Tweak UI Utility Hits Vista, Sorta

Tweak UI, one of the best OS tweaking tools around, is finally coming to Vista.

Ok, maybe not, but at least Windows Vista users still have hope of getting the useful tweaking suite that graced Windows XP. While Microsoft has yet to release any kind of power tweaking utility, MVP Ramesh Kumar has addressed the needs of consumers with his Ultimate Windows Tweaker utility. Weighing at a measly 370kb, the program features over 130 tweaks broken down into seven categories: Personalization, User Accounts & UAC, System & Performance, Security, Internet Explorer, Network Optimization, and Additional Options.

"With judicious tweaking, it can make your system faster, more stable, and more secure with just a few mouse clicks," claims the website. "The tweaker detects whether you have IE 7 or IE 8 installed and accordingly offers you the relevant tweaks only."

Some of the more notable tweaks the program offers is the ability to turn off the Windows Aero user interface, forcing DLLs to unload from memory, disable the Windows Update Service and disable hibernation. Each category tab also features a "Create a System Restore Point" option to allow the user to revert the operating system back to its original state if the tweaks create an unwanted environment.

The current version of UWT is 1.0a, and will work on both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista. Kumar recommends a PC running at least a desktop resolution of 1024x768 and 32-bit colors, 10 MB of free hard drive space, and Internet Explorer 7 or higher.