We never get tired of Windows manager tools here in the Softonic offices, and after trying out this latest offering from Yamicsoft, we are still looking for a tool that strikes a good balance between usability and functionality. WinXP Manager may offer a fine range of options and tweaking utilities, but the delivery is haphazard with several sources of concern for the average user.

Let’s start from the beginning. The first time you open the program you are prompted to create a system restore point, just in case something should go horribly wrong. If you have system restore disabled on your computer, WinXP Manager will go ahead and load up anyway. What you are presented with is a detailed overview of your system specs. Through the tabbed navigation, you can switch the view to check out details about your operating system, computer, hardware, and processes. There isn't, however, any central tab that would display all the information in one place so that you could easily print out a complete run down on what you have in your box. Neither, for that matter, is there a print button for quickly converting anything to hard copy.

On further investigation, you find yourself digging through tabs of tabs to find what you need, or alternatively, opening pop-up windows that appear when you click buttons that lie alongside those that don’t produce pop-ups. Supposedly consistency wasn't high on the priority list. WinXP Manager runs inside a fixed width window, something that wouldn't usually merit any criticism but in this case the window is very small relative to the entire screen size and results in some scrolling.

Putting design and usability aside, there are a lot of positive things to say about WinXP Manager. As we mentioned, it does provide comprehensive information about all aspects of your hardware and software. There is a handy optimization wizard that guides inexperienced users through the process, and for every tick box you see, there is a corresponding detailed tooltip that will give you a clue whether or not you are on the verge of destroying your PC. There are an amazing amount of utilities for tweaking XP to the last, although we are concerned that the registry cleaner may be over aggressive.

Boiling it down, WinXP Manager is a fantastic utility for anyone that has a good general understanding of the many various elements making up their PC. If you have a tweak in mind and don’t want to bury yourself in the actual system files, then this program will serve you well. On the other hand, if you are after a quick all round maintenance fix and you don't quite get the registry or services, then you should look for a less hard-core solution.

Download WinXP Manager 5.2.6 in Softonic

Fresh UI is a fresh solution for configuring and optimizing Windows. Loaded with hundreds of useful hidden settings in Windows XP/2000/NT/ 98/95/Me, this software covers the customizing and optimizing techniques that you'll be glad to know, such as:

• Customizing Windows User Interface (UI)
• Optimizing system settings
• Optimizing hardware settings
• Customizing Windows application settings
• Controlling user environment with policies

Fresh UI is organized by section for easy navigation and is complete with detailed descriptions for easy reference.

Download Fresh UI 8.10 in Softonic

Do you know that when you install Windows, it leaves open a lot of vulnerable points that can be exploited by hackers or spyware.

Xpy allows you to close a lot of these vulnerable holes and make Windows considerably safer without the need to install any kind of security software. Amongst the things it can do are disable Windows "calling home", disable unnecessary services, disarm Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and remove Windows Messenger. You can instantly improve your privacy and security by running it and removing certain unneeded components, speed up the performance of your system. The problem however is that it can close vital components that are needed for Windows to update itself. When you are presented with a list of components to remove or close-off, be very careful what you select as there is no real guide as to what each one corresponds to. The reason for this is that XPY is written and compiled using NSIS which do often get picked up as spyware by programs such as AdAware. The developers have assured that the program does not install any kind of malware and they are working to resolve this problem

A very simple way to close security holes and threats on Windows but be careful what you remove or close down.

Download Xpy 0.10.3 in Softonic

Ever needed to tweak Windows to get the best out of it but have only ended up making it worse rather than better?

MagicTweak is designed to help you optimize and personalize Microsoft Windows and provides one-stop access to a variety of Windows settings that can be altered to improve the operating environment. It's aim is to make all those Windows users who don't know what they are doing, feel like an expert tweaker. It provides a range of tweakers from internet enhancers to various tweaks that will speed up your system. It's extremely easy to use with a simple GUI that offers you a selection of the most important tweaks you might wish to perform. In particular, it greatly enhances the speed at which you can control start-ups and shut downs by removing those essential components that slow it down. It even offers what it calls "hidden" Windows features although what it's tweaking here is so hidden that it's not exactly clear what's going on but it does seem to help programs load more quickly. It's also very good at deinstalling programs as it reveals even those tiny components that don't usually show up in Windows Start Menu. It can also search for all those duplicate temporary files that can slow your PC down.

