Workers' Edge

With every new version of Windows, Microsoft tries yet again to give us a fast, simple, and customizable way to open, save, and view the files stored on our PCs. From what I've seen of Windows 7, we can't expect any revolutionary changes to Windows Explorer and the standard folder windows and dialog boxes.

I guess I've gotten so used to the same-old Explorer views that it's a genuine eye-opener when a free program such as Code Sector's Direct Folders gives file and folder management a whole new perspective. The program adds an icon to the taskbar's notification area that lets you jump quickly to your recently opened documents, favorite folders, and just about any other location on your PC.

The program also enlarges folder windows and standard Open, Save, and other dialog boxes to let you view more items without scrolling. Above the window, Direct Folders places an information box that shows the complete folder path of the selected item along with the amount of free space on the disk. Select any part of the folder path to jump to that location. Double-click an empty area of folder windows and dialog boxes to open the Direct Folders menu.

You can customize your Direct Folders shortcuts by clicking the program's taskbar icon and selecting Configure. The Organize Favorites tab lets you change the destination of your shortcuts, the icon they use, and even give the shortcut an alternative destination that you reach by Shift-clicking it.

Other configuration options let you change the number of shortcuts the program displays on its menu, assign keyboard shortcuts for the items, change the number of recent items, resize file dialogs, and set the default view and sort option for specific folders. You can also add applications you want to track via the program and customize their recent-items lists.

The Pro version of the utility costs 14.95 euros and adds the ability to check the amount of free space on each of your PC's drives from the Save dialog, change each application's default Save folder, and automatically select the last file opened in that folder. You can also create subfolders for folders on the main Direct Folders menu.

There's nothing particularly earth-shattering in Direct Folders--just a lot of nice file and folder touches that make working in Windows a little quicker and easier. Makes you wonder why Microsoft couldn't have built some of these time-savers directly into Windows' common dialogs.

PC users don't agree on much, but they're close to unanimous in their low opinion of Vista's performance. There are plenty of manual tweaks you can make to grease Vista's skids--I ran down five of them a couple of weeks ago. You can also use one of the many Vista utilities to optimize the operating system. I described the free Ultimate Windows Tweaker and $29.95 Vista Smoker Pro in a post last week.

Two other commercial Vista system tools are Stardock's $19.95 TweakVista and System Mechanic from Iolo Technologies, which costs $39.95 for the first year as part of a limited-time promotion ($49.95 is the regular price) and $29.95 per year thereafter. Unfortunately, TweakVista does little to automate Vista system-tuning, and while System Mechanic provides a range of Vista tune-up and customization options, casual PC users may find the program's price tough to justify.

Vista tweaker's trial version is pretty worthless
Several years ago, I discovered Stardock's $19.95 WindowBlinds utility that customizes the appearance of Windows XP (there's also a version for Vista). Based on my experience with that program, I had high hopes for the company's TweakVista utility, but using TweakVista was a big letdown.

The first unpleasant surprise was that many--if not most--of the program's features are unavailable in the trial version. My impression of TweakVista didn't improve much once I got the full-function release. The program displays plenty of system information, but it lacks the one-click performance and maintenance tools found in similar utilities.

For example, the Assessment Overview screen shows the same information as Vista's Performance and Information Tools applet in Control Panel. Likewise, the start-up screen's Programs tab merely lists your start-up apps. I expected to see more information about each entry when I clicked its question-mark icon, but instead I saw a pop-up indicating that no information about the program was available.

The Profile tab on TweakVista's Services screen lets you select from a handful of preconfigured user types, including games, media center, or server. However, the various options don't give you any information about the configuration beyond one descriptive phrase.

You get more information when you mouse over the options listed under the Features tab of the Services window, but clicking the question-mark icons for the entries under the Advanced tab generated the same "no information available" pop-up as in the Startup Programs entries.

While TweakVista puts plenty of system information in one place, the shortage of information about the program's options and the lack of clearly defined one-click fixes limit the utility's usefulness. Vista Smoker Pro does a much better job in both areas for just $10 more.

A wealth of system tools at a high price
System Mechanic's lineup of performance and maintenance helpers is impressive, and the program's single-click tuneup options are real time-savers. Even with these useful tools, the program's big price tag makes it difficult to recommend for your average, everyday Vista user. Still, anyone looking for the full complement of system tools in a single package will be pleased with this utility's breadth and depth.

I started by using System Mechanic's one-click repair option, which reported that my Registry had 221 "problems." Since I had recently tuned up my test system, the high number of Registry orphans surprised me. The scan also pointed out 14 security vulnerabilities, multimegabytes of system clutter, and three unnecessary start-up items.

You get more granular control over the program's cleanup tools by choosing one of the Automated Tasks in the ActiveCare section. These include disk cleanup, Registry scrubbing, start-up optimization, disk defragging, and Internet-connection tweaks. I was particularly impressed with System Mechanic's disk defragger, which completed the defrag in just a few minutes and shows its progress in a multicolored graph.

Browsing the tools and system information offered by System Mechanic made me wish Vista had the same fast and easy-to-use system tools. As helpful and informative as the program can be, its initial license--even with the $10 discount--and the subsequent $30-per-year fee make System Mechanic an extravagance for most PC users.

