Another shareware tool available for both Windows 95 and Windows NT is PowerToys. It was written by the Windows 95 shell team, and then modified slightly to make it work for both 95 and NT 4.0. The current version, version 1.1 (11/17/96), supports NT 4.0 and adds more features.
PowerToys is a collection of applications that actually should have been included directly with 95 and NT. There are applications to change the Registry, some to add extra shortcuts to the system tray, and others to change how the menus work. Many of the settings are in the Registry changes in this book, and others are in the System Policy Editor.
Table 39.1 lists the
components of PowerToys and the operating systems that it
will work with.
Table 39.1. Applications in PowerToys.
| Application | Type | Windows 95 | Windows NT |
| Quickres.exe | Tray tool | Yes | No |
| TweakUI | Control Panel | Yes | Yes |
| FlexiCD | Tray Tool | Yes | Yes |
| DeskMenu | Tray Tool | Yes | Yes |
| DOS Prompt Here | Context Menu | Yes | Yes |
| TapiTNA | Tray Tool | Yes | Yes |
| Fast Folder Contents | Context Menu | Yes | Yes |
| Round Clock | Application | Yes | Yes |
| Explore from here | Context Menu | Yes | Yes |
| Shortcut target menu | Context Menu | Yes | Yes |
| Xmouse | Control Panel | Yes | Yes |
| CAB file Viewer | Context Menu | Yes | No |
| Send to X | Context Menu | Yes | Yes |
| Find X | Context Menu | Yes | Yes |
Copy the file from the CD that accompanies this book into the \Windows\System directory on a Windows 95 system, or the \WINNT\SYSTEM32 directory on an NT system. Double-click on the POWERTOYS.EXE file. It is a self-extracting file, so all the functions will be present immediately in Windows 95, and in Windows NT, they will be available upon logoff and logon.
If you have extracted the file into another location, most of the functions will not work. All of the context menu items and the Control Panel items will not work correctly. Their files need to be in a specific location in order to work.
Because PowerToys is free, you do not need to register it, nor pay any fees to use it. However, because you are going to change how the system is going to work, you should make a backup of your Registry before installing it.
The most powerful part of PowerToys is TweakUI, and it has the most applicability to this book, because it makes changes to the Registry. The balance of the chapter is devoted to the use of TweakUI.
TweakUI is an automated way to make Registry changes to the interface without having to edit the Registry directly. Many of the slickest interface changes have been incorporated into a Control Panel applet, making the changes easy, secure, and faster.
When you launch TweakUI from the Control Panel, you get the dialog box shown in Figure 39.1.
Figure 39.1. The opening dialog box from TweakUI.
Before doing anything else, notice the two buttons at the bottom of the screen. The
Tips button will take you to a nice help file that you should read before doing
anything.
The Restore Factory Settings button will undo all of the settings you have changed
on that page. There is no option to just change one or two items back to the default
settings. If you need to change just a single item, select the tab for
that item
and change the individual item. Also, selecting the Restore Factory Settings does
not change all the Registry settings back; it just changes those on the same page
as the button.
Another benefit of using TweakUI is that the changes are immediately made to the Registry, and most of them take effect immediately, without requiring a reboot or logoff to activate.
The four settings on the Mouse page can make your work faster and easier. The Menu speed options affect the MenuShowDelay value in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop key. Instead of using a number-based system, as done in the Control Panel, you get a slider bar with which you can set the relative speed and test it before activating it.
The second section, Mouse sensitivity, is similar to functions already in the Control Panel. The Double-click option is the same as in the Mouse applet in Control Panel, and it's included here for ease of use. Drag sensitivity specifies how far (in pixels) the mouse must move with the button held down before the system decides that you are dragging the object. If you regularly get errors that you cannot copy an item onto itself in Explorer, then you might want to increase this value.
The next two settings are for Windows NT only; they do not appear in the Windows 95 program even though the files are the same. Figure 39.1 shows the Mouse tab when PowerToys is installed in NT 4.0, and Figure 39.2 shows it in Windows 95.
