you want. Just create an empty document (or song or drawing or whatever) using the desired application, and click Create in TweakUI to locate the empty file.

Perform Instant Searches from Internet Explorer

You can add a special form of shortcut to Internet Explorer that lets you perform searches from the Address bar. For instance, I defined "gg" as a shortcut for Google searches, so I can type gg Windows XP tweakui in the Address field to perform a Google search for the words Windows XP tweakui.

To define a prefix, open TweakUI, select Internet Explorer, and Search in TweakUI, and click Create. Enter a desired prefix and the query URL with %s in place of the search words, and click OK to save. The next time you start Internet Explorer, the prefix will be available. Here are some ways you can use this feature:

Google Search: gg words to find

Prefix:	gg
URL:	www.google.com/search?q=%s

Yahoo! Search: yy words to find

Prefix:	yy
URL:	search.yahoo.com/search?p=%s

United Parcel Service Package Tracking: ups 1z2345678901234567

Prefix:	ups
URL:	wwwapps.ups.com/WebTracking/processInputRequest?TypeOfInquiryNumber=T&InquiryNumber1=%s

FedEx Package Tracking: fedex 1234567890

Prefix:	fedex
URL:	www.fedex.com/Tracking?tracknumbers=%s

To design your own prefix URL, perform a search, take the URL from the results page, and replace the query words you had typed in with %s. This search method only works with websites that transmit the query string in the URL; not all of them do.

Enable Filename and Directory Completion

If you use the command prompt a lot, you can save a lot of typing if you take advantage of Filename and Directory completion. When you're entering a command line, by default, if you press the Tab key, Windows will take whatever you've typed so far and perform a directory search to see whether any file or folder names match. If one or more does, Windows finishes typing it for you; successive Tabs scroll through other matching files. You can designate a separate key to be used only to match folder names using TweakUI's Command Prompt page. I use Ctrl+D.

Most Windows settings (and in fact, all of the settings made by TweakUI) are controlled by entries in the Windows Registry, and you may run into articles on various websites that tell you how to adjust many of the same settings by editing the Registry. It's neither necessary nor advisable to do so when a nifty, comprehensive graphical tool like TweakUI can do the job. However, there may on rare occasion be times when you need to make Registry changes directly.