SystemTweaker 2010
PRODUCT MANUAL - 1ST EDITION
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Copyright © Uniblue Systems Limited 2010.
About SystemTweaker
Windows can be a difficult operating system to customize as it includes many pre-set configurations that
are hard to adjust. Some settings are hidden in obscure or tough to access menus, while others require risky
manual registry manipulation to change.
SystemTweaker is a safe and easy-to-use tool that lets you customize Windows to your taste. From Start
menu tweaks to quick and easy changes to network behaviour, SystemTweaker comes packed with numerous tweaks, all picked to make your Windows experience more comfortable.
With SystemTweaker you can:
· Streamline the Start and Control Panel menus
· Adjust network settings to boost functionality and increase security
· Tweak Windows start-up and shutdown settings
· Customize right-click menu options
· Access detailed system information
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Contents
Chapter 1 Getting started 4
1.1 Minimum requirements
1.2 Installing SystemTweaker
Chapter 2 Program overview 5
2.1 Main components
2.2 System overview controls
Chapter 3 Tweaks 7
3.1 Applying tweaks
3.2 Tweaks outlined
3.2.1 Start menu
3.2.2 Control panel
3.2.3 Network
3.2.4 Media
3.2.5 Windows startup and shutdown
3.2.6 Right-click menu
3.2.7 Advanced Windows settings
3.2.8 Administrative
Chapter 4 General Information 11
Chapter 5 Settings 12
5.1 General settings
5.2 Using a proxy
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1. Getting started
SystemTweaker can be installed on any version of Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7. It is compatible with 32 and 64-bit systems.
1.1 Minimum requirements
• Physicalmemory:256MBRAM
• Graphicsmode:800x600,256colors
• Internetexplorer:6
1.2 Installing SystemTweaker
SystemTweaker is offered exclusively as a free product with the purchase of other Uniblue software.
Shortly after purchasing your software product, you will receive an email with your order details, a link to
download your product and a serial number for activation. This email includes a download link for SystemTweaker.
To download, click on the SystemTweaker download link and, if prompted, select Save and then choose a
download location where to save your file. The next step is to locate the .exe file and double click on its icon
to start the installation wizard.
Follow the wizard by clicking on the Next button. You will be asked to read and accept the End User
License Agreement and then to specify a location where to install SystemTweaker. We recommend you
choose the default location unless you have a specific reason not to.
You will also be prompted to enter your serial number to activate your product. This can be found in the
order details email that was sent to you shortly after purchasing the product.
ThisnumbershouldstartwiththelettersSTandbeinthefollowingformat,whereXrepresentsacharacter:
ST-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX
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2. Program overview
This overview page will describe some features within the SystemTweaker interface. To learn how to apply
tweaks, you may choose to move straight to section 3.1.
figure 1 figure 2
2.1 Main components
· Use the navigation panel (boxed in figure 1) to shift through the different pages of the application.
Each tab links to a particular page. The term ‘navigation panel’ will be used throughout this manual to
refer to the row of four tabs as shown in figure 1.
· The LiveUpdate box provides registered users covered by ActiveProtection access to product updates
as they become available. Clicking the green Update now button will launch the process to upgrade
SystemTweaker to the latest version.
· The System overview box provides shortcuts to critical system controls. More details are provided in
section 2.2.
· Figure 2 shows the Tweaks screen. The menu on the left hand side offers different pages within the
chosen tab. The term ‘left hand side menu’ will be used to refer to this menu.
2. 2 System overview controls
The system overview box provides on/off toggles to important security functions.
Windows firewall switch
The Windows firewall protects your computer from unauthorized and potentially harmful Internet or
network communication. Microsoft recommends keeping your firewall on to protect against viruses and
intruders. The firewall can be switched on or off by clicking on the Switch on firewall button.
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Windows update settings
Windows updates keep your operating system and other Microsoft components updated with security
fixes and new features. Updates can either be set to be downloaded and installed automatically as they become available, or else, they can be set to download following a chosen schedule. To choose between these
two options, click on the Show settings button.
Restore point shortcut
A restore point is a full record of the state of your computer that you can resort to in case of problems. You
can create a new restore point by clicking on the Create a restore point button.