Figure 39.2. TweakUI in Windows 95 has fewer options.
If you
have the new Microsoft Intellimouse (the mouse with the scrolling wheel),
you can use TweakUI in NT to adjust how the scrolling will work. With this setting,
you can easily get the extra performance you want.
The last option is to make the window selection the same as in X Window. X Window is an implementation of a GUI on UNIX. When your mouse moves over a window, that window automatically becomes the chosen one. When your mouse moves over another, that window is selected. This option is particularly nice when you are using a very large screen and have the windows arranged so they are not overlapping. When using a small screen and overlapping windows, it is not nearly as effective.
The General tab includes options that didn't really fit anywhere else, but were still desirable enough to put in the program. Figure 39.3 shows the options available.
The Window animation effect is the MinAnimate value in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics key, as discussed in Chapter 27, "Questions and Answers for Users and the Registry." Smooth scrolling changes the way the windows scroll. With it turned off, the windows jump a page at a time when you click in the slider bar. With the scrolling option turned on, it will scroll the page much more smoothly.
Figure 39.3. The General tab dialog in TweakUI.
The special folders allow you to select different locations for the items shown in
Figure 39.4. By selecting a different
location, you can easily customize the folders,
including or excluding exactly what you need.
Figure 39.4. Special folder options in TweakUI.
You can also choose the default search engine for Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher.
Figure 39.5 gives you an extensive list of options available.
This option will also determine which search engine will be used when you search with the address line in your browser. It will save you a significant amount of time to search with the address line instead of opening the search engine Web page or clicking on the Search button. To search at the address line, type go request and press Enter. If you have an earlier version of Internet Explorer or another browser, this option will not be available.
Figure 39.5. Search engine designation for Internet Explorer.
The Explorer options enable you to change how some of the features in the Explorer interface operate. You can change the arrows on the shortcuts, change some of the startup options, and change specific settings.
Removing the "Shortcut to..." text is a popular option. Most people delete the text anyway, so this makes life a little easier, and your desktop look better.
The Save Windows settings option is the same as in System Policy Editor, so that if a user changes the size and location of open windows, the system will accept them. If the box is cleared, no changes to the location and size of the windows will be saved.
The final two options, Adjust the case of 8.3 filenames and the setting of the color for compressed files, are not in Windows 95, so they also will not appear in the TweakUI options when the applet is run under Windows 95.
The Desktop options allow you to choose which icons will be displayed on the desktop. This list of items, shown in Figure 39.6, is much easier to use than editing the Registry directly.
These changes are actually in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, and the individual icon information is shown with CLASS_ID numbers, instead of names, and the finding of the parts is very difficult.
With many of the items, you also have the option to make the icon into a file, so you can move and copy it anywhere. That gives you extra flexibility.
Figure 39.6. Select icons to show on the desktop.
The My Computer options in TweakUI are limited to the visibility of the drives in My Computer, Explorer, and the Load File/Save File functions of applications. Any that are checked, as shown in Figure 39.7, will be visible. Any that are cleared will not be visible.
Figure 39.7. Drive selection in TweakUI.
Just because the drive is not selected does not mean that it cannot be accessed.
It means that it will not show and cannot be browsed. If you want to
use it, you
can still enter the drive letter name and filename to access files, but you cannot
browse for them.
The Network options in the TweakUI applet are exclusively for automatic logon to the network. With the checkbox selected as shown in Figure 39.8, the network will log you on without any user input.
Figure 39.8. Set the automatic logon to the network.
To override the automatic logon, log off from the network and hold the Shift key
down until the logon screen comes up. Enter the other user name, and you
will log
on as the different user. You will need to change the logon information in TweakUI
back to resume correct automatic logons in the future.