If you're unsure about tweaking or not sure how to get the best out of your system, MagicTweak reaches the places that other tweakers can't reach.

Download MagicTweak 4.12 in Softonic

Vista Manager is a powerful software tool to tweak, optimize, maintain and tune up your Windows Vista, it bundles more than 20 different utilities in one. It will help your system to be stable, fast, secure and personal.

Information

Get detailed system and all hardware information on your system; show all detailed information of running processes and threads on your machine; Vista Manager offers 1-clicking and cleans your system automatically.

Optimizer

Tweak your system to improve windows startup and shutdown speed; tweak your hardware to increase system speed and performance.

Cleaner

Find out which files or folders engross your disk space and shown with chart; Find and clean junk files to increase Hard Disk space; Duplicate Files Finder can scan your computer for files with the same size, name and modification time; Registry Cleaner can easily checks your registry and repair incorrectly linked registry entries, automatically remove invalid entries; Registry Defrag rebuilds and re-indexs your registry to reduce application response time and registry access time.

Customization

Control what is started on Windows startup; edit context menus of mouse Right-Clicking; customize system desktop, menus, toolbar and notifications settings; automatically change your desktop wallpaper on background.

Security

You can improve desktop, menus, Windows logon securities, and enable numerous hidden performance options of system, disable system updates and error reports; hide and restrict to access drives, specify which applications are not allowed to be executed on your computer; encrypt/decrypt and shred files, change the location of system folders; Privacy Protector can maintain your personal privacy by eliminating the tracks that you leave behind; create lots of randomization password once.

Network

Optimize your Internet connection speed, manage all shares items; tweak your Internet Explorer easily.

Download Vista Manager 1.5 in Softonic

WinBubble helps you customize and tweak your Windows Vista easily. It features customization, security and and optimization options for an all-in one solution.

The first thing that strikes you is the sheer number of features this program has. It's absolutely ram packed with options that will keep you tweaking and fiddling with Windows Vista until the cows come home. The program features a "My Tweaker Tool" which allows you to create your own tweaker customized exactly how you want it. You can add, edit and delete DVD and CD drive names and labels, and the program now features full support for tweaking and optimizing Firefox.

It also supports Internet Explorer with the additional bonus that you can delete specific IE URLs. The program has been further enhanced by allowing it to update automatically instead of having to visit the developer homepage. Don't be fooled by the small file size - this program has plenty of features, many of which seem unique and original to WinBubble.

The name WinBubble doesn't really fit the program but there's no taking away from the fact that this is an excellent tweaker and optimizer for Vista fans.

Download WinBubble 1.72 in Softonic

Pitaschio is a free, easy application that makes it more convenient to use Microsoft Windows. This tool includes a large number of useful functions to tweak the way windows behave, disable certain keys and collect statistics about the usage of keyboard and mouse.

Take a look at what Pitaschio can do for you:

• Stick window to other windows when moving and resizing
• Restrict window position to inside of the screen
• Minimize window to system tray
• Use small icons in the desktop
• Disable Windows key, Insert key, Alt key etc.
• Lock mouse or keyboard while you are cleaning keyboard or mouse
• Take statistics about mouse and keyboard
• Calculate Moon's age

Download Pitaschio 2.23 in Softonic

If you find your gaming experience limited by your hardware or prefer your action to be more fast and furious with every new release, then you might find this utility useful.

SpeederXP accelerates various aspects of your PC that in theory, should improve your gaming experience. This includes mainly your graphics card for games that demand a lot from it, your CPU for those that hog your processing power and your internet connection for those that are played over a LAN. In reality, if you're a serious gamer, you'll have a pretty decent setup and won't require this program to help you. However, if you are working on a slightly older system, then you will undoubtedly notice an improvement in the speed of your system.