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3. Tweaks
With SystemTweaker, customizing your operating system is easy and straightforward. This section of the
manual will explain the basic procedure of applying a tweak and then provide a basic description of the
different tweaks available.
3.1 Applying tweaks
To apply a tweak, bring up the tweaks page by selecting Tweaks from the navigation panel. The left hand
side menu will allow you to select from different tweak categories, classified according to the part of the
operating system they affect.
Each category lists a number of tweaks with corresponding tick boxes. Tick or untick the box or boxes of
the tweaks you would like to change. The Apply button on the bottom right will turn from grey to blue to
indicate that there are changes to implement. Click Apply and your tweaks will be implemented.
Note:Sometweakswillonlybeimplementedafteryourestartyoursystem.Apop-upwillinformyouwhenever this is the case.
3.2 Tweaks outlined
This section provides a basic description of the tweaks you can apply through SystemTweaker. As some
tweaks are only available for particular operating systems, each tweak will be listed together with the version of Windows it applies to.
3. 21 Start menu
Start menu tweaks allow you to customize and streamline the Start menu to your taste.
Show Start menu icon tweaks (XP, Vista, 7)
These tweaks allow you to show or omit icons from the Start menu. You can choose to include only the
most important icons to facilitate the selection process or, for example, choose to include icons that are not
available by default.
Enable Start menu scrolling (XP, Vista, 7)
Without Start menu scrolling, if there are too many icons in the Start menu to display in a single column,
Windows will use multiple columns. With Start menu scrolling, Windows keeps the single column format
but adds scrolling functionality.
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3.22 Control panel
Like Start menu tweaks, Control panel tweaks provide the option to show or omit icons. Control panel icons
can be hidden as a precaution to prevent system elements from being tampered with.
3.23 Network
Network tweaks control how your computer behaves when connected to a network. All network setting
changes are implemented once the computer is restarted.
Disable remote administration access to floppy drives (XP, Vista, 7)
When remote administration to floppy drives is allowed, another user sharing your network can access any
data you might have in your floppy drive. Access can be disabled for security reasons.
Disable remote administration access to CDROM drives (XP, Vista, 7)
Like floppy drives, network access to CDROM drives can be disabled for elevated security.
Load balance multiple network adapters (XP, Vista, 7)
If more than one network card is available, this tweak balances the network load equally between multiple
cards. This can boost network availability and resilience.
Enable print server notification messages (XP, Vista, 7)
When enabled, any server notifications will be displayed automatically as a taskbar popup.
Broadcast new shared printer availability over the network (XP, Vista, 7)
Windows is set to automatically search for shared printers connected to your network. If this function is
switched off, shared printers will no longer be broadcast as available for use by other networked computers.
Hide Network File Share passwords with asterisks (XP, Vista, 7)
When enabled, passwords used to access shared files are displayed as asterisks.
Disable printer sharing (XP)
Disabling printer sharing ensures that no one on your network can make use of printers connected to your PC.
Disable file sharing (XP)
With file sharing disabled, other computers connected to your network cannot access any files you might
have in a shared folder.
Hide my computer from Network Browser list (XP, Vista, 7)
This hides your computer from other computers on your network.
Enable remote access to the registry for all user types (XP)
When enabled, this tweak gives registry access to all users connected over the network. Registry access can
be disabled for extra security.
Show network error statistics (XP, Vista, 7)
This adds an extra error statistics tab to the network connection status menu. Network error statistics can be
useful to aid network diagnosis.
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3.24 Media
Enable DVD features in Windows Media Player (XP)
This tweak enables Microsoft Media Player to open and play DVDs.
Automatically start data CDROMs when they are inserted (XP)
With this tweak enabled, inserted data CDs will launch without your input.
Automatically start playing audio CDs when they are inserted (XP)
When enabled, audio CDs will automatically play upon insertion.
Enable faster access to AVI media files (XP)
This tweak accelerates folder access to AVI movies by blocking the loading of unnecessary data.
3.25 Windows startup and shutdown
Allow Windows password caching (XP, Vista, 7)
When disabled, a user needs to enter his Windows password every time he accesses a password protected
resource.
Allow Desktop to load while login script is running (XP, Vista, 7)
This tweaks allows Windows Desktop to load before the login script stops running.
