do tweaking programs work ?

over the years i have tried many different so called tweaking / fixing programs, but do they actually work and does anybody have any reccommendations or care to share their experiences and give a little feedback, from an unbiased point of view.............

Gazzer

 

Most of them do much of the same. Some are basic with few options, some quite extensive. One of my favorites was Xsetup.

I used to have a really large collection of registry tweaks, all sorted nicely. The tweak programs mostly did registry tweaks. Some of them did commands to shell. I had a collection of these as well.

I think many tweak programs had a tendency to make problems for people because people did not fully understand the implications. On top of that, I found many would get excited and start applying lots of tweaks, or worse, use an "auto tweak", and then found it a PITA to revert back to where they started.

A good tweak program should have, IMO, a way to keep track of what a value was so it can be undone. Some tweaks delete settings, not simply modify the value, so if you don't have a backup, the problem is quite profound.

Sul.

 

cant most changes be undone within the program via a rescue or undo function, whether the undo actually works is another matter

 

I believe you get much of the benefit possible by doing the occasional disk cleanup and defrag. I run Ccleaner after Disk Cleanup to delete additional temp files and use PerfectDisk which I feel does a better defrag than the Windows defragger. It's also helpful to examine startup entries and disable or remove any auto-starting apps that aren't necessary.

It's debatable whether or not doing more than this makes a noticeable difference. For instance registry cleaners don't effect performance. I defrag (compress) the registry occasionally to reduce its size, but it doesn't effect performance. The only third party software tool I would recommend that actually improves the responsiveness of Windows is Process Lasso.

 

I always swore by Ultimate Windows Tweaker 2.2

IT has so many tweaks that actually work

ill post a guide later

PS: It's FREE! never pay for a tweaking program

 

I discovered you can use Tweak UI with Vista. Instead of installing, extract with 7-Zip and run as portable. Not all the features work, but a lot do.

 

create a backup before tweaking your system.

 

The problem with a tweaking guide is that the point of tweaking is to get the system how *you* want it. Providing a generic guide won't get you there.

 

What if the generic guide describes things adequately, so that one can make that decision for themselves?

 

i agree with your point about tweaking guides, but i was asking about tweaking programs that claim to provide an easy solution......and whether they actually work

 

That sounds more like the viper wiki, which doesn't really try to do a guide as much as it tries to provide information on services and which are safe/ unsafe to remove.

 

Many years ago I owned a DEll PC and when I ran into issues I would call Dell support for help. If the problem was at all complex the standard Dell recommendation was to reformat the drive and do a clean install. After doing this a few times I decided it was time I took things into my own hands.

The first thing I did was purchase one of the quick fix programs you are asking about. I think the program was Tune-up Utilities. Believe it or not this little program solved a lot of problems that Dell support would have had me do a reinstall for. So, to ans your question I would say yes, in some circumstances these programs can help. I still use these PC cleaners and tuners on a regular basis (Ace Utilities and Tune-up Utilities 2011). I do not know if they have helped prevent problems that I might have had but they certainly have not caused any that I am aware of.

One thing you want to make sure of is that the program will allow you to undo whatever it has done,,,,just in case.

 

Never read a tweak guide that didn't explain the purpose and expected outcome of a change. Perhaps this would explain my lack of disdain for them.