X-Setup
Posted on: 11/30/2003 12:00 AM
Over time as you use Windows little things may start to bother you, like the shortcut arrow on desktop icons, the splash screen in Outlook Express, programs that hang for a while before closing or the beep on errors, to name a few. Some of these things can be changed in your control panel and many can be changed in your system registry or configuration files. Many changes you might want to make are specific to their respective programs, like Opera, Eudora, Real Player, America On Line, etc. These sorts of tweaks, which might not be readily available through the Windows interface, can take a lot of time to learn on your own, or there may be many more small "tweaks" you can apply that you never even thought of. Luckily, there are programs that put an interface to all of this, and a few of them are completely free, like X-Setup.
Install is straightforward, complete with a read me file(usually information about the program) that includes information about possible problems with Windows 95 and 98 if not installed properly, contact information and more. You are also given the usual options of where to place icons including the control panel, file associations and even a LockerGnome Tips&Trick link. Once you run the program, you need to type I UNDERSTAND AND AGREE to the license agreement, which basically states that it's free for non-commercial use only.
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On program startup, you are given a lot of quick information (including the read me, help and other links) as well as a couple of ways to run X-Setup; for power users or step by step. The Power users option takes you straight to the default X-setup interface, which is fine for most people if you take the time to go slow and read everything you are not sure about. The wizard simply takes you through a step by step process. For the most part, I found using the power user interface to be easier, since it gives a simple, long list of changes you can make from top to bottom. The Power User Option also gives you a chance to browse the hundreds of changes that you can make and includes descriptions for what each one does. More importantly, you can play around for as long as you want inside the power user mode and never make any changes until you hit the "apply changes" button. The interface is similar to Windows Explorer and the wizard mode even has back and forward buttons making the program very comfortable to use for most Windows users. Optionally, you can do all of your tweaking in record mode. This option saves everything into a registry file (.reg), that can later be imported to other machines without installing X-Setup.
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If you can't find what you want to modify in X-Setup, you may be able to find a plug-in (small files that provide the functionality of X-Setup) for it. X-Setup already has a ton of plug-ins included that are activated when you click on an area where it's needed. A couple examples are Windows Media Player and Real Player, which are run by plug-ins. More plug-ins are available from the X-Setup website, many created by third parties and are "use at your own risk". If you're feeling creative, or can't find what you're looking for, you can create your own plug-ins and wizards for X-Setup. It is a command line utility and comes with over 300 baseline files you can use to start your own. The difficult part of reviewing X-Setup is trying to explain the many tweaks that you can apply. At last check, this was over 800. The screenshots should give you some idea of what you can do, but it seems there is no limit. One way to look at it is X-Setup can fix things that annoy you, change things you never knew existed, and make Windows more pleasant, whether you knew you could or not. The program uses very little system memory, approximately 5-6 megabytes on my Windows XP system.
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Support is provided online, though X-Setup has an excellent help section built into X-Setup so there a good chance you can find your answer there. At the X-Setup home page you will find a Document Center, which has known bugs, unanswered questions and tips. Next you can visit their forums for support, and if all else fails, an email is provided as a last step. Judging by what I saw, you can find any answer you want without resorting to sending an email to the author.
The hundreds of changes you can make coupled with a great help section, plug-ins and frequent updates have made X-Setup my favorite tweaking program. You will not find a more complete tweaking tool at any cost.
Score: <img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"><img src="http://www.majorgeeks.com/images/review/star.gif"> (5/5 Stars)