Clear page file each time Windows is shut down (XP, Vista, 7)
The page file is a special location on the computer’s disk drive that is used as a supplement to RAM. This
system is often called virtual memory. When this tweak is applied, any data in the page file is deleted upon
shut down.
3.26 Right-click menu
Suppress the Windows Explorer default right-click menu (XP, Vista, 7)
Bydefault,shortcutmenusappearwhenyouright-clickontheDesktoporonaWindowsexplorerwindow.
If you enable this tweak, menus are suppressed.
Add open with option to Windows Explorer (XP, Vista, 7)
The ‘open with’ function allows you to select a program of choice with which to open a particular file. This
tweak adds the ‘open with’ option to the menu that appears when you right-click a file.
Suppress the right-click context menus for the Windows Taskbar (XP, Vista, 7)
The Windows Taskbar is the long horizontal bar at the bottom of the screen. This tweak hides the menus
that appear when you right-click on the taskbar.
Add Open Command Prompt option to Windows Explorer (XP, Vista, 7)
This tweak adds to a right-click menu the option to open a command prompt set on the same directory
where you right-clicked to open the menu.
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3.27 Advanced Windows settings
Automatically reboot Windows when a blue screen of death occurs (XP, Vista, 7)
The blue screen of death is the error screen displayed when Windows encounters a critical system error that
interrupts operation. In some cases, by default, Windows automatically restarts when a blue screen of death
is encountered. Disabling automatic restarts through this tweak can help troubleshoot Windows problems
and errors.
Suppress PC speaker beep when system errors occur (XP, Vista, 7)
When the system encounters an error, the PC speaker is programmed to beep to provide a warning. This
tweak removes error beeps.
Show more detailed information in Windows Device Manager (XP)
Windows device manager can be configured to display extra information. To access this extra information,
right-click on a device and, from the menu, select properties. Any extra information will be displayed within
a tab titled Details.
Launch Windows Desktop as a separate process (XP)
Windows normally launches a single process for the Windows Desktop, Taskbar and all other explorer tasks.
This means that if the process fails, all the aforementioned tasks would fail in conjunction. Launching Windows Desktop as a separate process increases the Desktop’s resilience.
Preserve program performance during print jobs (XP, Vista, 7)
This tweak ensures that print jobs do not slow down your program by taking too much system resources.
3.28 Administrative
Automatically focus windows when mouse passes over them (XP, Vista, 7)
With this tweak enabled, the operating system will activate any window the mouse hovers over.
Show tooltip for Minimize, Maximize and Close buttons (XP, Vista, 7)
Bydefault,wheneverthemousehoversovertheminimize,maximizeorclosebuttonontheupperrightof
each window, a tip box appears to explain the button’s purpose. This tweak disables this tip mechanism.
Use connected web files and folders (XP, Vista, 7)
HTML documents saved to hard drive often include a number of associated files linking to the primary
HTML document. This tweak connects the primary HTML file to the associated files so that when you move
the primary document to a new location, the associated files are copied simultaneously.
Use Explorer when opening my computer (XP, Vista, 7)
Opening my computer using Explorer provides a useful folder navigation pane. This tweak ensures that you
get the navigation pane whenever you open my computer.
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4. General Information
The System Information tab provides general profile of your computer, detailing the technical specifications of your operating system, hardware devices and network configuration.
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5. Settings
SystemTweaker can be configured through the Settings tab.
5.1 General settings
From the General settings tab you can adjust the way SystemTweaker behaves when closed and minimized.
5.2 Using a proxy
To run SystemTweaker through a proxy, go to the Settings tab from the navigation panel. Choose Proxy
settings from the left hand side menu. Follow the form to enter your proxy details and tick the Enable
proxy option at the bottom. For the changes to be implemented, click on the Apply button.
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Address:
Uniblue Systems Ltd
Orange Point
Dun Karm Street
Birkirkara
BKR9037
Malta, Europe
Support:
http://www.uniblue.com/support/
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Copyright © Uniblue Systems Limited 2010.
All rights reserved. Uniblue, the Uniblue Logo, SystemTweaker and
Uniblue SystemTweaker are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Uniblue, in Europe and/or other countries.
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