When you right-click on the Desktop, in Explorer, or in My Computer, you are given the option to create a New item. Your choices are Folder, Shortcut, and documents for currently installed applications. Most new applications that create documents add an option there, making it very easy to use. As part of Microsoft's document-centric concept, it works very well. Most people, though, simply open the application and create the document. If you want to streamline the New menu, select the New tab, as shown in Figure 39.9.
Deselect the items you want to remove from the menu. It will streamline your menus and make them easier to use.
Figure 39.9. Changing the context-sensitive menus.
The Add/Remove applet in the Control Panel gives you options to easily access application setup. Occasionally, you might like to change the information that is in the list. Either you have already removed the application, and it wasn't removed from the list, or you don't want someone playing around with the setup functions of the application. Whatever the case, you could use the Add/Remove options in TweakUI, shown in Figure 39.10, to remove items from the list.
Figure 39.10. List management for the Add/Remove Programs function in Control Panel.
As indicated on the screen,
this does not remove programs; it simply modifies the
list.
The Boot options shown in Figure 39.11 are available only in Windows 95. In fact, the tab is not even present in NT. These options determine how 95 will behave at startup, and they also give you extra choices not normally available.
Figure 39.11. Extra options for booting Windows 95.
These options are particularly useful for those who have a dual-boot configuration
with Windows 95 and another DOS environment. You can extend the time, change the
defaults, and make working with dual-boot much more forgiving time-wise, and much
more friendly.
If you have icons in Explorer that are not pointing to valid programs, you can select the Repair tab, as shown in Figure 39.12. Click the Rebuild Icons button and it will examine all of your icons in Explorer and try to match them with the correct applications.
When you choose the Repair Font Folder button, it will re-establish the folder with its special attributes, and make sure all the fonts are set correctly with their correct IDs.
The Repair System Files button does not do anything for the boot sector, the BOOT.INI file (in Windows NT), or the DOS files necessary for Windows 95 to start. It does repair the files that are commonly used for Windows startup, such as COMMDLG32.DLL. If an application has mistakenly copied an unacceptable file over the top of the correct file, this will fix it. It checks for version compatibility as well.
There are two buttons that are in TweakUI in Windows 95 that are not available for NT. Figure 39.13 shows the Repair tab in Windows 95 TweakUI.
In Windows 95, you can reset all the Regedit options with the Repair Regedit button. It resets the windows, the columns, and completely closes all the menu trees. The Repair Associations button resets all the default associations between data files and applications, checks in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT for all listed data file types, and confirms associations to currently installed applications. If the application is no longer installed, the association will be reset to its default, or the association will be lost. If the association is lost, you will need to re-establish it after activating the data file.
Figure 39.12. Repair your Explorer icons, your Font folder, or your System files for Windows NT.
Figure 39.13. Extra options in TweakUI in Windows 95.
Paranoia runs rampant in many organizations, particularly the one that created this application, Microsoft. Actually, it is not all bad. As a security function, the more you can make a potential hacker guess, the harder it will be to infiltrate your system. Figure 39.14 shows the Paranoia page for Windows NT, with its many options.
Each of the six options in Covering Your Tracks has information held in the Registry as an MRU (Most Recently Used) list. Selecting these options simply clears the lists from the Registry at logon. If somebody needed information about server names or application names, they might be able to get it easily from the MRU lists.
You can also choose not to play CDs automatically, and choose between audio and data formats. By doing this, you can get rid of the annoying startup of all the CDs in your tower when you insert a new CD.
There is an extra option in TweakUI in Windows 95 that is not in Windows NT. Figure 39.15 shows the option to log all errors to FAULTLOG.TXT. Windows NT does not use that file, and does not need the function, because the function is already built into Dr. Watson and the BOOTLOG.TXT files.
Figure 39.14. Extra choices for security in Windows NT.
Figure 39.15. TweakUI Paranoia in Windows 95.
PowerToys is one of the best ways for users to change how their system will work, and one of the safest ways for them to change the Registry. Now that it works for Windows NT as well, it is a tool that every organization should have.
© Copyright, Macmillan Computer Publishing. All rights reserved.