How much this improves your gaming though depends on the game. Some users have complained that the program can lock up their system (probably due to overclocking) but in general, it does seem to provide at least a 20% boost to gaming speeds whilst it works. The slower your system, the more you will notice the benefits of course. On a fast system, you will barely notice or need any of this. The program operates via a throttle which the developers recommend cranking up to maximum although if your experience instability problems, you're best to leave it at a happy medium point. The program is updated regularly automatically with improvements although you need to pay to upgrade and receive the unlimited version.

A handy little utility for gamers on slow systems although serious gamers with decent equipment need not apply.

Download SpeederXP 1.80 in Softonic

As the developer of this software recognises, there are lots of programs out there that help you tweak your Windows OS to make numerous improvements. This particular app gives you the chance to access those little corners of Vista that are hard to get at otherwise.

With a total of more than 70 adjustments, all grouped nicely into different categories, it's very easy to get carried away and start changing everything with VistaTweaker. However, we'd advise to choose your tweaks carefully and make sure you know what you're changing else you could wind up with a duff OS.

Some of the best adjustments we found were the ability to clear the direct access arrow, reduce image sizes in IE, and to add shortcuts to the contextual menu to open programs with just a key press. XP users needn't miss out because a few of the tweaks are compatible with the old operating system.

Download Ajua VistaTweaker 0.5 Beta in Softonic

The overall feeling after testing XdN Tweaker is disappointment. As a "tweaker", I expected to have more options –and also more interesting ones- to customize my operating system, and not just being able to remove context menu commands or disable Outlook Express's splash screen.

In spite of the fact that I found most of the included tweaks not really that useful, there are some interesting ones, like the possibility of adding new commands to context menus or the very necessary file association management that enables you to control which program opens what.

On the upside, XdN Tweaker is very easy to use and includes the option to undo all the changes you make.

Download XdN Tweaker! 0.8.8.2 in Softonic

XP Smoker allows you to change various settings in the Windows Registry. These settings can improve the performance for your computer drastically. You can also stop and disable useless services in Windows XP.

And in the end, you will reduce subsystem bottlenecks, increase application and boot speeds, and ultimately increase the stability of your system. Simple for Beginners. Powerful for Experts. And it really works! It is perfect for game enthusiasts, heavy surfers, and PC users on a budget.

It is the simple and straightforward way to tweak your system to peak performance. XP Smoker also includes a state-of-the-art Internet Optimizer that runs a series of tests to improve your Internet connection for smoking-fast surfing no matter what connection speed you have!

Download XP Smoker 5.3 in Softonic

With the Power Utilities, you can clean the hard disk and the registry, securely destroy private files, generate highly secure and extremely difficult to crack passwords, organize your desktop with Translucenter utility, manage installed programs and much more.

Features:

Disk Cleaner

Increase the disk space by cleaning up unneeded temp and obsolete files

Registry Cleaner

Utility for system registry backup and cleanup.Registry Cleaner will scan your entire registry for any invalid entries and provides a list of the errors found

Shortcut Cleaner

Clean-up your PC from shortcuts pointing nowhere

Start-Up Manager

It is the best way to handle Windows autorun programs. It provides tools to add new, view and edit, disable/enable and remove the items from Windows start-up process to optimize it in best way

Folder Drive

You can create pseudo disk drive(s). Just specify folder where you want create disk drive, choose drive letter and click on the "Create Folder Drive" button

Process Explorer

Shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened. Control and get detailed information about each Windows processes

WINner Tweak...Wizards includes Windows Performance Booster and Security Adjuster. These Wizards will step-by-step guide you through tweaks that can help you boost Windows performance and adjust security settings. WINner Tweak includes detailed description for each tweak. Just make right click on the tweak description and you will see tip with detailed explanation!

Download WINner Tweak Pro 3.6.2 in Softonic

When starting Windows, a number of other programs are also started. Some are necessarily, but the autostarting mechanism is used also by programs, which spy the computer. Finaly is simple possible that some unused programs are started and use system resources.