Last week, I described five ways to squeeze a little more juice out of Vista by using features built into the operating system. A simpler approach that achieves the same system-tuning effects is to use a utility that lets you make the same type of Registry edits and configuration changes without having to navigate 10 rows deep into some obscure hierarchy of "keys" with undecipherable names.

I looked at a free program from Microsoft MVP Anand Khanse called Ultimate Windows Tweaker and the $29.99 Vista Smoker Pro from WareSoft Software (as close to a palindrome as company names get). The freebie acted up a bit on my 64-bit Vista machine, but it's suitable for casual system tweakers. Those who are even a little serious about fine-tuning their PCs will find Vista Smoker Pro worth the investment. A full-function, seven-day trial version is available, so you can take the program out for a spin before you buy.

(As always before making any Registry changes, make a backup of your Registry by creating a restore point. Better yet, get a copy of the free Emergency Recover Utility NT (ERUNT), which works on all versions of Windows, despite the name.)

Ultimate Windows Tweaker tries to be Tweak UI for Vista
There's a lot to like about this Vista enhancer, though the program falls short of its goal of being Tweak UI for Vista. Also, every time I used the utility to change a Vista setting, an error message popped up stating that the change couldn't be made when in fact it was in effect. To top it off, the option to Send Error Report was grayed out.

You're not likely to need all 130-plus tweaks the program packs into its 380KB executable file. Still, with just a half-dozen clicks on two or three screens you can make changes that in Vista require navigating through dozens of arcane, out-of-the-way windows and dialog boxes.

Ultimate Windows Tweaker's System Performance options let you shorten the wait for hanging apps and processes and quicken your menus via slider controls. You can also make changes to user accounts and User Account Control, change your security settings, and alter the Vista interface.

Maximize your system-tweak options with Vista Smoker Pro
You could spend the better part of an afternoon twiddling with the many settings in Vista Smoker Pro. Of course, you'll gain a good portion of that time back via Vista's enhanced speed. The program gives you more than 20 categories of tweaks that cover start-ups, disk cleaning, services, passwords, and--of course--performance.

My favorite Vista Smoker Pro feature is the Control Center, which puts just about every Vista research two or three clicks away. The Startup Manager lets you view and delete start-up items in more than a dozen far-flung Registry keys. But one of the nicest touches of the program is its main screen, which shows your system's total RAM and page-file size, as well as the amount of each in use and free.

Anyone who frequently accesses Vista configuration settings will save plenty of time reaching into the OS' various nooks and crannies by using Vista Smoker Pro.

It's easy to find out how much RAM is installed on your system: right-click My Computer in XP or Computer in Vista and choose Properties to see your total system memory and other information about your PC under the General tab.

But where do you look to find the amount of RAM currently in use? (Vista's Reliability and Performance Monitor shows the percent of used physical memory, but I haven't been able to find the equivalent in XP.) Or your BIOS version and date? Or the amount of free storage on your hard drive? Or how long your PC has been on?

You'll find this and similar system information in various nooks and crannies of Windows' settings dialog boxes, or you could get it all in one place with Sepanta Soft's Easy Vista Manager and Easy XP Manager utilities.

For a limited time, the Vista version of the program costs $30, and the XP version is priced at $20. You can try either one 15 times for free. That's plenty to determine whether the utilities are worth the investment. If you're the type of person who likes to have total control over your system settings, you'll likely consider those prices a bargain.

Pinpoint control over hardware, software, Web browsing
Here's a partial list of the settings you can change via the utilities:
—Disable USB storage devices
—Disable CD burning and auto-run
—Prevent writing to USB storage devices
—Disable the Windows key
—Disable file downloads in IE
—Disable password caching
—Disable Registry editing tools
—Restrict access to Windows Update
—Disable Control Panel
—Control access to Windows' appearance settings
—Limit the applications users can run
—Restrict access to Taskbar and Start Menu Properties
—Disable Recent Documents history, or clear the list on exit
—Disable System Restore, or restrict access to System Restore settings

The programs give you an unprecedented level of control over Windows settings of all types. For example, not only can you freeze the size and position of the taskbar, you can remove the networking, volume control, battery meter, and other system-tray icons. Other settings let you automatically end hung applications, set the time before killing a service, or alter the time a hung app has to respond before being quashed.

Two of my other favorite features in the utilities are easy customization of the right-click (context) menu to add items to the Send To list, for example, and the ability to change the color of the command prompt. (You can also change the size of thumbnails and reset their quality level from 1 percent to 100 percent.) The Vista version of the programs lists all the system, disk, file, network, security, and other utilities installed on your PC (from Microsoft and third parties) for fast access to their features.

Finally, if you've ever wanted to add a message to the logon screen, Easy Vista Manager and Easy XP Manager provide text fields for this very purpose. A company might find this feature handy for adding an alert about system-usage restrictions or some other legal notice, but I can also see it being used to remind your kids to finish their homework before they start their online-gaming session.

Interface bug in the XP version
The fly in Easy XP Manager's ointment is a weird interface bug that hides options on some screens. For example, the General Security window is cut off at the bottom and on the left side, putting several options out of view. Likewise, the Control Panel window under the Security tab fails to show the options at the bottom of the window.

You would think that a program at version 5.5.3 would have these types of bugs worked out, but despite the interface quirks, Easy XP Manager and Easy Vista Manager put all of your system settings and information in one easy-to-reach place.

Tomorrow: Get more out of Microsoft Office AutoComplete settings.