The EF StartUp Manager allows you a simple handling and complete control of applications which starts with Windows. They can insert, temporarly disable or delete with ease new programs. More, the controlled starting mode makes it possible to start the programs in a defined order and optionaly specify a delay between them. The Windows Explorer like interface offers an optimal overview on the entries.

Download EF StartUp Manager 2.50 in Softonic

An incredibly detailed Windows tweaker tool. Anyone interested in changing absolutely any aspect of their Windows setup should opt for this program as it covers over 1,500 settings and does so within a very accessible interface.

Firstly, X-Setup Pro gives you a choice of interface, meaning it aims to appeal to a wide range of computer users. For those who want to control every last detail there is the Classic mode, while anyone looking for a more general, hand-holding, solution can opt for the Wizard.

Classic mode is laid out like Windows Explorer, which works very effectively in displaying the multitude of settings that can be altered. An important feature, but one that can’t be taken for granted, is that you receive a warning when you browse to a category that can potentially have adverse effects on your system. After you read the provided explanation, you can decide for yourself whether the change is worth the risk or not.

Not to worry. If you happen to accidentally change a setting that you shouldn’t have, the program saves a log of all the changes that were made and to restore the original configuration only takes a few mouse clicks. As an extra level of precaution, the developers provide a tool to create a bootable CD, so that the program doesn’t even need to be installed on the computer you want to tweak. If you change a setting that prevents windows from starting up you easily revert to a stable configuration.

The Wizards interface is a simple set of expandable menus containing various predefined settings that cover a wide range of topics, from desktop appearance to boot and timeout system settings. Again, you can read a good description of what the program is intends to do before taking the first step.

This software gives you access to every hard-to-find Windows setting and a lot more. It has the power to completely change your system’s configuration but gives you warnings before taking any action that may not be exactly as you intended. Great for absolutely any type of user, whether they want to tweak the title of Internet Explorer or give their system a complete overhaul.

Download XQDC X-Setup Pro 8.1.110 in Softonic

Tweak-XP Pro - was the first tuning software especially designed for Windows XP. There are lots of third class competitive products, but only with our Tweak-XP Pro you can be sure to get the original tuning application designed for Windows XP only. There's no need to find your way through the Windows registry: use Tweak-XP Pro to enable hundreds of different secret settings for Windows XP with just a few clicks.

Main features:

• Create a RAM discdrive and load files as fast as possible
• Use Tweak-XPs DiscDrive Doctor to detect and fix hard drive problems
• Clear the 'Recent files' lists of lots of common programs. View and inspect files in your Internet Cache folder, display the internet history files and remove them
• Optimize and personalize your Windows XP with just a few clicks, access hidden Windows XP settings, customize the Start menu, tune lots of desktop settings
• Make the Windows XP taskbar transparent, limit access to the taskbar
• Enable several hidden performance options of Windows XP, clean up your registry with Tweak-XPs Registry Cleaner
• Configure Outlook XP security settings
• Check the integrity of ZIP files and repair them
• Create desktop shortcuts to useful Windows functions
• Convert your compressed folders to selfextracting .exe files
• Optimize the physical RAM of your machine, and the Windows XP cache settings
• Find and remove unnecessary files

Download Tweak-XP Pro 4.0.8 in Softonic

Registry Tuner is a program for tweaking Windows by modifying hidden Windows settings contained in the registry. With the help of RegTuner, you can also change the settings of many other programs that keep those settings in the Registry. Examples are Internet Explorer and Microsoft Word. RegTuner stores information about registry keys, parameters, their types and comments as a tree with unlimited number of branches. The advantage of this program is that the experienced user can add new registry settings, remove or modify already existing ones. The program is completely transparent, i.e. when you change either a key or a parameter in the registry, you can see which key or parameter it is, in what registry section, and also it's type and value before changes.

Download Registry Tuner 1.6.2 in Softonic

Safe XP allows users to quickly tweak various security and privacy related settings in Windows XP. The options include Media Player settings, Services settings (error reporting, time synch, remote registry etc.), as well as an option to remove items from the Start menu, network security settings and more. Safe XP improves your system performance and makes Windows run faster, more securely and with more reliability.

Download Safe XP 1.5.7.14 in Softonic